May 8, 2007
Darien woman turns her creativity into a business
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When Elise Young’s daughter graduated cum laude from Wellesley College in 2005, she designed a one-of-a-kind necklace to commemorate the event. She never thought the gift would lead to a new business venture.
“I just wanted to do something very specific that she could use forever,” said Young, a Darien resident. “I want these things to exist and didn’t care beyond that.”
But the necklace manufacturer did. In fact, they liked the piece of jewelry so much they suggested Young have the design patented, something she is in the process of doing.
Young is also busy designing new pieces for her newly-formed company, Young at Heart, and for Paragon Lake, a start-up company founded by Matt Lauzon, her daughter’s boyfriend, and Jason Reuben. Paragon Lake makes the jewelry she designs as well.
She has already designed a necklace for herself and a music-inspired bracelet for a college professor’s wife and is currently working on a bracelet for cancer survivors. The plain gold band will be inscribed with the year of an individual’s diagnosis and have room to attach one stone ring to represent each year of survival.
This bracelet is especially meaningful to Young, who was diagnosed with gastric cancer in 2000, and has since had very little energy or time when she is well.
“For me, this is a wonderful ability to express my designs,” Young said. “Because it’s scalable or small, I can take it with me.”
That is something she could not do painting furniture or creating murals, which often required her to climb up on scaffolding. And murals is what brought Young to Darien from Vermont, where she was living with her now ex-husband and daughter.
“I came to do a program on wall treatments and murals at the DCA,” said Young, who earned a degree in design and environmental analysis from Cornell University. “The plan was to be down here for three weeks, but I never left.”
As a single mother of a 1 1/2-year-old, Young knew she needed to find a job that allowed her to work from home and make money. She found that flexibility working for a Greenwich-based interior designer, doing everything from wall treatments and murals to making quilts and painting furniture. She also did projects for the U.S. Ski Team and Post 53 and taught a gingerbread house making class at a local store.
“I worked with anyone who would talk to me,” Young said. “I made my life work out.”
Her life took yet another turn in 1992, when she married her current husband, David Young. After that, she stopped painting to focus her energy on raising five children — her daughter, her son with David and three stepchildren.
Although she it is in a different artistry, Young is excited to reconnect with her creative side.
“I think designing is something that translates,” she said. “If you’re a designer, you’re a designer. It’s the way you express yourself. So it’s not unusual for people to express themselves in different mediums.”
This is the first time Young has designed jewelry and it is her first foray into anything commercial. She plans to market her services toward college students and their parents.
“For me, right now, in order to make the patent take off I need to start with the schools and keep things at a good price point,” said Young, noting that she will design pieces for anyone who contacts her.
Whoever she designs for, Young said her goal is to create pieces that are meaningful, yet simple.
“It’s nice to have something that means something to you, but doesn’t scream it,” she said.
Achieving that balance sometimes takes Young a while and other times the process is a quick one.
“I talk and listen to the client to get an idea of who they are and then I start playing with different ideas,” said Young, who draws her designs out by hand on a sketch book before scanning it into the computer and sending it off to the manufacturer. “Sometimes it can be a little hard, but generally things don’t go that way. Things usually just come together.”
So far, her designs have won some praise, boosting her confidence that her latest endeavor is the right one.
“I’ve been into stores and gotten very positive reactions,” Young said. “I never say I designed it, but it makes me feel good that I made something someone else likes. So hopefully I can get things going.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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