Ostrich Moon

Some businesses are built around products. Others are built around a way of seeing the world.

From the very beginning, Ostrich Moon has felt like an invitation to celebrate individuality, curiosity, and the beauty of the unexpected. Every piece tells a story—shaped by found treasures, thoughtful craftsmanship, and a deep appreciation for the things that make each of us unique.

What I admire most about Annie is that her work feels deeply personal. Nothing is rushed or overproduced. Instead, each piece is created with intention, carrying a sense of wonder that encourages us to express ourselves a little more freely.

We were so grateful to spend some time getting to know Annie and the heart behind Ostrich Moon, and we're excited to share some behind the scenes of the person and brand.

Interested in working with or shopping Ostrich Moon? Click here to explore her collection and learn more about her work.

1. Let's start with you.

Before we talk about Ostrich Moon, I'd love to know a little about you. Who is Annie outside of

making jewelry?

I feel like I ask myself that question often, and honestly, I don't know if I have a definitive answer

right now! I've gone through two huge identity shifts in a relatively short amount of time; leaving

a successful, stable corporate career to start my own business, and becoming a first-time mom

less than a year ago. So who I am feels particularly fluid at the moment. I'm still figuring that part

out.

On a less philosophical level, I'm an introverted extrovert, a homebody, and someone who really

values deep connections. I'm obsessed with self-discovery and the Enneagram and

understanding why we are the way we are. I'm also constantly trying to make my environment

feel as calming and peaceful as possible. I love lighting, setting a mood, and creating a little

dwelling around myself that feels good to exist in.

I live in Chicago, which is a city I'm constantly trying to get to know better. There are days I love

it here and days I don't, but I think it's actually a fitting place for me because it never really

allows you to get completely comfortable. It's always changing. And I suppose I am too.

2. The Beginning

Can you take us back to the beginning? What inspired you to create Ostrich Moon, and what did

you hope it might become?

I've always loved working with my hands. Before jewelry, I was working a corporate job and

looking for creative outlets wherever I could find them. I belonged to a ceramics studio when I

lived in Detroit for my corporate job, and I was also buying and reselling antique and vintage

home decor. I loved the treasure hunt of it: going to estate sales and thrift stores and letting

myself be drawn toward strange, beautiful, one-of-a-kind things.

That was actually the original Ostrich Moon. I needed a name to open an Etsy account, and one

of the first things I'd sourced was a 1920s cocktail tray with a peacock and a moon on it. I gave

it to my mom, who kept mistakenly calling it her "ostrich tray." So Ostrich Moon as an inside joke

with my mom became a placeholder name until I thought of something better. It ended up

sticking, and I think its quirkiness really works.

Then COVID happened, and suddenly I couldn't go to my ceramics studio or estate sales. I was

cut off from most of my creative outlets. One day, seemingly out of nowhere, I had this intense

urge to make jewelry. I'd always collected jewelry, especially estate jewelry, and loved the

stories it could hold. Jewelry can mark a milestone, be passed down through generations,

remind you of a person or a place, or simply become an extension of who you are. I've always

thought of meaningful jewelry almost like a tattoo you can take off.

So I got in the car and drove to the nearest bead store. I had absolutely no idea what I was

doing. I grabbed whatever interested me, brought it home, and started experimenting.

At the time, I made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to turn it into anything. I wasn't going

to monetize it or immediately start imagining a business. I was just going to follow my curiosity

and create for the sake of creating.

That came from advice I'd been given when I was struggling with what I wanted to do with my

life during COVID and in a time where I felt very drained on a soul level from my corporate job. I

was told I needed to keep my loop open, which basically meant not immediately jumping ahead

to the successful artist or antique shop owner or whatever imagined end result I could fixate on.

Follow what interests you and allow the outcome to remain open, because otherwise you can

miss possibilities you never knew existed if your blinders are up and focused on one specific

end result.

So that's what I did. I tried pottery. I tried antiquing. I tried jewelry. Jewelry was simply the thing

that stuck.

Eventually, with a lot of encouragement from friends and family, I started sharing what I was

making on the old home decor Ostrich Moon account, which was suddenly my account for my

jewelry. Putting my work out there helped me develop my aesthetic and understand what felt like

me, and very slowly it evolved into what Ostrich Moon is today.

