We had the good fortune of connecting with Carrie Cramer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carrie, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
Work life balance seemed like an easier question to answer before Covid 19! We had the luxury of leaving our homes to venture to a work space and now, we must figure out ideal ways to work from home. Configuring what that looked like took a bit of time and a little creativity, but I now really enjoy working from home. I can see my husband and dog and take breaks in the garden or go on walks. I spent my entire 30’s really focused on my career and my personal life did suffer for it, it was not balanced. I am proud of what I accomplished and bought my own home in Los Angeles and cultivated many work opportunities, but realized that was not enough. My heart was not full. In my 40’s I did change some habits and took on less work to gain more happiness. Meeting my husband also really helped me focus on what was important. I started taking on less costume design production jobs and focused on my personal creative endeavors. Starting my jewelry line was one of those creative idea’s I made into a small business. I got to mix my passion for naimals with my love for fine jewelry and share that with other people. It was a nice break to step off set and step into my own business and now I have a good balance of mixing the two. I realized I didn’t have to abandon one for the other, they can work well together. I now manage my time better and focus on the present, that helps me acomplish my goals and stay balanced.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
For 20 years I was mainly focused on my Costume Design career. I started on an MTV show called Singled Out as a production assistant in the Art Department and just fell in love with production. After a few short years of Art Department gigs, I moved over to Wardrobe Styling. I then got my big break designing the first few seasons of The Bachelor and have continued working on union reality/talk shows. I am currently the Costume Designer on Tosh.0, I have been designing on that show for the past 12 years. Working in production just came naturally for me and my career kept growing with each new show that I worked on and at one point I was working on 3-5 shows at a time with the help of many amazing assistants. I am really proud of all of the shows I have designed and the people and realtionships I have gained from working in that industry. Five years ago though, I wanted to take a chance and start my own company. I had been working with different jewelry designers to borrow, sell, and design jewelry for my clients for years and wanted to take a crack at it myself. I was influenced by my Schnauzer, I wanted to design something that I could wear everyday that reminded me of him. Carrie Cramer Fine Jewelry was born with a 14K gold and diamond pendant in his likeness that I could wear everyday, close to my heart. Its been a nice blending of my two passions qnd it’s fun to see other people react so well to my jewelry line. These two businesses have led me to continue making art and I have spent most of my quarantine time painting, sculpting and coming up with new jewelry designs as my production life is on hold.

Website: www.carriecramer.com
Instagram: @carriecramerjewelry
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carriecramer/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carriecramerfinejewelry/
Other: www.carriecramerstylist.com

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