Meet S. Maurice Douglass | Jewelry designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with S. Maurice Douglass and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi S. Maurice, how do you think about risk?
Both in my personal life and career I find that reasonable risk taking helps me in particular to venture beyond being comfortable. I found in life sometimes the greatest challenge you have is simply dealing with unknown outcomes. In my own personal life I went through a period where I really needed to isolate myself so that I could manage personal growth. That was a challenge because I’m normally very sociable with family and friends. In business, I’ve had to take risks at every step from committing to get a location to upscaling my business and incurring greater monthly cost.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve been interested in art in all media since I was a small child. I started out drawing and painting with an affinity for mixed media. At the age of 18 I dropped out of high school to go to college to study fine art. I quickly became bored with the monotonous routine of college which seemed just like high school to me, so I ventured out trying to sell my art pieces to local stores and possible galleries. Well during this endeavor I met the two people who would be most instrumental in my jewelry design training and career. Through their instruction I learned to complete pieces of jewelry that it normally took Master Jewelers years to make. I was able to complete these designs after only about 6 to 8 months of training. Since that time I’ve always challenged myself artistically to push the design envelope forward.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
For any friends or family that would visit La I would of course have to take them to the cultural center which for me is the Crenshaw district and specifically Leimert Park. I would bring them on a Sunday when the drum circle and African market is taking place. We would feast at the aura Cafe or Aki bamboo and we were shopping places like soul folks or Nappily naturals. On Monday we would probably go to jazz at the sofi lounge in the evening and during the day of course visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Taking in all the local eateries and Street vendors for snacks. For the rest of the week our food menu would be from Baba’s vegan cafe, a place that I considered to be one of the best vegan restaurants in all of Los Angeles. We would have to spend at least one day in Long Beach. Whale watching or doing something on the water and of course we would have to go to the Santa Monica Pier. To round out a Friday and a Saturday, it would be the downtown theater for midday matinees.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to give a special thanks to Ahk Benn and Ve Mu El Benn. These were my original Master teachers that brought me into their store in 1993 in Montgomery Alabama which was called the “initiators Incorporated.” I would also like to give a big shout out to my friend Rick who helped me establish myself here in California. In closing I like to give special thanks to my mom my family and my friends for supporting me in every step of my business endeavor.

Website: TBD

Instagram: @douglassdesigns and @douglassgalleries

Linkedin: rebelmanagement@gmail.com

Facebook: Ishmaeltherebel

Image Credits
Individual photo of me was shot by @Goose

All the other photos were taken in house