betsy & iya started in 2008 in a coffeeshop with a notebook, a bright red pencil, and nothing to lose. That, and the refusal to sit at a desk in an office. Among scribbles and coffee stains, the words “jewelry making” appeared in that notebook.

Betsy wrote it down, thought about it for a while, and then she made some jewelry. And it worked, so she did it some more.

We’re betsy & iya. We laugh a lot. We’d love to live in a house from Dwell magazine, but we don’t. And if we did, we’d leave our dirty socks in the hallway and stack our dishes in the sink (whoopsie!). Design is important to us, but so are roller coasters, lazy Sunday mornings, and snuggling with our dog. We’re people, just like you. And we put ourselves into our designs, into our business, into how we say hi when you walk through our door. We’re good at what we do. We make things that tell the world a little about you when you wear them.

You're the woman who laughs a little too loud in the fancy restaurant, the one who leaves love notes on napkins, who talks her way out of speeding tickets, and watches strangers kiss. you shirk responsibility, stay up too late, and sleep in your socks. you're the one they wonder about in the office, the one who knows the closest martini bar, the best used bookstore, and how to say “you ain’t seen nothing yet” in seven languages. and if you’re not… don’t you kind of want to be?

When you shop betsy & iya, we hope you see the care in every bend of the wire, in every hammer stroke, in every twist of the pliers. We hope you see deliberation and perpendicularity. We hope you love the other independent artists’ and designers’ products we carry just as much as we do. We hope you feel amazing and gush confidence. And then we hope that we’ll tell each other a really funny joke and that we all laugh for a while.

At betsy & iya, we are vibrant. We steal clothes from our mom (don’t worry, she knows). We love color, asymmetry, contrast, balance. We lost our membership cards to the cool kids club a while back. We drink coffee all day long. We’re imperfect; we’re polite; we’re sassy. And we want you to have a good time when you hang out with us, whether it’s online, or in our brick & mortar shop. So, take a look around. We’re glad you’re here.