Adventures

There are places I love visiting, and then there are places that seem to live somewhere inside me. Northern California has always been the latter. Every trip back brings familiar roads, chosen family, eucalyptus and sea air, but it also reminds me how much life has changed since I first flew West with one suitcase, 400 bucks [...]

In the summer of 2024, I packed up the van with my trusty co-pilot Migs and drove more than 8,000 miles through 17 states. What began as a cross-country adventure became something much bigger: time to think, reconnect, meet incredible people and find my footing again after a very difficult chapter of my life. [...]

I first learned about Burning Man in 2001 while working in an Oakland furniture design warehouse, watching artists build enormous sculptures destined for Black Rock City. Six years later, I finally made it to the playa and fell hard for its creativity, freedom and completely wild culture. In 2023, after twelve years away, I went back [...]

I used to think people plunging in the freezing Atlantic were completely nuts. Then, during one of the hardest periods of my life, I decided to become one of them. Sometimes the hardest part of doing something is beginning. If it feels impossible, just make the first step smaller. And every once in a while, run straight in. [...]

Before CMD, there was a one-way move to California, a job that didn't quite fit and six months traveling the world with everything I needed in a backpack. I didn't know then that the experience would give me some of the courage I needed to start my own jewelry business at 26. More than two decades later, I can see how [...]

Virginia Tech is one of those places that will always feel like home. I started there studying architecture before finding my way to industrial design, where I learned to think about form, proportion, materials and creating objects people actually use. I had no idea jewelry would eventually become my medium, but [...]