Our Team
K 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.
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.
S H A N N O N
Assistant Manager • Production & Operations
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!
R A C H E L
Photography & 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, 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.
K A L I
Assistant Manager & Fulfillment Lead • 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
Assistant Manager & Customer Experience Lead • 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.
R I P L E Y
Production Assistant & Maker
Ripley is a born and raised Portlander turned Vancouver dweller but don’t let that fool you, she adores anything that has to do with adventure or exploring. Her style ranges from witchy hippie, to gothic secret agent and her favorite place to be is anywhere new (hello, free spirit!). Ripley often passes the time traveling, taking a swim, researching curious creatures like hedgehogs/bats/mantarays or cuddling any cat she can get her hands on. When not on the workbench she often resides in Grayling’s shipping land, getting all the precious gems happily to their new homes.
Y A N A
Production Assistant & Maker
Yana grew up like a wildflower in Juneau, exploring the Alaskan wilderness and scavenging tidepools near the ocean. After making her way to Portland for university with her pup Enzo, she’s been eating her way through the city ever since (ahem, pizza and poke anyone?) A true seeker of the quiet of nature, she adores being on the slopes and traveling. Even when Yana is knee deep in production she feels incredibly lucky to work with amazing people who have the same love for jewelry as she does, and loves our Grayling customers! (We second that😉)
