When looking at pieces created by Abacus Row‘s Christine Trac, it’s hard to imagine how she makes her gorgeous jewelry in a designated space at home. Her delicate line of gold and silk cord jewelry is designed and crafted at her dining room table and in her spare bedroom. Christine and her fiancé, Devon Turner, have made themselves a peaceful, beautiful home in San Francisco, CA that can accommodate daily life, Christine’s business and overnight guests. Their sun-filled studio space has allowed Abacus Row to grow so much bigger than Christine and Devon could have ever imagined.
Christine made the transition from Olympia, WA to San Francisco four years ago to move in with Devon. She was unable to find a job in her previous field of environmental conservation and ethnographic research. “I didn’t have any intentions of starting a business. Employment opportunities for positions that seemed more in-line with my background weren’t materializing, so I made a handful of decisions that led me back to some of my more natural strengths. A little over a year after moving to San Francisco, I launched Abacus Row,” Christine says. “Abacus Row reflects my minimalist aesthetic and my attention to detail. My work balances bold colors and materials in delicate proportions to create refined and understated jewelry.” Her minimalist aesthetic is also seen in her workspace.
Christine and Devon’s architecturally detailed space sets the perfect backdrop for their minimal, modern furniture. Light-colored walls in the dining room workspace highlight the form and design of the solid wood furniture. The wooden ledge in the studio/guest room is functional and visually lifting. “The transformation of our space is both a gradual and a continuous process,” Christine says. “Making space for the studio is only a relatively recent development. My work was mostly contained in the dining area of our home and I have worked in a million different ways with storage and obsessive organization to make that possible. As the business has grown, my work has started to take up more physical space in our home, which led us to reworking our guest room into a space that could still host guests (neither of us are from this area, so we love houseguests), but would also allow for me to work out of [it].” In peeking into Christine and Devon’s airy and inspiring space, it’s no surprise that her incredibly crafted necklaces, bracelets and earrings are made right in the midst of it. Beautiful things come out of beautiful spaces. – Lauren
Photography by Monica Semergiu
The Interior Design Diva 