Hello everyone!
I’ve been on Etsy for almost a decade: a long-time window shopper, occasional buyer, and now a hobby seller.
This shop was initially set up for art commissions. After graduating with a Master’s in illustration and visual design, I worked in California as an interior/graphic designer until the pandemic, which I took as an opportunity to freelance.
I have been freelancing since 2021 and feel blessed with an amazing client base. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much time to paint. Last summer, a few months after my cat Toby’s passing (at 17 years of age), I half-heartedly opened TforToby in the hopes of taking on some commissioned pet portraits, but I was quickly distracted (typical ADHD move, I know).
Around the same time, I began collecting vintage jewellery. Back in high school, I would frequent the Vancouver Flea Market with my mother, and vintage jewellery—or anything vintage—has always been a passion. My collection has grown fast—maybe too fast. By the end of 2024, I had amassed a total of eight jewellery boxes’ worth of costume jewellery.
I am dangerously close to hoarding and struggle to part ways with anything I’ve picked up. I treat my jewellery with the utmost care and love—I handpick them, clean them, restore them, photograph them, and research them. As of 21 January 2025, I have made maybe $100 from selling, but I’ve spent at least $1,500 on rhinestones, findings, an ultrasonic cleaner, an electroplating machine, and endless whatnots.
My loved ones have been extremely supportive of this new hobby of mine, although my cats (after Toby passed away, I got Hughie, a Ragdoll-Persian mix, and brought Nora, a Nebelung, back to Vancouver from California) walk all over my workstation every night.
I now live in Metro Vancouver, a place that, after a decade of moving across the US, I would proudly call home.
I’ll rewrite this “about me” later—it’s midnight, and I’ve been writing half-asleep.