About Claire

I started making earrings in 2005 after graduating from the California College of Arts and Crafts in San Francisco with a degree in Fashion Design. I am constantly inspired by fantasy and sci-fi books, movies, old craft books from the 70s, nature, tarot cards, witches, astrology and other occulty stuff, dreams, feelings, vintage fabric and childhood nostalgia. I live in Chico, California (with two angel baby dogs) where all my jewelry is handmade at my home studio.

A lifelong maker, I started sewing in junior high school and spent many hours in the 1990’s designing and making my own crazy outfits to wear to raves. Later I became a costume designer for a ballet company, a seamstress in a haunted costume shop and an art instructor at a sleep-away camp where—I swear—every 80’s camp movie cliché came to life. Eventually my passion for making clothes distilled into a love of making jewelry, particularly because jewelry doesn’t discriminate against any body type or size.

After years of wearing huge, heavy earrings myself, I realized that unless I wanted earlobe reconstruction surgery at 40, I needed to find an alternative to weighty earrings. One day, on a whim, I made myself a pair of feather earrings out of a leather skirt I got at a clothing swap. After that, I made a few more pairs for friends, and I eventually started selling them. My designs spread quickly in my little California town, and soon it was hard to keep the earrings in stock. As I continued to create them, my designs expanded, and the Claire Fong brand took shape. 

In the beginning, I used only recycled leather. I scoured thrift stores looking for leather mini skirts and leather jackets in unusual colors to take home and cut into earrings. Today, I still use some re-purposed leather, but I also order leather from a company that processes their leather in the U.S. using only by-products from the food industry.

Click here to follow me on Instagram, or click here to contact me about wholesale orders.