OUR STORY

Quality, not quantity

Quality has been a goal for our family since the beginning, even when we weren't financially stable enough to afford it. As an artisan, I strive to create beautiful works of art that last lifetimes.

Heirloom jewelry and art. Crafted by hand, created with love.

There is a pretty clear timeline of events in my life that led to where I am now. Most recently, I entered the State Fair of Texas Arts and Crafts competition as a Professional. I was absolutely shocked to discover on announcement day that I won FIRST PLACE in Professional Jewelry and Third place in Professional Assemblage.

First place?

Heck yeah!

Anyway, there’s a lot I could tell you, but I’ll keep it short.

My name is Califia. Most of the time, I introduce myself to new friends and acquaintances as Cali. I'm the reason this art website exists.

My husband is JohnDavid. He’s the best. He supports all my crazy ideas and has from the beginning. Back when it was just rescued beads and broken jewelry that I salvaged and turned into new pieces. We've had 14 wonderful years of marriage. We’ve rescued/helped so many pets and transported injured wildlife to rehabbers. We’ve gone to complete strangers' houses to help them with snakes that they didn’t know how to handle, relocating the snake to a safe location. And we’ve offered my art at so many shows, including HERPS (Houston Exotic Reptile and Pet Shows), tiny local markets, Burtonesque events, and now, as of 2022, Thorn and Moon Magickal Markets and The Texas Renaissance Festival (as a guest artisan of Gyldanscript).

Our ultimate goals are to work on our future piece of property and make it a regenerative, sustainably managed piece of land that sequesters water, provides food and shelter, and is amazing to look at.

We also strive to do better as humans, which is admittedly hard in this society.

Even small steps go a long way, which is why we reuse shipping materials, avoid extra packaging or marketing papers, and steer clear of branded boxes and fillers.

We originally planned to do the "professional" thing and have branded boxes. But when we realized the amount of waste they provide, we decided to pack our gemstone trees in cute gift boxes that can be reused by the client.

We also reuse all of our packaging supplies when/where we can. If something comes in with bubble wrap, I fold it neatly and put it in a drawer for later use. Same for bubble envelopes and paper packing supplies.

We hope to keep working towards a sustainable future.

Thank you for moving forward with me!

Cali