So when you ask what I hoped it might become, the funny thing is that in the beginning, I

wouldn't let myself answer that question. I think if I had imagined where I wanted it to go, I would

have compared the beginner version of myself to some idealized future version and gotten

overwhelmed by everything that had to happen in between. Not knowing what it would become

was probably the thing that allowed it to become anything at all.

3. The Leap

Was there ever a moment when you questioned whether this path would work? What gave you

the courage to keep going?

I question it all the time. Even now.

Leaving my corporate job was terrifying. It was stable, I'd gone to school for that career, I'd

spent years building it, I was moving up within my company, and I had a good paycheck and

benefits. Up until that point, I'd almost always made the safe choice that would lead me down a

fairly guaranteed path.

For a while I did both, working my full-time job while building Ostrich Moon on the side.

Eventually, I did this mental exercise where I pictured myself at 80 years old looking back at my

life in my twenties and thirties. I asked myself which decision I would regret: leaving a stable

career to give this a real chance, or never finding out what could have happened if I'd tried.

The answer became incredibly obvious and very simple. I knew I would be disappointed in

myself if I didn't at least try.

I also reminded myself that I could always go back. I still had my degree and my experience.

What I couldn't get back were the years I might spend ignoring something that felt real because

I was afraid to leave something safe. I had close friends and family who I trusted to be honest

with me telling me, "You have everything you need. You just need to jump." Eventually, I did.

4. The Heart

You describe your jewelry as a celebration of individuality and authenticity. What does living

authentically mean to you today?

I think living authentically means letting go of the need to control how you're perceived and

learning to actually know and trust yourself instead.

I've spent a lot of my life becoming attached to different ideas of who I thought I should be, or

who I wanted other people to see me as. The problem is that the more energy you spend trying

to embody some constructed version of yourself, the further you can get from the actual

essence of who you are.

So for me, authenticity today is really about returning to that essence. It's being present,

curious, open, and vulnerable. It's being willing to challenge even your strongest beliefs, change

your mind, try something you're not good at yet, and let life continue to move you.

I also think it's learning to lead more with your heart than your head, and more with love than

fear. When I feel lost, my instinct can be to look outward for answers or try to become something

else. I'm learning that the answer is usually to turn inward instead, reconnect with myself, and

then follow whatever genuinely makes me curious.

And vulnerability, to me, doesn't necessarily mean sharing every intimate or messy part of your

life. Sometimes vulnerability is simply being willing to show up as yourself without knowing

exactly how people are going to receive you.

I don't want to live on autopilot or do everything as a means to an end. I want to notice what

moves me, follow what pulls at me, and stay open enough to be changed by what I find. I think

that's probably the closest I've come to understanding what authenticity means to me.

5. The Treasure Hunt

Your pieces are made from gemstones, antique finds, silk, charms, and collected treasures.

What draws you to an object and makes you think, "This belongs in a piece someday?"

Honestly, pure intuition.

When I'm sourcing, I try not to think very much. I let myself be physically drawn toward things. I

don't necessarily know how I'm going to use something or what piece it will become. If it's

pulling me in, I trust that I'll find a way to use it.

I've learned that when I start thinking too much about what's trending, what colors are popular,

whether specific symbols are having a moment, or what I think will sell, I lose some connection

to my creative flow. I want the things I make to stay true to my own vision, and that means

trusting my creative intuition before trying to intellectualize it.

So when I'm antique hunting or sourcing beads, I basically gather whatever speaks to me. I

bring everything back to my studio, lay it all out, and that's when the actual puzzle begins. That's

when I start seeing combinations and relationships between things. But the hunt itself is almost

entirely instinctive.

6. The Craft

Every piece is one of a kind. What do you love most about creating something that will never

exist in exactly the same way again?

I think it's a little bit like us. We're all human, and there are endless similarities between us, but

there will never be an exact replica of any one person. We each have our own lived history and

our own version of reality, and that makes the way each of us sees and experiences the world

completely unique.

I think about my pieces similarly. They're recognizably Ostrich Moon. There are common

threads in the way I hand-knot them, the colors I'm drawn to, the materials I use, and the style

I've developed. But every piece has its own combination of stones, colors, charms, and found

objects, so each one tells a different story.

