Hi love!
If you're here, you're curious. Who am I buying from, and why? Well, for what it's worth, here's my story.
First, in a nutshell:
We are a husband-and-wife team, traveling the country for 6–8 months out of the year in our camper, making jewelry inspired from our travels.
And if you really want the details:
In 2009, I began making jewelry for fun. It started as a creative outlet for me. I bought a camera in order to try and sell the jewelry online, but that camera ended up launching a 12-year career as a photographer instead (that's a whole other story). As the years passed, we had our son, were now wedding videographers/photographers… everything changed. But since we worked weddings in Ohio (and hated the cold), we found ourselves free to become snowbirds—and bought our first camper.
We ended up traveling for six months at a time, and on one of our trips out West, we met a couple who changed everything. They were camped near us somewhere in Texas, and we struck up a conversation that somehow led to rocks and gems. The man showed us a beautiful carnelian stone he had just picked up at the Tucson Gem and Bead Show, and I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It was just a polished rock, but I needed one of my own. I had never even heard of carnelian before, but I was determined to go.
Tucson happened to be on our route, and the event was still happening—so we went. I wound up scoring gems from all over the world, and I remember just wanting to hug everything I touched.
I was hooked.
It didn’t take long for us to completely flip our careers. We went full circle, back to jewelry. We dove all in.
So that’s the story.
We still travel in our RV, for six to eight months at a time. It’s always fall when we leave, and our route usually takes us south by southwest. We search for those wide-open spaces—the desert, the beaches, the forests. We’re usually off-grid, running the business from our camper, creating jewelry, and shipping out packages.
And we meet so many amazing souls along the way.
As you look through my jewelry, you’ll notice that many of my pieces are named after a location. The one souvenir I always gravitated toward in my earlier travel days was jewelry—it was a small way to keep my memories alive. Now, when I want to hold onto the feeling of a place, I pour that vibe into a piece of jewelry to try and capture it. Maybe it’s the blue of a stone that reminds me of the ocean off the coast of Big Sur, or the orange hues and shape of a bead that take me back to the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon. Sometimes, I get lucky and even find those gemstones at a local bead shop while we’re traveling—and that’s just icing on the cake.
In the spring and summer months you’ll find us working from our little summer cottage built in the late 1800s. It’s in a place with incredible family history, crooked walls, and a squeaky porch swing. It’s tucked away in the woods and full of life and inspiration. A haven for when we aren't traveling, as somehow it's the ultimate destination.
Wrapping this book up, my hope is that you’ll see a piece of my handmade jewelry and vibe with it. Maybe it reminds you of a place you’ve visited or that trip you want to take. I put all of my heart and all of the sunshine, warm air and peace I feel into what I make, in hopes that it carries through to the one wearing it.
Thanks for being here. For reading this and for appreciating my little shop in the universe.
xoxo - Ali
photo by Olive Gray Photography