Blue Poppy Beaded Necklace

Gem & Blue founder Krista Young was raised in Colorado where she grew up creating clothing and art. She studied philosophy at CU Boulder and eventually went into interior design. When she became pregnant with her twin daughters, she decided to leave interior design and start a career in jewelry design.

For Krista, creating jewelry is an intimate process. Before deciding on stones or metal type, she thinks about how a design will be used and where it will be worn. Once she’s ready to create a design, she physically creates a mold that is then cast, finished and polished.