This was me in 2009: Living in a tiny Brooklyn apartment, afraid to open my spice "cabinet" for fear of the avalanche of unorganized spices that would come crashing out. I didn't even season our food, I mean, what spices were inside and how old were they?!?

Visiting a friend's apartment, I was inspired by her magnetic spice rack made with jelly jars - amazing and so simple! I rushed home to make my own, and was even more delighted when I found hexagonal jars that would fit together creating a spice honeycomb on my fridge. Gneiss Spice was born!

As to the origin of our shop name: This friend that inspired me was a geology partner in college. Gneiss is a metamorphic rock, but it also happens to be pronounced "nice" and rhymes with spice (so clever!). And, I was also teaching Earth Science in the NYC public schools, so you could say I had rocks on the brain. Sometimes people misread our shop name as "Genius Spice." I like to take that as a compliment!

In 2013, I completed my 10th year of teaching and left the classroom and take Gneiss Spice full time. We packed up our NY spices studio (what most people call a living room& kitchen), and created a permanent spice studio in an old barn in Maine! On December 16th, 2013, we became a FAMILY business with the addition of Althea Baby Spice!

We donate a minimum of 5% of profits to charity. Help us decide where by purchasing one of our charity gifts: http://www.etsy.com/shop/GneissSpice?section_id=6696883