By Paul M. Howey
Lauren Moody
Macon, Georgia was a great place to live, says Lauren Moody. “I grew up there doing what most kids in the South do—playing and building forts in the woods, hunting and fishing, playing sports, and spending every single summer on the lake or in a river.”
Lauren recalls helping her mom, a preschool teacher, prepare art projects for her class. “I would help her cut out shapes and patterns for the kids at school… I absolutely loved to color and paint and, as I got a bit older, I became obsessed with beading and photography. I was a happy child who loved everything arts and crafts! I was that kid who bought all grey tennis shoes so I could paint them different colors, and cut out the ‘tongues’ and sew in ties instead.”
She also discovered an early interest in jewelry. “In high school, I was what some might consider a hippie… I loved making beaded hemp jewelry for me and my friends.”
Much as she liked growing up in Macon, she took off as soon as she turned 18. “At that age, I did not have a standstill bone in my body, and was ready to make a life of my own as soon as I was able and legal.”
She had studied photography in high school and continued to pursue that interest at a technical college where she earned an associate degree. While in school, she interned with a food photographer and says she became enamored of the whole process—set design and food styling, as well as the photography.
“For a time, I really thought this was the career path I was headed down. It wasn’t until I took a job as a commercial photographer with a jewelry company towards the end of college that I started to realize my love for jewelry…”
She later got a job as a part-time sales rep for a high-end jewelry boutique, while at the same time promoting herself as a freelance commercial photographer for other jewelers in the Denver, Colorado, area where she was living at the time. When she was promoted to manager and designer for the jewelry boutique, she quit all of her freelance jobs. She’d never had just one stable job before. “It gave my mind, body, and soul time to evolve and grow.”
Lauren designed jewelry for that boutique for nearly five years, along the way gaining an ever-growing knowledge of all aspects of creating fine jewelry and running a business.
In 2011, eager to start her own independent jewelry line, Lauren and her partner Steve Stedillie began tossing around names for the venture. “I have always loved foxes and they had been a spiritual animal for me for some time.” After four days of being cooped up during a snowstorm—time spent “making jewelry and laughing and drinking wine”—they came up with the name Fox and Beaux. “I was the Fox and Steven was my Beaux.”
The two moved to Asheville in 2013 and came across the outdoor Portico Market at the Grove Arcade. “I immediately applied to become a vendor,” says Lauren. They eventually purchased a mountain cabin and an organic farm in Burnsville. Steven handles the business side of Fox and Beaux. “Besides all the amazing things he does for Fox and Beaux, Steven is actually a farmer, and a very good one at that,” she says.
Lauren says she is aware of the power of energy in the creative process. “I always try to make sure I have a calm mind and heart before I start making jewelry, and that I let go of any negative energies I am holding onto… A happy jeweler makes for happy jewelry!”
While her work has primarily focused on women’s jewelry, she hopes to release soon a new line for men. She emphasizes, however, that she can design anything anyone might want. “We always welcome and encourage custom designs, and love having clients come to us with different antiques or family relics to incorporate into one-of-a-kind rings and other jewelry.”
In summing up the career she loves, Lauren says, “To help make someone feel beautiful, even with something as simple as a piece of jewelry, is a gracious and humbling feeling.”
You can find Lauren’s jewelry at the Grove Arcade’s Portico Market, depending on the weather (see her website for current hours). Her work can also be seen at Asheville Yoga Boutique and Wake Foot Sanctuary & Spa, and by appointment at her studio and office in the Haywood Park Building. To learn more, visit foxandbeaux.com. (Photo of the artist by Paul M. Howey)
