We took Monday off to go to the creek. It’s not because we don’t have plenty to do in the studio - thanks to many of you, our job board is full and my 2025 design book only has a few empty pages left. We went because we choose a life that prioritizes freedom over growth, quality over quantity. These are sentiments that we’ve lived by for years, long before they became popular buzzwords or ‘Slow Fashion’ was a hashtag. When our kids were babies, I gave a talk about my arts practice, and the opening slide was about how freedom is a guiding force behind all I do as an artist and entrepreneur. At the time, freedom looked like keeping my kids at home and spending time with them as infants and toddlers, with the studio in a “spare” bedroom while we all slept in the other bedroom together so I could easily go between work and family. I recognized time with them as a currency, one more valuable than temporary monetary gain or external validation.

This year, freedom has taken on a different form. It has looked like pursuing my Gemology Degree and planting a new flower garden in the evenings. The first is a more professional pursuit, driven by my curiosity in gemstones. The other is more personally fulfilling, a meditative act of digging and planting that grounds me. Freedom has also meant taking a couple of Mondays off over the summer to spend intentional time with family, embracing spontaneity and the simple joy of being present with them.

This freedom over growth sentiment has often been hard for me to express because, quite frankly, I didn’t know if it would work. Dreams do sometimes disappear in the act of chasing them. I have known failure as much as success. Throughout the growth of Dillon Rose, I often looked at other models of business growth and saw easier, more streamlined paths to success. I’ve had people tell me flatly that I’m doing things the hardest way possible, especially those in entrepreneurship or fashion industries who are accustomed to outsourcing labor and talent. Perhaps they’re right, but this path, though challenging and long lasting, has always felt the most honest and true to who I am. I've chosen to foster talent within my community and studio, a decision that has required more work and a longer road to financial stability. But it's a path that has allowed me to integrate my life and work in a way that aligns with my values of freedom, ability and choice.

I'm keenly aware that my freedoms or luxuries are linked to labor, particularly the tireless, beautiful work of raising children. My intrinsic drive is to create, to live authentically and fully, rather than yield to external pressures. I am, by nature, a woman of action. Maybe that’s why it's still working despite the perceived insanity of creating an international, 100% vertically integrated, luxury, fine jewelry brand and growing it here in America’s heartland.