Leeya

The need to create has been driving me for as long as I can remember. Painting, sewing, cooking, and making jewelry are activities that make me feel calm, productive, and inspired. I developed an obsession with beads (mainly glass) in early childhood. I have fond memories of afternoons spend threading and sorting them by color. Even as my focus turned painting and sewing in high school, my bead collection continued to grow (as did my collection of finished jewelry projects mainly worn by my mom). I heard about Etsy while I was in the middle of my undergraduate degree in Physics. I would spend hours (every study break!) browsing the site and dreaming about opening up my own etsy shop. In 2008 I completed my degree and finally opened my shop!

As part cleansing myself from all the equations I had absorbed in my intensive degree, I dove headfirst into selling jewelry. I sold online, at craft fairs and at boutiques. I got my first offer from a distributor to go wholesale and I almost signed the contract. After giving it some thought I realized that selling in bulk wasn't really what I wanted. It is the creative process that I love and I did not want to turn into a factory, making the same thing twenty times. I enjoyed my few months of making a go at doing jewelry full time, but I was getting tired and was starting to miss science.

I began a graduate degree in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology which naturally left me less time for creative pursuits. I stopped selling at fairs and boutiques and spent the time that I did have for crafting creating new designs.

Today my Etsy shop is part hobby, part business. It is a place for me to showcase completed projects and prevent the buildup of massive amounts of jewelry in my home. I can't say that I enjoy the business aspect of it, but I consider it is a necessary evil that Etsy makes a little bit easier for me. I also organize a free craft group with a friend of mine which is loads of fun.

I am deeply enjoying my doctorate in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology and the fact that I am able to still make time for jewelry design. I live with my husband in gorgeous Ramat Aviv, right next to Tel Aviv University. My life is an exercise in balancing the math/science part of my brain with it's crafty/visual counterpart, but I believe that I have finally struck a balance.