Conceived on Walden Pond

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. " -Henry David Thoreau

In 2004, I left NYC to assist my mother on a Decorative Painting project in Concord, MA. I went reluctantly but my opinion of the project soon changed. In November, I started the job as my mother's assistant, by March I was running the project. This type of project is few and far between and I am so lucky that I got the chance to participate. The clients, being of astonishing wealth, had purchased a house in Virginia, had it taken down and brought back to Concord. The building was reconstructed as an addition to their existing 18th century mansion that had also been taken apart and moved from its original location. Our job was to restore the interior so that it appeared that this house had not been taken apart, stick by stick. We created custom, homemade paints and used techniques common in that era such as marbelizing and grain painting. The project took two full years.
During this time, I had housing provided for me in the form of a tiny brick cottage on their 197 acre estate bordering Minuteman State Park. Though this location was not Walden Pond specifically, I came to understand many of Thoreau's sentiments while living there alone. It was in that cabin, sitting on authentic(albeit uncomfortable) 18th furniture that The Pebble Collection was conceived.
I was quite pleased with my new found career as a Restorative Decorative Painter, however I could seem the limitations of the field. Clients obsessed with the 18th century with bottomless pockets are not particularly common. With the savings I had accrued while on the project, I began looking for my next path. I wanted three things. First, I wanted do something creative that I could teach myself and start with only a small investment. Second, I wanted it to be something that I could do from home so that when the time came to have children, I could be there for them. Finally, I wanted it to be something that I could do from anywhere in the world. After much research, jewelry making rose to the top of the list.
Over the next six months, I poured over supply catalogs and "How To" books. During the dark evenings of that Winter, The Pebble Collection began to grow.