In 2015 my sister told me there was an opening for a shared studio space in the California Building within the Northeast Minneapolis Art District. I told her we weren't ready, she said the meeting was Tuesday at 3, she'd go alone if needed.

I met her there as a form of resistance to the leap, but knew right away we'd be signing the lease. We did a tour with Jennifer Young, one of the owners of the building, and as she walked us around and showed us the space, I gathered that she was formative in turning Northeast Minneapolis into an Arts District, so I asked if she was kind of a big deal -- she smiled.

We initially had a studio mate, a well-known Minneapolis photographer named Dietrich Gesk, who had been in the space since the late 80s or early 90s. He'd shared with many other photographers who passed through the space before us, but we'd be the last. By 2020 he left the space, and we decided to take over the entire space. The Locket Sisters, by then, was outpacing our photography work. 

With a wall of south-facing windows, high ceilings, our favorite coffee shop in the city right below us, and a community of artists and neighbors to bump elbows with, the space we inhabit feels like the childhood home of my adulthood. It's calm, it's beautiful, it's welcoming. We are so grateful, and lucky, to inhabit this space, and to be part of the California Building community. 

Studio 202 in the California Building has grown with us over the years. Shifting from shared, to focused on photography, to more shared, to my husband's team working there through COVID shutdowns, to primarily presenting the Locket Sisters. 

Now, we're able to host parties for permanent jewelry guests big and small, participate in Art-a-Whirl, and relax into the wide open space with the big windows and the plants everywhere whenever we show up to make your lockets.

While the space has shifted many times over the years to accommodate the ideas it holds, one thing we protect and preserve continuously is the high-vibration energy that everyone inevitably feels as they walk in, look up and around, and whisper wow.