Posting Crabs Until the World Ends: an Interview with Ariana Fox

Beads, charms, and stones are everywhere you look in this bedroom. Tiny shards of brass dot the floor, caltrops for cats. This is the workspace of Ariana Fox who creates statement earrings from brass, stones, and upcycled objects.

What you won't see in her studio is much completed jewelry: she doesn't keep an inventory. It works for her and her style of small batch production. She makes a pair of earrings, posts them on Instagram, and then makes more if people are into it. These small batches don't hang around.

As soon as she feels she's created enough, she'll announce a drop. Once it's live it'll sell out in a few hours. "It used to be minutes," she says. This small batch process keeps things interesting for her and forces her to stay on top of making and producing new ideas or variations of old ideas. Not having any inventory to sell is a great motivator.

Here's our video interview with Ariana:

The world is on fire in literal and metaphorical ways. The thought of selling and promoting your whimsical, handmade jewelry feels secondary to the issues the rest of the world is grappling with.

Earrings full of cats and clouds is a hard sell when your Instagram Reel comes between war crimes and today's recession indicator. But that's what Ariana has to do. It's what a lot of artists and craftspeople have to do to promote their business, to make money, to make a living.

When the world's on fire we have to find our people, our things, that bring us to a place not ablaze. To simply remind us that it doesn't have to be.

You can find her work on Instagram @uncommonfox or her website https://www.theuncommonfox.com/