Our Team

Grayling Jewelry Founder Katy Kippen Portland Oregon Team

Grayling Jewelry Founder Katy Kippen Portland Oregon DesignerK A T Y

Owner & Designer • Founded Grayling: Winter 2009

Hailing from Montana, land of plentiful mountains and beautiful surroundings, Katy's lapidary grandfather sparked her love of jewelry and stones in particular. As part of a military family, Katy spent six years living overseas in Europe and Asia where she gathered inspiration for what would eventually become Grayling.

Some of her favorite childhood pursuits were playing store and selling travel-sized shampoos door-to-door. Katy got her start in the jewelry business selling pieces out of her locker in high school and eventually, her love for the craft blossomed into a full-time career. In 2009, she manifested her dream of running her own business designing and handcrafting versatile, hypo-allergenic pieces all jewelry lovers can wear.

READ MORE ABOUT KATY

Grayling Jewelry Operations Manager Aimee
A I M E E

Manager • Operations, Web + Jewelry Design • Joined Grayling: Fall 2013

A Northwest native, Aimee dreams of living someplace warmer but we're not letting her go anywhere! She's in charge of all new product releases and keeping everything in our studio organized (including Katy)! When she's not busy adding new items to our website, she's assisting Katy with photo shoots, communicating with stores who carry our line, and planning orders with our suppliers. As our sweet-yet-tenacious team den mother, Aimee makes sure product release schedules are on track and that we always have the correct raw materials on hand (while still making time to hammer some jewels or pop some bubbly every now and then)! 

Aimee is always smiling, no matter what. She loves surprises, animals, and dark chocolate and has been searching shelters for a huge sweet pup to keep her wild cat company. Aimee is always looking for her next travel destination, has excellent taste in music, and happens to possess the most enviable style. She has a serious knack for successfully pairing color and pattern in her everyday outfits and makes us all step up our style game at work.

Grayling Jewelry Production Manager Mey
M E Y

Manager • Production, Jewelry Design + Sales • Joined Grayling: Summer 2014

Mey moved to Portland from the Bay Area (long before everyone else did - ha!) and she is our bright, multi-talented team cheerleader! Mey's background in jewelry design shines not only in our studio but also when working one-on-one with customers in our store! An eternal optimist, she's definitely who we turn to when we need cheering up. But don't be fooled by that omnipresent smile, Mey can turn on the sass!

Mey works exceptionally hard to be sure every piece of jewelry that leaves our doors is made perfectly, down to the last microscopic detail. She also heads up our charity efforts and manages thousands of dollars worth of donations every year. When she's not working on new ways to make our production team more efficient, she's training new hires on our customer service process. She even mocks up the occasional graphic design! When not at the studio, Mey is likely taste-testing a delicious new dish, traveling abroad, or spending time with family. Her favorite hobbies are reading nonfiction and going down the rabbit hole of internet research.

Grayling Jewelry Maker Shannon Portland Oregon
S H A N N O N

Assistant Manager • Production & Operations • Joined Grayling: Fall 2017

Known for her level-headedness, Shannon stays calm and collected no matter what's going on (usually with a grin on her face)! She makes sure our store is filled with enough inventory and your online orders are processed quickly so they arrive on time. On any given day, Shannon spends just as much time stone-setting and making jewelry as she does working with customers in our retail store!

Shannon is known for her genuine, warm personality and gorgeous mermaid hair. When she’s not in our workshop, she’s probably planning her next trip to see her family in Montana, or at the cinema catching the latest horror flick! Shannon uses her creative downtime to work on her sketching and painting (this girl is bursting with talent) and could probably eat pickle-flavored potato chips any day of the week!

Meet The Team Rachel Creative + Marketing Grayling Jewelry
R A C H E L

Creative Production + Marketing • Joined Grayling: Fall 2020

After bouncing up and down the West coast, most recently San Francisco, Rachel landed back in Portland. She spends her days snapping away in our photo studio, photographing our shiniest stars and marketing them to our biggest fans. Rachel is a sucker for good lighting & truly enjoys showing off her teammates' hard work while making our fans feel amazing in their own skin as a result.

Rachel is always on the move, as a former travel magazine photo editor with a relentless travel bug, you’ll definitely see her with a camera in hand, or roller skates on her feet, or googling flights. At a moment’s notice she would easily drop everything to say yes to spontaneous weekend excursion, hunt for records, wander bookstore aisles, or tinker in her art studio. Not to mention, her endless supply of random facts and giggle-inducing gifs leave us lol-ing.

K A L I

Production Assistant/Maker • Joined Graying: October 2021

A born + bred Portlander, Kali has been with us since 2021 and she’s our little bit of everything gal. From slinging a wide assortment of Grayling’s jewels, to supporting the shipping team to make sure your pieces are not only gorgeous but get there on time, and being a warm welcome to our customers. She’s got just as big of a soft spot for jewelry and metalwork as she does for her coworkers (aww, how lucky are we?!).

Easily our most tapped-in culture queen quick to make us all giggle or tell a silly story, Kali is just as enamored by jewelry off the clock and it was a hobby long before it was her 9-5. You can usually find her hunting for novelty vintage sweaters - and we do mean hunting, it’s a sport. That is when she’s not cuddling her little dog Mellow, reading, getting her gamer-girl vibe on, happily napping the day away or beefing up her sticker collection that’s truly a sparkling sight to behold.

K I M

Production Assistant/Maker • Joined Graying: October 2021

Breezing in from down south in New Mexico + California, Kim is snug as a bug here in Portland. She adores working with her hands and adding to her technique arsenal as a metalworker in our studio & truly can’t get enough of the satisfaction that finishing a shiny piece of jewelry brings, and she does it all for you, folks.

When Kim’s off the clock she’s been spotted bounding down the river with her pups, thrift shopping, rockhounding or documentary binging like there’s no tomorrow. She’s also a sucker for every trinket at Paxton Gate, obsesses over playlist curation and don’t get her started on all things mythical and cryptic (Mothman, anyone?). When she’s not trying her hand at a new craft project she’s easily persuaded to watch the sunset at a rooftop bar with something delicious to sip on. Cheers Kim, we’ll join ya.

Grayling Jewelry Team Maker