Even though our shop lives in cyberspace, Blue Buddha strives to create an atmosphere that you would find at your favorite local bead or craft store. We believe that our meticulous attention to detail, combined enthusiasm and passion for what we do, means you are always satisfied with your purchases and ineractions with Blue Buddha Boutique.

Rebeca Mojica Artist, Instructor, and Owner Rebeca is responsible for developing new kits & instructions, designing jewelry, crunching lots of numbers, and setting goals and visions for the overall direction of the company. Not to mention the numerous other nuances of being a small business-owner. Being right- and left-brained, she loves it all! Rebeca Mojica is a an author, instructor and award-winning chainmaille artist. She is a contributing editor to Step by Step Wire Jewelry magazine and the author of an instructional jewelry book, Chained, due out in 2010 by North Light Books. A graduate from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, Rebeca worked in media relations and nonprofit development for seven years. She managed several of the most successful PR and fundraising campaigns ever for various businesses and nonprofits. Though her accomplishments made her happy, in the back of her head was a nagging feeling that she wanted "to do something with [her] hands." So she quit her job, spent a summer working at Interlochen Arts Camp, and then backpacked through a dozen European countries. After six months of travel and working odd jobs for room and board, she settled down and lived for a year as an au pair in Germany. While at a German Renaissance Faire, Rebeca saw several people wearing chainmaille belts. She couldn't find any place to buy them, so she decided to make one herself, thus awakening her passion. Today she knows more than 100 weaves, including a dozen of her own creation, and has a diverse portfolio of both upscale and accessible jewelry. She is the pre-eminent chainmaille instructor in the Midwest, and has taught students from around the world. In addition to teaching at Caravan Beads and Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago, Briolette Beads in Forest Park, and Ayla's Originals in Evanston, she has taught at the Bead&Button Show and has been a guest instructor for the Fashion Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Rebeca is a member of the Chicago Craft Mafia and Chicago Metal Arts Guild. Projects she's designed have appeared in Chain Mail Jewelry and 30 Minute Necklaces, both instructional books by Lark Publishing; Wirework 2010 magazine; Art Jewelry Magazine and Step by Step Wire Jewelry magazine. Her micromaille necklace Poseidon's Embrace was a 3rd place winner in the Finished Jewelry category of the international Bead Dreams 2009 competition—marking the first time a chainmaille design was juried into the finals. Her work has appeared on CLTV and in The Chicago Tribune and The New York Times. When she is not weaving maille or running the business, Rebeca enjoys cooking (especially baking bread ), learning languages, and contemplating quantum physics and fractal cosmology. Contact Rebeca at rebeca@bluebuddhaboutique.com. Read Rebeca's Artist Statement

Nadja Aller General Operations Manager Nadja keeps the staff on target to meet daily, weekly and monthly goals. She has spent a good chunk of time inputting data and tweaking our database so that our systems will be fully integrated. Her efficiency & down-to-earth brain is a good counterbalance to Rebeca's flurry of artsy ideas. Nadja joined B3 with a long history in retail but as a novice in chainmaille. She quickly immersed herself in the world of chainmaille and learned several weaves in her first month on the job. She spends her spare time dealing in vintage and antiques - mostly toys and electronics - but with a fair amount of of the fun stuff like clothing and home decor from the 30's to 50's as well. Nadja greatly enjoys constant reading, cartoons, music (particularly sad old country, western swing and rockabilly/psychobilly), martial arts films, gazing at the stars, collecting contemporary art and achieving perfect Paulette Goddard hair. She is also a fine cook and baker, a proud cat lady and knows way too much about Star Wars. Nadja is excited to be a part of the B3 team!

Aimee Leang Customer Service Specialist The friendly voice who answers most of our calls and helps you complete your phone orders belongs to Aimee. She helps fulfill orders, restock supplies, and ensures that customers are fully satisfied with their B3 experience. Aimee Leang's jewelry making obsession began at her first summer job working for Gallery 37's jewelry making program. After that Aimee's Mom gave her a set of tools and her creativity took off. Aimee is well versed in the skills of wire-wrapping, metalsmithing and lapidary. She still continues to take lessons and looks forward to increasing her awareness in the chainmaille arts. having an eye for detail Aimee enjoys helping out at B3 and is proud to be part of such an incredible team.

Jenna Deidel Social Branding Coordinator & Marketing Assistant Jenna maintains our social networking profiles, helps maintain our blog, and works hard to make sure the Blue Buddha brand shines through all our marketing materials. She also takes some of our Blue Buddha photographs—most recently having completed the step-by-step photos for Rebeca's upcoming book. Jenna moved to Chicago from Boulder, CO in 2003 in pursuit of a BA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago as well as a professional career in dance. Since then, she is proud to have earned both. She began dancing professionally with Chicago Tap Theatre in 2005 and has had the thrilling opportunity to perform for countless audiences here in Chicago as well as in Southern France and New York City. When she's not tap dancing, Jenna works an artist guide at the Museum of Contemporary Art and as a teaching artist in two third grade classrooms with Redmoon Theater's School Partnership Program. Jenna has loved becoming part of the chainmaille community with B3 and can't wait to meet you on Twitter and Facebook!

