Q: What's your shop's mission?
I create pieces for a broad audience, particularly those interested in supporting vegan businesses, which exclude the use of anything from an animal: bird feathers, fox or dog fur, bone, elephant tusk ivory, crustacean shell, sheep's wool, cow and goat leather, etc. I spend a lot of time with each piece, aiming to make the customer feel amazing for supporting animals, not to mention feel like a million bucks when they're wearing my jewelry. I do a lot of trying on and holding pieces up to me in front of the mirror, in order to really accomplish something that flatters the human form. I want each piece to be unique and beautiful. As a rule, I don't sell anything I wouldn't wear myself.
Q: Why is it called foodchain? What does that mean?
I have a blog, chooseyourownfoodchain.blogspot.com/ where I write about all things vegan - politics, recipes, fashion. My blog's motto is "You don't have to accept the foodchain that's written about in textbooks; you can choose your own." Translation: tradition doesn't = correctness. Question history. Forge new paths. Our ancestors may have survived on the flesh of other animals, but they did not live long lives.
Q: When did you start making art?
I started out expressing my artistic side as a very young child. I remember drawing with chalks on a small easel in my late grandmother's garage. She gave me the greatest gifts: gentle encouragement to do what I naturally did, and only enough guidance to show me how. I was a shy, sensitive kid, and her praise fostered my independent and creative spirit.
Q: How did your art become jewelry?
Those days in my grandmother's garage evolved, from sketching people and animals, working with pastels and paints to experiment with color, and combining my interests with what were the popular trends for kids growing up in the 80s. The latter included making "friendship bracelets" with embroidery floss and keychains with plastic string. I'm not sure if this next method was en vogue for adolescent girls then, or if it was just me, but I also got into stringing glass seed beads onto fishing wire to create necklaces, bracelets, and rings. I'd beg my mom to take me to Tatiana's Art Store in a shopping center in our suburban Philly town. I'd spend hours picking out the best beads. Most of my creations became presents, or pieces I'd wear myself.
Q: You also credit your dance experience for enabling you to create jewelry?
Yes. I've been a dancer ever since I was five - ballet, jazz, lyrical, African, contemporary, modern, etc. As an adult, I've continued to dance whenever I can, particularly as part of small, local dance performance companies. It's another way I can express myself artistically. I've always been interested in form and shape, which was initially inspired through dance lessons during my formative years. Dance inherently directs awareness to the body; every detail matters, from the way you breathe, to the angle with which you hold your head. It's very similar to the type of thinking I do when I create a necklace that falls "just right" along the neckline. I want it to lay in a way that flatters the body. I think there are major overlaps between dancing and jewelry making.
Q: So, why is your main occupation "psychologist" rather than "artist"?
I'd seriously considered studying art formally. It was a tough call, but the decision was made for me: the university I went to for undergrad had recently done away with the Fine Arts Minor, and I was too afraid to pursue art full out as my major. I couldn't convince myself that I could make a living as a full-time artist. I decided to major in my other passion (psychology) while incorporating as many art classes as I could and participating in a campus dance company. I figured I could make psychology my main career focus, and art a side job, or a hobby at least.
Years later, after I'd earned my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, I decided to check out etsy. I tinkered around but wasn't really an active member. Around that time, I'd also moved from DC to California. I was living in Silver Lake at the time, and many of my friends were into doing handmade art. A few of us began selling at a monthly vintage and handmade art market. Soon, another dear friend encouraged me to participate in a smaller, local art show collaborative, and I took his suggestion. Though I considered those shows successes, I decided to pursue etsy once I began working full time as a psychologist.
Q: What does "success" look like for you on etsy?
Can I change peoples' minds through my art? Make them think, reconsider their choices and the impacts thereof? Learn something new? Feel inspired? Connect with my art in such a way that they're wearing something that truly expresses them?
Q: I hear you're working on some new stuff?
Stay tuned. :) Hint: I've been drawing inspiration from Jungian psychology, particularly the collective unconscious, myth, and astrology. Also, aromatherapy. :)