Mimi Jung’s rapid career change from graphic designer and casual blogger to jewelry designer was spurred by a chance encounter during a trip to Hong Kong last year. She stumbled across a store selling a variety of unusual agate stones in shades of blue, gold, green, and pinky-peach. She scooped up pieces in various colors and eventually fashioned them into a few jewelry pieces for herself back in New York. After the accents generated interest from friends and strangers alike, she put a few up on her blog, Brook&lyn. They sold within the hour. “I never thought I would sell my jewelry,” she says. “It’s very much a reflection of what I like and what I’m wearing at the moment.”
The original Surrounded Day collection launched online last year and was picked up by Sucre. This week, she introduced her second collection, Surrounded Night, a darker assemblage of her signature agate stone-and-rope jewelry that will also be stocked at Maraym Nassir Zadeh next month. The vivid stones — originally from Brazil — are each one-of-a-kind. “I’ll dig through barrels and barrels of stones and choose maybe 10 out of 1,000,” she says. “I’ve always been drawn to one-of-a-kind things — that’s the hook for me when I shop, and it carries over into my jewelry.” Click ahead for a look at the Surrounded Day and Surrounded Night collections.
