Lotus Eye Productions

Accessories – Kansas City

I was born in Los Angeles California and raised in the small (by comparison) city of Topeka Kansas. I did not really show all that much interest in art until I was in high-school. Because I was home-schooled I had the freedom to take a variety of art classes once I started getting more interested. When I started college it was with the intent to study Law Enforcement but I decided to take a few art classes for “easy A’s” during my first year. It wasn’t long before my focus shifted from Law Enforcement to Art and from there to Fashion Design. In 2003 I transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I studied fashion design in spite of not making it into the school’s well known Fashion Program. It was during my fashion design classes that I was introduced to millinery. It was love at first class. My teachers encouraged me to push the boundaries of hat making. In January of 2006 I was featured along with a few of my hats in an article about the millinery classes at the Art Institute in The Hat Magazine. In my final semester at SAIC I was awarded a grant from the Chicago School of Millinery for my headwear designs. Not long after this I sold one of my hats for the first time. Since that first hat was sold my passion for headwear has driven me to continue making hats.