And then that story changes again when someone chooses it. A heart locket with two doves

might mean one thing to me when I'm making it and something completely different to the

person who eventually wears it. I love that. The pieces are fluid in that way. Their meaning isn't

entirely mine to decide.

I really love the idea that every piece I make is meant for a specific individual out there

somewhere, and it's almost just waiting for that person to discover it, resonate with it, and take it

home. That's the part of one-of-a-kind jewelry I'm most interested in - the connection we form

with objects, the stories we give them, and the way they can become little physical reminders of

something meaningful in our lives.

7. The Connection

You spend a lot of time traveling to markets and meeting customers in person. Has there been a

conversation or encounter that has stayed with you?

Your jewelry celebrates individuality. Has there ever been a moment when someone shared

what one of your pieces meant to them that reminded you why you started Ostrich Moon?

There have been a few moments at markets where someone has connected with a piece so

deeply that it brought them to tears. I never imagined when I started making jewelry that

something I created could touch someone in that way.

One woman at a recent market connected with an antique locket necklace I had made during a

really difficult time in her life. The locket, the stones, and even some of the smaller details in the

piece all seemed to hold meaning for what she and someone she loved were going through.

She was there with her mom, and as they told me more about why the necklace felt so

significant to them, we all got emotional. It was one of those moments where a piece seemed to

find exactly the person it was meant for.

I've also had the privilege of creating custom necklaces for weddings, births, graduations,

retirements, and other major milestones. The idea that someone would choose something I've

made to represent such an important moment in their life is incredibly humbling.

Those interactions also seem to come at exactly the moments when I need them. If I'm doubting

myself, comparing myself, worrying about how much I sold at a market, or feeling discouraged

about a collection, something like that will happen and completely recenter me.

It feels like a reminder that I'm not creating things to be consumed by everyone. I'm creating

pieces that are meant to find the people they were made for.

8. What You're Protecting

As Ostrich Moon continues to grow, what's one thing you're determined to never lose?

I hope I never lose my intuition.

I never want growth to make me overly focused on trends, what is selling, or what I'm

"supposed" to make. So much of my process comes from this very instinctive pull toward certain

materials, colors, objects, and combinations, and I want to protect that.

I also never want success with a particular style to make me afraid to change. It would be very

easy to find something that works and just keep recreating versions of it because it feels safe.

But I don't want Ostrich Moon to become stagnant.

I hope I can continue to stay curious, open, vulnerable, and willing to evolve, even when

evolving means taking a risk or making something that people aren't expecting from me yet.

9. Success

When you first started, success may have looked one way. What does success look like to you

now?

I think there are two versions of success that exist in my head.

There's the immediate, external version: having a particularly successful market, having a

collection sell really well, getting a lot of attention online, or being seen as someone people

admire. Those things feel good, of course, but I've learned that the feeling is pretty temporary.

The version of success that feels more substantial to me is living in alignment with who I actually

am, and then hopefully creating some kind of ripple effect that encourages other people to do

the same.

Jewelry happens to be my medium. Making it is one of the ways I connect with my own intuition

and creativity. But if someone encounters my work and it makes them feel more connected to

themselves, or even inspires them to follow some curiosity of their own, that feels like lasting

success to me.

10. Joy

What's a moment in your work that still makes you stop and think, "I can't believe I get to do

this?"

I get that feeling a lot when I'm in the middle of making my pieces. When I'm arranging

materials, figuring out a piece, or finishing something and suddenly seeing it come together, I'll

sometimes have this moment of realizing how lucky I am that this is my work.

But I also get it sometimes when I'm setting up for an art market.

I loved going to art fairs when I was a kid, and I always thought the artists were so impressive.

They had somehow figured out how to grow up and make a life out of creating things. I

remember looking at them in awe.

Now sometimes I'll be putting up my tent, arranging my booth, getting ready for a market, and it

hits me that I'm one of those people.

It's such a strange full-circle moment. When I'm busy, I can forget that the life I'm living now is

something a much younger version of me would have thought was unbelievable. If I could go

back and tell her that this is what we're going to get to do someday, I think she'd be pretty

excited.

11. Looking Ahead

What are you dreaming about these days? Is there something you're excited to explore or

create next?

