Happy 2022! DLJ's 2021 Recap!

Cheers to hopefully a better year than the blur that have been the past two.

As I briefly mentioned in my 2020 recap blog post, my boyfriend bought a farmhouse upstate, where we split our time between there and the city.  I still have my Brooklyn jewelry studio, but upstate I'm working from the basement.  I can't complain, though, because if you know anything about living in NYC, if you have enough space to function and your landlord isn't messing with you, it's a positive.

We're hoping to eventually convert space in the barn or this (falling down) pool house into my jewelry studio, but as I've quickly learned from home ownership, passion projects fall by the wayside with much lamer things such as roof replacement, gutters, electrical, etc.  A girl can dream, though!

Living up here part time has been extremely cool, but I'm going to be perfectly honest, it's very distracting when I'm here.  I thought being in the country would allow me to focus more at work but, I'm so used to my city routine and a commute to my Brooklyn studio.  I'm also going to blame the pandemic on this one, and the fact that I've become a crazy bird lady.

I designed some new pieces way back in June, but because of supply chain shortages I still haven't been able to release all of them.  Soon though - and they're awesome!

I did my first photoshoot in Brooklyn with Gaby and it was so fun.  We started out at 1 Hotel Brooklyn in Dumbo, and then moved around to some other neighborhoods and eventually to my roof in Chelsea.  I was always wary of doing a shoot in the city because it's a little trickier to change outfits, deal with people being around, etc. but it was a huge success and actually easier because I got the whole day with Gaby to shoot her, rather than rushing to catch all the looks in a few short hours.

I was also featured on the cover of Gmaro Magazine, shot by and featuring my friends Eli Jules and Sky Dunkan!

My goal for 2022 is to try to get back into the pre-pandemic swing of work, even though I know it's going to be hard.  Even though things have been pretty good, I feel like supply chain issues and other pandemic related road blocks have been hitting my business left and right and sometimes it gets really discouraging.

Despite all the challenges this year, I remain especially grateful for my customers.  My customers were incredibly understanding, kind and supportive all year despite the understandable hiccups that occurred, and as a small business owner it means the world to me!

For 2022, I want to continue to explore wax work (how I made the Curve, Plateau, Globe ring, and the new pieces to come).  It's an amazing medium, and really fun to experience, but definitely a steep learning curve.  Stay tuned!