We were lucky to catch up with Viel Catig recently and have shared our conversation below.

Viel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

One of things that gives me the most pride about my brand is the way we creatively approach everything we do within our company. As a small business owner and creative behind 23rd&Hare, it was important to me to embody the tagline that I created for the brand — handmade, uniquely eclectic. We love everything that is unique and one of a kind,.. when a customer purchases one of our handmade jewelry and accessory it brings us much joy to be able to say that the piece now have is the only one of its design. We are also driven to be as eco conscious as much as we can, and being sustainable is one of the hallmarks of 23rd&Hare. All of our items are carefully hand crafted from vintage findings, found objects and recycled materials… we make it a point to repurpose any materials that we use into a beautiful statement piece that is entirely unique. Our packaging also reflects that sentiment… we encourage all our customers to recycle their packaging, being almost entirely compostable.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

23rd&Hare are miniature mixed media art in the form of jewelry and accessories.

Each of our pieces are crafted from a variety of materials — old costume jewelry, found stones and metals, ephemera and other recycled materials.

We think what sets us apart is how we make things that stand out but are still wearble. We take inspiration from a plethora of ideas, styles, time periods like we adore the Roaring Twenties (a lot of my pieces have a bit of gold, shine, and sparkle like The Great Gatsby), literature (subtle class and properness much like the Victorian and Regency era from Bronte and Austen)… Asian street fashion especially from Korea and Japan, with its cute quirkyness.

The creativity behind the brand started as ‘twentythree back in 2006 when I was in college. Flash forward to few years later… 23rd&Hare was born in 2017 after my mother passed from an almost six year battle with an arteriovenous malformation. She was and still still is the strongest and most resilient person I know… from raising six kids as a homemaker in Manila, to choosing to immigrate to the United States in 2001 for her youngest. When my Mom passed, I realized how brave she was for uprooting her and my Dad’s life like that just to give me the opportunities and chances they couldn’t back home. It was that bravery that led me to make the jump myself and start 23rd&Hare officially as a bonafide small business. It hasn’t been a smooth road so far, and its been an ongoing process. Much of 23rd&Hare’s collections are one of a kind and entirely unique, inspired by my childhood growing up in Manila and the experience of being a first generation immigrant… I wanted to share my belief that its okay to be different, to be eclectic and to celebrate every part that makes us unique individuals with stories to tell. I would like to think that each 23rd&Hare jewelry and accessory is a conversation starter, and a point of connection. I hope to connect with fellow AAPI creatives and be part of a community that fosters our cultural identity… what makes us different yet inherently alike in many ways.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Much of 23rd&Hare comes from the creativity that blossoms whenever I come across an interesting material at a thrift shop, antique mall, swap meets or other similar venues. Because our pieces are mainly handmade from found objects and vintage findings, it is always so much fun to be able to create something… repurposing from its initial function or use. One of the lessons we learned through the years of creating uniquely eclectic pieces is to keep everything.. while one found component might not work well for the piece we are currently working on, it might fit in the next project.

I am a largely self taught jewelry and accessory artisan, so incorporating each component of our handmade pieces were pretty much me “learning on the job” on how to successful make everything to a beautiful piece of wearable art.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

23rd&Hare really came about after my Mom passed in 2017… it was such a challenging time for me and my family, and affected me so much personally — taking its toll on my physical and mental health. Finally taking the proverbial leap into started a bonafide business gave me the structure that I needed to focus while I was going through my grief journey.

At the start of the pandemic in 2020, the business that I have been slowly and steadily growing for a number of years suddenly had to take back seat to my day job as a registered nurse. There were endless hours spent in lockdown and quarantine that I desperately wanted to return to making handmade jewelry and accessories but couldn’t because I was too exhausted taking care of the increasing numbers of COVID patients at my hospital. Any free time I wasn’t spending resting went into crafting shields for my coworkers as we continued battling the pandemic… even used my mediocre sewing skills to create masks for friends, family and my neighborhood.

During the last few months of 2020, one of my older brothers and my father passed within a month of each other. My brother of a suspected sudden aneurysm and my father from end stage lung cancer. There was this macabre irony of those dear to me passing not because of the raging virus that going around across the globe but from something on both sides — sudden and something thats been going on for more than two years. It was during those dark times that I found solace in the creative therapy that making handmade jewelry and accessories gave. When I was alone in my studio / craft room, there was comfort in the isolation… like I was a bubble where nothing else happening mattered.

Frankly 23rd&Hare is not only a brand and my proverbial baby… the entire existence of the brand today saved me in more ways than I can ever fully articulate.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.23rdandhare.com
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/23rdandhare
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/23rdandhare
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/23rdandhare

Image Credits
Alex Aldana @alexaldana