in the 90's for a hobbyist, and for a certain misplaced idea that she should "grow up" and pursue Law studies. After working in law offices, restaurants, then in Publishing for a long spell, Michele renewed her love of metals and stones by setting and beading her mother's extensive gem & gem bead collection during weekend visits. The natural progression, from discovered appreciation in gemstones, to incorporating metal pounding, torching, and casting on a smaller scale, led to the eventual career change from Publishing to Jewelry. Frequent occurrences of people approaching her to buy her pieces off her neck, or wanting to know where she bought the piece, led Michele to believe that if she took the show on the road and set up business, she'd be able to make a living. And so it happened in 2005.Today, the design direction is an evolved, streamlined approach from the early heavily beaded statement costume pieces of her 05-06 Fall/Winter debut season. The look is still undeniably Oddfishie, i.e. unusual interpretations of common themes, without sacrificing the stone and metal quality, workmanship, and color. Michele still does almost everything in the production and design process- stone selection, setting, wax carving models to be cast, soldering, wirework, metal-cutting, hammering, chasing, hand-finishing, polishing and burnishing. She stops short of stone polishing, stone cutting/drilling, metal refining, chain and wire making, and casting, which she would leave to the good experts of 47th- 48th Street and beyond.
