Profile: No Regrets
Page Sargisson ’93 left a comfortable corporate job to forge an artistic path as a jewelry designer.
Ashley Festa
Imagine a biotech and healthcare communications professional – with clients such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – selling handmade jewelry out of her desk drawer. That was the life of Page Sargisson ’93. But she left her comfortable, secure corporate job 15 years ago to follow an artistic path she forged for herself.
“I was making good money, but it wasn’t creative at all,” says Sargisson. “I did lots of crafts at home like knitting and making jewelry. I made necklaces for myself, and people at work started asking if they could buy things from me. Before I knew it, I had a side business. I’d open a drawer, and all these necklaces would be there.”
When her father became terminally ill, Sargisson moved from San Francisco to Manhattan to be closer to him. After his death, she reevaluated her career path and left the corporate life for good, abandoning her six-figure salary for the creative unknown. She hasn’t regretted it. Despite not having a business plan, or really any business experience at all (she majored in Italian literature and art history at Brown University), Sargisson held trunk shows at people’s homes and found her way into retail stores and a designers’ market that sold handmade goods on weekends. She broke into trade shows (which were very competitive at the time), where some distributors representing American jewelry designers in Japan discovered her talent.
Today, she’s in Brooklyn selling high-end jewelry in 26 states, Washington, D.C., Japan, and Canada, plus online stores in China and Barbados. She has three employees – “All women, which I love.” – but Sargisson still does all the hand carving herself, fashioning unique pieces that can’t be mass-produced. Sargisson enjoys recycling beauty from one medium to another, like imprinting gold with Indian woodblocks or a vintage letterpress. “There’s beauty everywhere; patterns and textures,” she says. “I love capturing that and transferring it to a piece of jewelry.”
In mid-2018, a mutual friend connected Sargisson with Louisa Schneider, the founder and CEO of Rowan, a company that offers monthly earring subscriptions for girls. Schneider had not yet launched the company, but needed a designer and consultant with a playful aesthetic who understood the jewelry-making process. “Page is a breath of fresh air,” Schneider says. “She’s creative and fun, and she stays true to the brand. She has a vision for what she’s creating.”
Sargisson enjoys her partnership with Rowan because it’s a different creative outlet. “It’s fun to be part of a team without being the boss,” she says. “I work for myself, so if I want to grow, I can’t apply for a new job in my company. Rowan is something I can do while maintaining my own business.”
Looking to the future, Sargisson hopes to open a retail storefront in Boerum Hill in Brooklyn to be more accessible to clients who want to shop locally. And, while she loves running her business, it’s the artistry that is her true passion. “I could stay in my studio all day,” she says. “Creating things makes me so happy.”