JewelryJessica Bezhad

Jessica has been working in the jewelry industry since she was 20 years old. She started as a gemologist and designer for fine jewelry stores.

When she was a young child in the Midwest she developed a deep love of animals and  all things in nature. In addition she had a love for Sculpey clay. Jessica spent much time in her family’s basement making tiny animals out of clay.

Her goal as she was growing up was to live by herself surrounded by gardens and rescue animals. When reality took hold she realized this life wouldn’t pay the bills. She then decided to try mixing her love of sparkling rocks and her creativity to start a career in gemology and jewelry design.

After graduating from the Gemological Institute of America In Carlsbad, California, she began worked with high end jewelry stores doing their gemology work and custom design. She continued to take design and manufacturing classes over the next years.

Though she enjoyed making custom engagement rings, and other high end pieces, she felt like something was missing.  She realized she wanted to do something that made a difference.

When she discovered a new digital sculpting program, Jessica found what she was looking for.  She made a koala pendant for a friend and this led her to  realize that she now had a way to mix her love for animals and nature with her love of fine jewelry.

The process of researching an animal, carefully sculpting all sides and angles of it, and crafting it to lay perfectly as a piece of jewelry was more fun and fulfilling than anything else she had done, so she decided to sculpt and make more animals. At the same time, the devastating fires in Australia were raging.

The devastation these fires caused led her to decide to donate  portions of each sale  to conservation efforts for animals, people and their environments around the world.

Each sale between $3 and $25 is donated to the World Wildlife Fund or The ASPCA. Her hope is to continue creating more tiny, wearable animal sculptures, and to increase donations to organizations that are intent on helping animals, humanity and our planet.