Rey

Hi! I’m Rey, an undergrad student in music & STEM. Jewelry has always fascinated me since I was a kid: picture a 5-year-old spending ages at the mirror trying out her mom’s entire collection one by one, who later turned into a preteen spending hours at cheap jewelry stores trying to find the “perfect earrings”… Then a high schooler trying to assemble beads and earrings with a heavy-duty wrench, with no idea small jewelry pliers existed.

Then college happened. It hit me hard from all angles, causing an insane amount of stress and overwhelm. “Music”,  my #1 escape from academics and responsibilities, was now my major - the exact definition of the two. I obviously love music with all my heart and soul, but I hate homework just like every other kid.

What to do? Straight answer: doomscroll. Those platforms are engineered to distract me anyway - they know what I like: collecting cool shiny stuff off the ground, taking photos of pretty flowers, rummaging for jewelry…

One day this algorithm that I hate finally spit out something beautiful: a singular reel about UV resin.

You’re saying I can collect fallen flowers from the sidewalk, put them into this magical liquid, place it into the light and have a cool necklace?? Are you serious??? Count me in. Bye Instagram!

Obviously, it wasn’t as easy as I thought. The process was full of “oopsie”s:

“Oopsie… apparently you need to dry the petals first, or they’ll rot inside and look like potato chips!”

“Whoopsie… turns out, if resin cures on your hands, it won’t come off for weeks!”

“Welp- I was crafting outside in the sun and the resin cured before I even put in the flowers! Time to redo everything!!!”

Trial and error. Mostly error. But it worked! My complete floral abominations turned into cool pieces of jewelry, frequently getting the same question: “Do you sell these?”

Can I? Sure - if you want a pretty necklace with an unexpected bubble next to the flower.  Or if you’re okay with sanding marks on two corners. Maybe some random grains of glitter that weren’t supposed to be there. I try my absolute best, but I’m not a proffesional! How can I possibly sell these?

Turns out that’s exactly what Wabi Sabi is for: finding emerging makers and giving them the chance to give it their all, even if their “all” isn’t perfect. Because maybe, someone out there doesn’t mind that bubble. Or thinks that random spec of glitter looks nice in a way.

Perhaps there are people like me who have just begun crafting, with tiny “imperfections” in their art - stuff I wouldn’t even notice. Why should they be afraid to put it out there?

I dream of starting a small business, but I’m still quite far from that. This is the best “first step” I could’ve imagined.