Hi, I'm Robin lee!
I feel like I have been creative since birth. From puzzles, coloring books, art at school and craft projects as a child, to painting, writing, designing handbags and creating jewelry as an adult. Throughout my life people have always asked what I am up to. I have always answered "all of it".
I am a creative and also a travel addict. Road trips are in my DNA but traveling abroad literally changed my life. Italy changed my life. It was there that my true love of travel and art really took ahold of me. I began collecting rock fragments from everyplace I visited on my adventures. Then one day I thought to myself "hey, I am going to turn them into jewelry!"
People always ask, why "Uglies" when what I create isn't ugly. Easy answer, I lived in Charleston, South Carolina for 25 years. After major storms and hurricanes the truly unique, yet ugly to some, but exquisite to me, shells and fossils are churned up and lay stranded on the beach. They spend years tumbling at the bottom of the sea only to get washed ashore by Mother Nature's amazing drama. When I would go out hunting I would tell my son, "I am going to look for my Uglies." For years I was constantly bringing home shards of hole ridden and funky looking pieces that soon became revived and upcyled into fun beach loving jewelry.
In 2020, after my son left for the Air Force, I decided to sell my home in South Carolina and head to the breathtaking PNW to make my new home in Oregon. You can now find me roaming the PNW coast hunting for stunning, unique stones and, of course, shells to turn in my new version of UpCycled Uglies!
I am a creative and also a travel addict. Road trips are in my DNA but traveling abroad literally changed my life. Italy changed my life. It was there that my true love of travel and art really took ahold of me. I began collecting rock fragments from everyplace I visited on my adventures. Then one day I thought to myself "hey, I am going to turn them into jewelry!"
People always ask, why "Uglies" when what I create isn't ugly. Easy answer, I lived in Charleston, South Carolina for 25 years. After major storms and hurricanes the truly unique, yet ugly to some, but exquisite to me, shells and fossils are churned up and lay stranded on the beach. They spend years tumbling at the bottom of the sea only to get washed ashore by Mother Nature's amazing drama. When I would go out hunting I would tell my son, "I am going to look for my Uglies." For years I was constantly bringing home shards of hole ridden and funky looking pieces that soon became revived and upcyled into fun beach loving jewelry.
In 2020, after my son left for the Air Force, I decided to sell my home in South Carolina and head to the breathtaking PNW to make my new home in Oregon. You can now find me roaming the PNW coast hunting for stunning, unique stones and, of course, shells to turn in my new version of UpCycled Uglies!