A couple weeks ago some fine folks from Warby Parker stopped by my place for coffee and conversation, showing each other what we’ve been up to lately, and taking some photos of me and my apartment. LA is one of the many stops on their epic Class Trip road tour they’ve been on. I’ve been a lover of their wonderful eyewear business since its early days, which has inspired so many similar businesses that rarely get it right like they do.

They posted our afternoon together on their blog, which you can check out here, so honored to grace their space! I snagged the Edgeworth frames last week and they are pretty stellar.

Photo by Collin Hughes

May I introduce, the 2013 Spring Collection of Kate Miss Jewelry. Now available in the shop. All the juicy details below all these photos of babes.

This collection took me a bit longer to release than it should have as it was a departure that involved a lot of learning, testing, experimenting, and other such exciting things that make me sound like a scientist. I wanted to take things up a notch this collection – pieces that were more unique in their materials and construction and more special. All the new pieces this season are hand formed and cut from metal clay and fired in my own kiln, sanded and polished with own two hands. They are laborious and they can be frustrating at times, but they are so rewarding and feel so substantial and I’m thrilled with them. The surfaces and shapes are geometric while at the same time organic – the clay results in a 100% bronze piece that is beautifully unique: not 100% perfect and a slightly textured look.

I’m still fixated on the idea of amulets – pieces for protection and luck, badges and shields. But I refined and refocused the idea from last season’s collection. I also really wanted to make the pieces in this collection adaptable to the different sizes of the people who wear them – the necklaces have an adjustable hand made bronze bead at the back of the suede that allows you to make them as short or as long as you need them to sit on your chest comfortably, and the bracelets accomodate a difference of 4″ in wrist sizes.

These are special pieces, and I know that they are substantially more expensive than what I’ve made in the past, and I know that I don’t need to explain why, but know that they each involve a lot of materials and time – so very much more than my other pieces in the past. Each piece is made to order and will take me a couple weeks to produce.

Lastly! (Are you still reading this novel??) The cast bronze bead necklaces are part of the permanent collection and a new one is coming soon, but the caster and I are solving a little puzzle of why the new shape keeps breaking in casting, so TBD on that guy. But the other ones are still for sale!

Ok, get over there. Spread the word? Thanks to my beautiful models: Cheryl Nichols, Zinzi Edmundson*,  and Alison Brislin and thanks to you, dear readers.

Photos by Kate Miss, taken with a Mamiya 645AF with Kodak Portra 160 film.

*Zinzi also leant her amazing space in Mt. Washington for some of these photos!

I would like to brain dump, if you don’t mind. Have you ever been away from a friend of family member for so long without talking that you don’t even know where to begin to catch up, so you just drift away even more? That’s how I feel about this blog. Just popping in and saying something personal feels disjointed as it’s been so long. So I’ll just dive. Dump. Whatever.

- LA is amazing. California is amazing. I love living here and when people ask me if we’ll stay, my heart says yes. Looking at the weather forecast for majority of the rest of the country is a key factor. I. Need. Sunshine. And warmth. Ask me again in August.

- We’re planning our wedding, finally. Save the dates are going out soon. Things are rolling. We’re getting married at a summer camp in the San Bernardino Mountains on September 28th. The plan looped and looped and looped until we ended up back where we originally started. It’s going to be a labor of love involving the talents of so many of our dear friends, which is what keeps me from losing my mind as I hate a lot of planning this. I have no plans to share many details here, but I will just say that it’s exactly what we want and a lot of our family doesn’t quite get it, but we don’t really care. Ask me again in August.

- Freelancing has been testing me lately. One thing that keeps me afloat is a retainer client I do a specific amount of design work for a month, and they recently decided to hire someone fulltime, which I had no interest in, so I’m losing that client soon. There was a week of a cycle that went like this: panic, sadness, job searching, realizing that all the jobs suck, realizing I will be ok, realizing I will be better than ok, realizing I am a rockstar, realizing I can cut my budget in half, realizing how much money I waste, realizing maybe I don’t know what the f I’m doing, job searching, sadness, panic, etc. But then something switched in me and I now have a fire lit under my ass – turning my attention to my entrepreneurial spirit and the ways that I can make not just the best of this situation, but make it a better situation. So far it’s going awesome. Ask me again next week.

- I went on a very impromptu 30 hour trip to Joshua Tree this weekend, packed in a car with four other ladies – dear friends and new friends. It was healing, re-energizing, and so beautiful (my Instagram pictured above). I took many rolls of film and hope to share them in the coming weeks. For now, Laure shared some of the magic. Again, California, damn.

- I will end this with a shout out to things that are really awesome online right now that you should check out:

• A short and simple, beautiful post from Vic. It gave me goosebumps.
• My friend Erin of Cotton & Flax (one of my portrait ladies) has a beautiful limited edition tea towel at Pennyweight Goods.
• One of my favorite Hairpin posts ever, a fascinating interview with a virgin who mostly identifies as asexual. I stayed up forever last night reading all the comments. Hairpin comments are my favorite.
• You can listen to the Empire Records soundtrack on Spotify. My day was made yesterday upon discovering that. So many memories it almost makes me nauseated to listen to it.
• I can’t get into the new David Bowie songs on a musical level, but the new music video with Tilda Swinton is really something else. A dream?

I hope your week is full of sunshine, be it metaphorical or real.

I know I already posted about the last chance on some of the jewelry in the shop, but I decided to put everything from the Winter Collection on sale – $10 off! This does not include the cast bronze pieces, which are here to stay.

