My Story
Ever since I was young, I always knew my career would be in art. My father was a Disney Animator who now teaches 2D animation at Savannah College of Art and Design where I went to school. I remember growing up drawing in his home studio as a kid, listening to orchestral soundtracks like John Williams “American Journey” and then illustrating my ideas through drawings and storylines. As many kids do, I thought I wanted to be an animator like my dad, but I soon found out that animation was not what I wanted to do. However, the desire to pursue a career in art did not fade. My eureka moment hit when I toured SCAD’s Industrial Design Building. After seeing the design studio, the model shop, 3D printing lab, and the student’s projects on display, I knew in a heartbeat this was what I wanted to do.
My time at SCAD was one of my favorite periods of my life. It was not unusual for me to spend countless hours in class and then come home feeling energized and inspired by possibilities and projects. It was there that my passion to create products through art soared. As I continued my education, my aesthetic sense started to develop and I found a profound beauty in mechanisms like guns and machinery. Each piece has a purpose. They all work together to perform the intended task it was designed for. The aesthetic of all those pieces combined with all their purposes… I wanted to do that, but through products.
It was shortly after that revelation that I ended up taking a silversmithing jewelry design course called “Light Metal Casting” as an elective. I absolutely fell in love with jewelry as a medium. I felt the same sense of “Eureka” as I did when I first toured the industrial design building. I knew this was what I was looking for. Previously, my greatest issue with industrial design was that I felt like I didn’t have the absolute freedom to do what I wanted to do. I always had to emulate some other designer/company aesthetic, and it often involved me solving a problem I wasn’t passionate about. With jewelry, however, it only has one requirement, that it is able to be worn. Inadvertently, I discovered that with this medium I have the ultimate freedom to create and sculpt whatever I want. It was then that I realized that this is what I want to do- to design and sell my own jewelry with the aesthetic no other company has.
After graduating SCAD with a BFA in industrial design, I was immediately hired to work for Newport News Shipbuilding. My new business idea in jewelry was nowhere near ready to begin, so I spent two years working at the shipyard as a CAD designer as I slowly built my idea and business during nights and weekends. Finally, in September 2022, I was ready to take a leap of faith and pursue my passion full-time. Even though I still reside in Newport News, I am eager to see where this new pursuit leads.