What was it like leaving your 9-5 in fashion? What advice do you have for anyone thinking of starting off a new venture?
It was a pretty scary move and one that was highly motivated by the desire to escape. I was SO burnt out from my 9-5, working 10+ hours daily since the start of the pandemic. In the last 3 months of my full-time job, I was making arrangements for individual orders here and there, which slowly gained bits of exposure and clientele. It gave me a sense of hope and early trajectory into this potentially becoming a thing I could fall on in the interim until I figured out what was next– and now here I am! My experience freelancing for years was also a huge advantage in preparing me–everything from handling taxes, health insurance, and the general hustle of working for yourself again. With that said, I think the key things to making that move is research (preparing for that new field), making sure you have some savings to cover the first few months while you figure out how to stand on your own two feet, staying positive and open-minded, and truthfully, just being completely obsessed with your new venture.

Is there a relationship between fashion and florals? Do you find any past experience in fashion to be transferable to this trade? 
Totally! I think all creative fields sort of swim back and forth in similar processes of designing and creating. Everything from the conceptual process to creating deck proposals to designing with color and layering. I still sketch very often as well, only now it's drawings of spatial renderings with floral installations, which has been a cool segway! 

Is there a specific material or environment that is integral to your work? 

As silly as it may sound, rocks are such a fundamental material in my work. It's not in every piece of my work, but it's such a useful and important mechanic in my arrangements. I to add weight balance to a floral-heavy arrangement and often times, to hold kenzans (flower frogs) in place while hiding them to add to a more nature-scape piece. Rocks are a huge element in zen garden designs as well and something I incorporated heavily in my live plant installation at Stroll Garden this past Spring.

How does floral arrangement soothe you? How does candle making soothe you? Is one more soothing over the other?

I'd say they're both equally soothing. Both processes require patience as they take time to build, essentially by layering. They're both very detail-oriented processes that allow me to focus and in turn is meditative. 

As we know, bees are a very important part of our food supply and environment. Your process in sourcing the beeswax for your candles is so thoughtful. How important is this to your manufacturing process? How did you figure this out?

It's the most important part, since it's the whole ingredient of my candles! Beeswax is such an old, traditional raw material continually used for centuries for a reason, and with its natural health benefits, I figured why not put in the extra effort to source from a local bee farm. My beeswax is from a family-owned bee farm 45 minutes away in Rialto, and frankly, it was so easy to source locally (there are bee farms everywhere), and a no-brainer to support small and family-owned.