We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sachiko Muramatsu Kramer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sachiko, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?

I think education is important but I feel that it is less crucial these days since there are other options to learn and grow your skills depending on which fields you want to pursure. I had a very traditional education where I went to public schools all my life and got my bachelor degrees in Apparel Design and Fashion Merchandising in Cal State Long Beach. I had some great teachers and instructors that really challenged me and motivated me to do well, but I also had some bad teachers and some of the classes didn’t served me purpose. It was more important for me to have hands on experiences and exploring different interests, activities and discovering what I was good at so I can focus on strengthening skills. I feel that it’s important for students to have extra curricular activities so there are creative outlets for students to do well. Personally, I never did that well in school, I was never a straight A students. More of a B student and test taking was never by strengths. Luckily, my high school offered art, design and sewing classes to help me prepared for the creative field.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started Sachi Love back in 2011 when I was looking for another creative outputs in my life. I have been designing footwear since 2007 but there was something missing in my life and wanted to design and create something that was completely original. I was organizing my sewing closet one day and I found some earring hooks and notions next to my lace trims. It gave me an idea to make earrings out of lace trims and I started making jewelry during weekends just for fun. I started making earrings for myself and my friends took a notice of my pieces and I started getting requests to make more. Soon enough, people on the street would stop and ask me where I got my jewelry and where they can buy it. These moments inspired me to pursue my love of jewelry and start my own line. It’s a lot of work when you have your own business on top of being a full time Senior Designer but I love my job and designing is what I enjoy doing. The biggest challenges is not having enough time to do it all. I hand-dyed and hand-paint all my lace trims. Sometimes, depending on the colors, I have to hand-dye two or three times so it’s time consuming because you have to wait for the lace to dry. After the lace is dried, I add organic solutions so lace stays slightly stiff and they don’t come apart. Once the lace is set, I cut the lace to desired shape and assemble together using the highest quality posts, chains, metals, and ornaments. I believe in quality over quantity and it’s important to not rush things when you want something to be made well. One of things that people love about my jewelry is how I incorporated lace because it’s not something you see in jewelry and it makes it unique. Also, people are surprised by how light and comfortable my earrings are they don’t pull your ears when you wear them out. People even tell me that they forgot that they had the earrings on because it’s so light and comfortable. They’re great statement piece that you can wear them everyday and you can also wear them to dress it up. Over the years, I have branched out to making bracelets and lariat wrap necklaces. My best sellers are 14kt gold plated daisy chain + pearl necklace and 14kt gold plated palm leaves threader.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I am always trying to grow my small jewelry business so I started doing more pop-up events to get my brands out there. I set an unrealistic goal for myself signing events every other weekends and it was too much for me to handle. Now, I plan out my calendar and do research to make sure that I am the right fit. Doing events is very time consuming and it’s a lot of work when you’re doing it by yourself. It can also get costly so I learned that it’s not always about working hard but planning and working smarter. I always had this mind-set of “I’ve got to work harder” but I learned that it’s ok to take breaks and have better work/life balance. I am more productive when I take some time off on my business.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

During the height of covid, my businesses slowed down. People were not buying jewelry, pop ups were canceled and stores that were carrying my pieces had closed down due to covid policy. I missed the creative part of the process so I started making cloth masks to donate to doctors, nurses, family and friends to keep the creative spirit going and helping out in anyway I can. I focused on coming up with new pieces during those slow times and planned on introducing the new collection when things started to open back up. I had more time to focus on my art, instead of the business side which was something that I wasn’t used to and felt like I was taking a step back. Looking back, I was able to create our best seller pieces and increase my sales and rebrand the look when things started opening back up.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sachilove.com/
• Instagram: sachiloveaccessories
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SachiLoveAccessories/