Betsy and Iya

Directions Website

Betsy and Iya Fashion jewelry, all designed and made onsite. Plus clothing, gifts, & home goods.

All beautiful things made by people who care, not products made oceans apart from their designers.

It doesn’t matter if you like this necklace.I know that’s a strange thing for a jewelry designer to say. But that’s the ...
10/15/2026

It doesn’t matter if you like this necklace.

I know that’s a strange thing for a jewelry designer to say. But that’s the beauty of custom work. It doesn’t have to mean everything to everyone. It only has to mean everything to one person.

Scott came to me wanting a necklace to honor and connect him to his mother and two sisters, all three of whom he lost to breast cancer. He’d also lost a cousin the same way. Crushing. So much death. So much love.

At our first meeting, he brought a photo album. We sat looking through pictures of his family when they were younger, talking about the women he loved, his faith, his grief, and the healing he was still working toward.

I remember pinching myself under the table because tears were welling up and I wanted to avoid losing complete control. It’s Something I have to practice when the meeting topic is a heavier one. I wanted that moment to stay about him. It was my job to listen.

We talked about family, protection, faith, and love that doesn’t end when someone dies. Even many many years later.

So I drew.

Scott chose the design that felt most like an embrace. My vision was that though separated by physical and dimensional space, they are always connected. Him on one side (the single side of the continuous knot, and his mother and sisters on the trio side). He saw this in the piece and felt their love and arms wrapping protectively around his own.

When he tried on the resin model, he told us he could already feel the beginning of healing.

And after picking up the finished necklace, he wrote to tell us how much it meant to him. Some of his words are in the carousel, and I hope you’ll take a moment to read them. Every correspondence from Scott was like this: honest, warm, kind, full of hope. Always made me tear up.

There are so many parts of running a business that have little to do with making jewelry. And then something like this happens, and I remember exactly why I chose this work.

When asked if we could share his story, he said, “if it can help someone who has experienced life loss, I am happy to do so.” 💔❤️

Scott, thank you for trusting us with your story. It was an honor to make this for you. ❤️

10/01/2026

Earmergency: one of the less obvious perks of buying jewelry from people who actually make jewelry is that we can do things like this. 😏

Lost one earring? Bring us the survivor. If it’s one of ours, there’s a very good chance we can make you its missing mate instead of making you buy a whole new pair.

Tiny thing. But one of my favorite things about designing + making our jewelry right here. ❤️

Earmergency averted.

“I knew it was my ring.”I’m not sure there’s a better thing a custom jewelry designer can hear.Caroline wrote that to me...
09/24/2026

“I knew it was my ring.”

I’m not sure there’s a better thing a custom jewelry designer can hear.

Caroline wrote that to me after she and Bri finally had their finished rings. We’d spent nearly a year together getting there—drawing and redrawing, hunting for just the right diamonds, trying on resin models, changing proportions, figuring out what felt like them and what didn’t.

And these two rings could not be more different. But they still belong to one another.

Bri wanted something classic and feminine, but with an unexpected structure: a big east/west emerald-cut diamond, negative space, a knife-edge double band (raaad), symmetry.

Caroline wanted asymmetry. A cluster. Different settings and shapes flowing into one another. Something decidedly nontraditional.

Two people. Two completely different rings. Designed alongside one another from the very beginning.

Caroline is the head women’s soccer coach at Oregon State and Bri works in sports marketing there, and somehow I feel like I should have known these two would be excellent collaborators. They were curious, decisive, thoughtful, trusting…and so so so much fun to design for.

There was one last part of the plan I wasn’t in on.

Caroline proposed first. Bri had secretly arranged to pick up both finished rings herself so she could surprise Caroline with a proposal of her own.

And she did—at Browsers’ Bookstore, surrounded by books in one of Caroline’s favorite place. ❤️

A few weeks later Bri wrote to me:

“We feel so complete with them on, if that makes sense.”

It makes perfect sense.

Because that’s the whole dream.

To make something that didn’t exist before, for two people we’ve gotten to know, and have them put it on and somehow recognize themselves in it.

Congratulations, Bri + Caroline. Thank you for trusting us with this one. ❤️

Thank you for sharing your beautiful and fun proposal photos with us. Count myself lucky to have worked with you.

09/22/2026

Will’s CPAP had just arrived and I was trying to ask him how the hell that thing could possibly be comfortable.

I never got the question out. 😂

Highly recommend both CPAPs and marrying someone who makes you laugh this hard. ❤️

Sorry, Will.

Remember the grandma gems? 👀Well, I’ve been drawing.The two biggest stones were non-negotiables from the beginning, and ...
09/20/2026

Remember the grandma gems? 👀

Well, I’ve been drawing.

The two biggest stones were non-negotiables from the beginning, and funny enough, a big part of designing this round became figuring out what NOT to use.

I tried so many versions that brought more of her grandmother’s stones into the main ring. I really wanted to! But with the scale of those two big stones and finger size, every time I added more, the whole thing started to feel forced instead of better.

And every time I edited back, the ring got stronger. The eraser is legit my favorite drawing tool, after all. 😏

So these are some of the directions I sent off to our client today. Very different ways of letting those two weird, wonderful stones (and the few supporting actors who made the cut) do their thing.

I did, however, get distracted by all the beautiful little stones I wasn’t using and start drawing stacking rings for those too, because apparently I have no self-control. 😂

Now we wait to see what she thinks. ❤️

09/16/2026

It works. ❤️

46 today. Yoooooooo, the view. That view. 🎈That number will sound so old to some people, and I get it. I used to think t...
09/10/2026

46 today. Yoooooooo, the view. That view. 🎈

That number will sound so old to some people, and I get it. I used to think the same thing. But I’m here to report that it feels absolutely nothing like I thought it would.

I feel younger in some ways than I did at 30. Freer. More myself. Life is deeper now. My friendships have history (and somehow I continue to meet and make new incredible friends on the regular!!). My work has history. I know myself better. I have more compassion, more clarity, and a much better idea of who and what I want around me.

My body has changed, sure. But even those changes feel different from this side of them. They’re marks of time passing. Of perseverance. Of sustaining a life and a whole lot of laughter.

I’m 46 today and 27 at heart forever—the age I was when I started this business. I’m still endlessly curious. Still making things. Still changing my mind. Still wanting to make something I’ve never made before. Still laughing so hard I regularly lose control of my entire face. (Sound on for that vid, y’all).

So for anyone younger who is quietly terrified that getting older means becoming less interesting, less relevant, less you: nah.

46 feels pretty effing alive. ❤️

Yesterday, this walked into my custom meeting room. 😭Her late grandmother was a lapidary artist and cut all of these sto...
09/09/2026

Yesterday, this walked into my custom meeting room. 😭

Her late grandmother was a lapidary artist and cut all of these stones herself. Now I get to figure out what some of them want to become.

This is one of my favorite parts of my job.

To be continued. ❤️

Address

1777 Northwest 24th Avenue
Portland, OR
97210

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 6pm
Tuesday 11am - 6pm
Wednesday 11am - 6pm
Thursday 11am - 6pm
Friday 11am - 6pm
Saturday 11am - 6pm
Sunday 11am - 6pm

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Betsy and Iya posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share