As I kind of touched on earlier, I actually tried not to dream too far ahead for the longest time. A

big part of how I got here was learning to stay present, focus on the process, and keep the

outcome open. If I imagined some huge future version of Ostrich Moon, I knew I could

overwhelm myself with everything that would have to happen between here and there.

Lately, though, I've been letting myself daydream a little more.

One idea I keep coming back to is doing a temporary storefront somewhere for a month or two.

New York or Paris, two cities I've dreamed of maybe living in someday, would be incredible.

Almost like a cross between a residency, a gallery, and a shop. I would love to create an entire

environment around the jewelry: the lighting, objects, music, furniture, mood, everything. I get to

do a tiny version of that with my market booths, but having a physical space for a longer period

would be such a dream.

I'd also love to organize some kind of sourcing trip abroad with a small group of equally

obsessive treasure hunters. We could go to flea markets and antique markets and just spend

days searching for strange, beautiful things together.

I'm also excited by collaborations. I would love to make a collection inspired by another artist, an

interior designer, a painter, or someone with a really distinctive visual world, and see what

happens when their aesthetic gets translated through my jewelry.

I’m excited to see what kind of opportunities open to me as I continue with Ostrich Moon.

12. The Invitation

When someone puts on a piece of Ostrich Moon jewelry, how do you hope they feel?

I hope they feel more like themselves.

I've been thinking lately about the epigraph at the beginning of a book, that little poem or

quotation that sets the tone for everything you're about to read. That's how I've started thinking

about jewelry. I want an Ostrich Moon piece to feel like an epigraph to the person wearing it.

Like a small visual introduction to a much bigger, deeper story.

To someone else, maybe it offers a little glimpse of who you are before they really know you.

But for the person wearing it, I hope it becomes something more personal. A physical reminder

of who you are, where you've been, what matters to you, or even the person you're hoping to

become.

I want it to remind you to be brave, curious, open, intuitive, and confident in the fact that who

you are is exactly what you need to be. Not to diminish yourself or hide parts of yourself

because you're afraid of how they'll be received.

And of course, I hope you feel beautiful in it. But more than anything, I hope putting it on makes

you feel a little more rooted in yourself.

13. Heart Be Your Guide

Heart Be Your Guide is built on the belief that the things we surround ourselves with—and the

people we support—can help us feel more connected. What does "following your heart" mean to

you today?

I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today without the people closest to me encouraging me to

follow something I was clearly passionate about, even when I was terrified to do it.

So today, following my heart means trying to lead with love instead of fear.

That's become a question I ask myself when I feel stuck: Is this decision coming from fear, or is

it coming from love?

Am I making something because I'm genuinely excited by it, or because I think it will sell? Am I

sharing something because it feels true to me, or because I want to be liked? Am I saying no

because something isn't right for me, or because I'm afraid?

The difference can look incredibly subtle from the outside, but internally it feels completely

different.

I also think following your heart requires knowing yourself well enough to recognize its voice.

That means turning inward and slowly shedding some of the masks and identities we build

because we think they'll make us more lovable, successful, or accepted.

The more you do that, the more the people, opportunities, relationships, and creative pursuits in

your life can actually connect with the real version of you.

So for me, letting my heart be my guide really is that simple, even if it isn't always easy - when I

have a choice, I try to choose love over fear.

14. Small Business Love

Is there another small business or maker whose work you admire and think more people should

know about?

Two immediately come to mind: Jenn Goz (@existingwithjenn) and Hannah Jean Atelier

(@hannahjeanatelier).

They're both incredibly talented artists, but what inspires me most about them is who they are

as people. They're so unapologetically themselves. The energy they put into the world is warm,

creative, generous, and very real.

They're also the kind of people who are constantly encouraging everyone around them. They're

incredible cheerleaders for other artists and small businesses, and somehow a conversation or

even a voice memo from either one of them can completely ground me again.

I actually met both of them through Ostrich Moon during artist markets, which makes those

friendships feel even more special to me. I don't think our paths would have crossed if I hadn't

followed my own curiosity into this work.

There are so many small businesses and artists I admire, but those two are people I will happily

shout about forever. They're incredible artists and genuinely wonderful human beings, and I feel

very lucky that this business of mine brought them into my life.