When she was a kid, Jeannie Hwang aspired to be an important corporate business woman. “I loved the thought of wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase and having important meetings all day.” In her life before jewelry, Jeannie worked as a market research analyst and got to live that dream for seven years - until she realized she wasn’t cut out for the 60 hour work weeks and high stress levels. To relieve some of that corporate world stress, Jeannie and a friend decided to take a jewelry making class together. “It was a blast!” Jeannie says. “We learned the very basics of sawing, filing and using some hand tools. I was hooked.”

During this revelatory time, Jeannie and her husband moved to Amsterdam, where not having a work permit allowed Jeannie to dedicate her time to learning as much as she could about metalsmithing. With her mostly self-taught skills, Jeannie was able to apprentice with a professional jeweler for two years in San Francisco, where she currently resides with her husband. Jeannie has always focused on designing unisex pieces that are elegant and edgy, with a minimal aesthetic. “I want a man to realize he can wear a ring with diamonds that is still masculine. And I want women to feel feminine while wearing a chunky necklace with black diamonds.”

Some of Jeannie’s favorite foods are Brussels sprouts, kale and squash, and she can’t live without spicy Thai curries and Indian food. One of her favorite places in the world is the Maldives, off the tip of India, for its untouched beauty. Jeannie is a self-proclaimed “news junkie” and listens to NPR in the morning while she’s working, switching to an eclectic music selection - ranging from hip hop to rock to electronica - in the afternoon. She shares her San Francisco home with her husband and Sophie, a ten-and-a-half-year-old bunny.