There’s a new print in town, available in 8×10 and a big sexy 16×20. Shot at the magical Huntington Gardens, you can bring a little California into your digs even if you are buried in snow right now.

The big size has to be mailed in a tube, so I’m sorry that isn’t the cheapest thing ever, especially for those of you overseas. Shipping fun times!

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen the peeks of the new collection I’m working on. I still have some kinks to work out, but I’m taking things in a new direction and have decided to say goodbye to this particular style of clay necklaces and a few of the other pieces. I’m not 100% on the exact date yet, but you have roughly one month to purchase the beaded clay necklaces, the bronze amulets, and the beaded bracelets in the shop before they’re discontinued. I wanted to give you a good heads up as I didn’t do that last time and found out some of you just hadn’t pulled the trigger yet on purchasing something you had your eye on! The cast pieces will stay and hopefully a new shape will be coming soon along with the other new pieces.

Right now there are a few beaded clay necklaces, one amulet, and many of the cast bronze necklaces in stock and ready to ship.

In other jewelry news, some of my pieces can now be found in the lovely country of Sweden at Double Standard in Malmö and in Australia at a.nouk in Adelaide. Also worth mentioning to those who were wondering if I’d ever make the clay amulets again (sorry, no) there are still some available at Myrtle, on sale, – here in LA and online. Totally one of a kind necklaces.

Have a lovely weekend, friends.

The lovely folks at Etsy have asked me back to share a little gift guide for Valentines’s Day, which you can check out here on their blog. It was fun to step outside of the usual velvet heart chocolate box to hunt for these ideas! Props to Laure for inspiring my “love everyone day” sentiment one morning over coffee. Let’s spread that next Thursday, eh?

(click here for shop links for the products above)

Some of my jewelry from the Winter collection is for sale at Monoqi starting today! I normally turn down flash sale opportunities, but Monoqi is a Berlin-based company and I’m interested in reaching more of you lovely Europeans, and I also think that Monoqi has a really wonderful, tightly curated selection of brands they sell. I would compare it to Fab.com, but with a much smaller, more minimalist selection. While looking around the site yesterday I gathered some of my favorite items to give you a little introduction (they didn’t ask me to do this, I just thought it would be nice!).

Kate Miss Jewelry Beaded Amulet, Roberu’s Zip Wallet, Chemex, Hamamist Towel Set, Standard Number 2013 Standard Diary, Fig+Yarrow Sea Scrub, Bag ‘n’ Nound mini pouch

The sale runs for 7 days and all the necklaces are slightly discounted. You have to request a membership, but I’m told this is fairly quick!

As it is tradition on this blog, it’s that time of the year where I talk resolutions. I know that this blog has gone though a huge transition this year and I’ve backed off from being personal lately and question its purpose now and then, so it took me a bit to decide if I even wanted to talk about resolutions and reflections this time because I thought, who even cares to read that? But even if no one cares, which I know isn’t true because I myself like to read that kind of blog content, it’s good for me. I just re-read my new year posts from the last few years and it was really helpful to see what I’ve accomplished and what I failed miserably at. So.

This past year seemed mellow, but upon reflection, it was big on the inside and I feel so different. I opened up, I blossomed, I shed some anxiety. I formed a tight knit group of incredible friends that I can tell are long term keepers. I got engaged to the love of my life. We made it a year cancer-free. I survived and thrived a year freelancing and made it out credit card debt-free. I only applied for a job once in panic. I logged over 63 hours of train riding. I drove up the coast and down the mountains of California and Arizona. I watched sunsets that would make any grown man cry. I shot more film than I ever have in my entire life. I recorded another album with my brother. I rode my bike at least once a week for the past four months. I formed a deep, yet complicated love for Los Angeles – it’s not perfect, but nowhere is and it’s probably the best thing to ever happen to me.

This year is about growth, working towards the financial stability of my business while making new things that make me happy. I’ve spent the last year fumbling with this, but figuring out what it is I love about design and what I want to focus on (because you don’t have to be good at everything). Learn coding better, expand skills that need expanding and back off on ones I can hand over to others to make my life easier. More collaboration and learning from others – more studio visits and working around friends! Getting out more and away from my desk while still being productive. More California adventures and put to use the camping gear Will got me for Christmas. My biggest most tangible goal, I say with a slight frown on my face because I suck at it, is finally planning our wedding (standing ovation from our family).

But most of all, the biggest theme in my life needs to be to find ways to be more content and satisfied, more confident in myself and my life. Strive to be better and work harder, but not feel so restless and compare myself and my life with others. It’s always my goal, always in the back of my mind, but more than ever I need to remind myself of it lately. It’s my last year of my 20′s and I’m ready to strike a balance and stop moving every damn year. OK, I can’t guarantee we won’t move this year…

And now I turn the floor to you guys, as you always inspire me so much.

Work/Shop was such a success and so much fun. I just wanted to thank everyone who came out and purchased from us and/or hung out and drank 3.5 liters of cider in a record 30 minutes. Apologies to those who came later and got Tecate Lite. Who knew you guys were such lushes? The night was full of such pretty things, I couldn’t walk away empty handed. It was fun seeing Morgan‘s new venture, too!

Thank your Laure for the lovely photos (first photo of Will and I together in, like, a year?? Letting my snaggletooth fly in these photos), Michael for the awesome DJing, Bianca for the space, and Laura for lighting help* and moral support. And boys like Bradney and Chris for their muscles. I love LA, my friends, and customers so much.

*tip: you cannot plug more than two strands of market lights together, and you most definitely cannot plug ten together.