Emily Fiks Quality Controller, Order Processor Tens of thousands of rings pass through Emily's hands for quality control each day she's here, and she also helps pack many customer orders. Thanks to her efforts, we are able to ship most orders within one business day. Emily came to Blue Buddha as an inventory assistant in the summer of 2008. Originally arriving here nearly oblivious to chainmaille jewelry, Emily started to feel addicted after one class at Lillstreet. Although jewelry inventory seems to take up most of her spare time, a lot is spent in school full time. Currently Emily is pursing a degree in English at Northeastern Illinois University. After Northeastern, beauty school might be in sight. Besides school and work Emily loves vintage clothes—buying, wearing, sewing, and altering. She also loves animals, cooking, and 70s/80s punk and pop. Making jewelry has a special place in her heart.

Jennifer Hohe Inventory Coordinator and Weaver The monumental task of controlling inventory stock levels and overseeing quality control is in Jen's hands. She is responsible for managing many of the day-to-day procedures in the workshop. In addition to quality control, kit-assembly, and order packing, Jen helps keep our office running smoothly. She organizes our office, keeps us stocked with order supplies, and makes sure we never run out of tumbled rings. Jen is also one of the voices on the other end of the line who takes your orders and answers your inquiries. As if that weren't enough, she also weaves some of our production pieces. While pursuing her degree in Art at Northeastern Illinois University, Jen took a Metals class out of interest, immediately fell in love with the medium, and has since attained her BA in Small Metals/Jewelry. Jen is addicted to the painstaking, step-by-step processes involved in creating wearable pieces of art. In addition to making jewelry, Jen enjoys creating small-scale sculptures and two-dimensional framed metal "paintings". Her work is influenced by themes of nostalgia, emotion, and sentimentality. She hopes to one day have her own little space to sell her work.

Jason Scerena Quality Control Specialist Jason joined our team in October 2009 and is responsible for anodizing niobium and keeping our pre-bagged inventory well-stocked. Born not so long ago, in a land not too far away, Jason was drawn to the city of Chicago for it's rich culture and proximity to home. He attended the Illinois Institute of Art where her obtained a Bachelors of Fine Arts in digital media and animation. You will soon be able to see his work at JasonScerena.com. He has a variety of hobbies and interests which include shiny objects, painting miniatures, pretending, growing plants, comics, learning, yard sales, art, geology, mythology, funology. Being an avid game player and a fantasy aficionado, he was no stranger to chainmaille's protective capabilities, but was surprised that it had applications outside armour. He's proud to be a part of our growing team.

Vanessa Walilko Weaver & Instructor Vanessa teaches several classes a month and weaves many of the production pieces. Vanessa has been fiddling with her fingers since she was a kid, starting at the age of three with her first Lego kit. At the age of nine, she took a beaded jewelry class and her life was forever changed. She has been making beaded jewelry ever since, and launched Kali Butterfly in order to sell her own jewelry. She is a 2008 Gold Medal winner of the 2008 Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Annual Beading Contest, and two of her earlier designs were chosen as finalists in 2005 and 2007. Jewelry is Vanessa's life: she works as a production assistant for another Chicago jeweler when she is not crafting maille or her own beaded designs. She has been with Blue Buddha Boutique since May 2006. Contact Vanessa at vanessa@bluebuddhaboutique.com.

Erik Watson Shipping Specialist Erik is our shipping machine! He does a triple-check on orders as he packs them to make sure customers receive exactly what they ordered. He also creates all the shipping labels and sends shipping confirmations to our customers. Erik traveled to Columbus, Ohio to study illustration, then bounded off to San Francisco to study film. After four years of filmmaking in Los Angeles, Erik has returned to his hometown of Chicago as a freelance illustrator, keeping himself busy with screenwriting and post film production. His interests include reading books, making short films with friends and watching cartoons with his niece and three nephews. As a wearer and lover of handmade jewelry, Erik is very excited to be a part of the Blue Buddha team and is more than ready to process your orders!

Kathy (Kat) Wisniewski Instructor & Product Developer Kat teaches a few classes a month and develops innovative jewelry kits for B3. Kat has been making jewelry since she first beaded bracelets on a seed bead loom at age 13. She is an entirely self-taught jewelry artist with a wide range of design techniques. In 2005 she officially started her small home-based jewelry business and website under the name Elemental Art Jewelry and has since sold her work mostly at various local craft shows throughout the summers. Kat's main focus is chainmaille and wire designs using sterling, copper, semi-precious stones and glass beads. Contact Kat at kat@bluebuddhaboutique.com.

Zeddicus Zul Zorander Company Mascot Zed's antics never fail to make us laugh when things get hectic and stressful. As of spring 2010, you can find Zed hiding in all of our print advertisements.

"One must be a work of art, or wear a work of art."
--Oscar Wilde