I recently had the opportunity to submit a proposal for one of my pieces to be carried in the very building that inspired it (hopefully more to follow on that topic, fingers crossed!), and one of the questions among many was:

"What inspired you to become an artist/business owner?"

I thought this topic would be a good jumping off point for my first blog post. Before sharing my response, here's a quick blurb about getting to the point where I could actually answer this question.

For better or worse, I often find myself doing things on a whim. I come up with some half baked plan, throw it out there and then become completely insistent that it must become a reality. This list would include things like eating vegan, eating paleo, taking 6 months off work to travel, doing a triathlon when I hate running and swimming, and most recently... quitting my job with no future job in sight. So the start of this company came about much like many other life altering decisions I make, completely on a whim. In many ways "on a whim" could just as well have been my company name over "off on a tangent"!

Enameling bench top at The Art League

This "thing I wanted to create" started out very much as a fuzzy idea I had in my brain. I literally had no idea what I wanted to do, just that it was "something". I had been unemployed for a few months and becoming anxious over what this "funemployment" was leading to. My wild untamed thoughts would rule many conversations between myself and Tom, resulting time and time again with no real conclusions. Parallel to these conversations I was taking art classes and learning to create some unrefined but kind of cool pieces.  

Through my explorations, I began to realize my passion for architecture and jewelry design began to meld together. Many of my pieces started to reflect the places I had visited. Once I caught on to this, I finally started to hit my stride and began creating pieces solely based on architecture and travel.

As for the technique in creating them, being an architect I am completely anal about perfection and precision, so in came the digital fabrication technique that is reflected in my pieces today. Bonus that I get to use the same tools I was trained on as an architect.

Bin of many many test pieces I went through over several months trying to refine the design and technique. 

So here goes, my response to the question posed. It all just seems so clear to me now...

What inspired you to become an artist/business owner?  

I am an emerging jewelry designer, with over 10 years working in the design profession as an Architect. I dabbled with art and jewelry classes as a side passion, but did not become serious until after spending half a year devoted to traveling and seeing many of the iconic buildings I had studied in architecture school and throughout my career. I wanted to find a way to share and combine my passions of travel, architecture, and jewelry. Inspiration struck and I began creating unique and beautiful pendants, which I hope facilitates interactions about the architecture which inspired them.

Our jewelry line takes inspiration from the architectural forms and expressions of iconic buildings, and creates pieces that exemplify those recognizable features. Our necklaces are intended to be statement pieces that will attract attention while wearing, serving as catalysts for engaging conversations about the inspirational architecture behind the piece.