Our small but successful business has developed a line of fashion handbags crocheted from recycled aluminum that sell internationally through over 300 outlets including the New York Museum of Modern Art. The success of the venture has enabled an ever-growing group of artists to have steady employment; there are now three groups employing over 100 artists in Brazil.

EDUCATION | BA Ohio State University in Chinese Language.

HOW TO GET STARTED | A business -- any business is relentless, it's like waking up every morning to the plant in the 'Little Shop of Horrors' "Feed Me"! Like what you are doing and believe in it.

MUST HAVE TRAITS | Empathy, persistence, a belief in what you are doing. I developed marketing, selling skills from other jobs and I always had interest in making things and design. But the thing that has helped the business most are the character traits that Socorro and I have: persistence, adaptability, open mindedness, a sense of empathy for others. Producing products with artist cooperatives is not the same as producing products in a factory -- the relationship with everyone involved is very important.

how I got started | The reason why I started is entirely because of the product: I became hypnotized by the chainmail 'look' of metal and crochet. In regards to an 'eco - niche', in 2003 we didn't even know that there was a 'eco-friendly' product niche. I first discovered that this niche existed by visiting museum gift shops with some of our earliest prototypes. In regards to the Social Entrepreneur aspect: to get our product made we teamed up with two artist cooperatives in Brazil and from the very beginning Socorro (my partner) and I wanted to do something that could improve the lives of the artists.

why this job?| I love to make things. I love the look of these bags -- minimalist, metallic, edgy, strange. I also wanted to do something that could improve the lives of the artists

why I love this job!| Because it is more than just selling more and more units. There are now a group of over 100 artists working producing our products (when we started there were 12).

my typical day| Plowing through emails, orders, calls to Brazil about production and to customers around the US.

what they are | Consistency in our product can be a challenge. Our bags look great but when the product is done badly it looks terrible. Everything is done by hand, they are all the work of an individual. The same bag can end up looking dramatically different if we did not control the quality and consistency. We overcame this problem because I am able to communicate from San Francisco exactly what is needed to Socorro in Brazil through emails, Skype calls, digital photos that demonstrate 'this is what I want' and 'this is not what I want'. Socorro has excellent people skills and she is able to communicate all of this to the producers in a way that everyone understands 'here is the format, let's find a way together so that the products are uniformly great'. The artists have a great deal of pride in what they do and it's all come together really well. Estimating lead times can also be a problem. We have orders coming from all over the world and it's difficult to estimate the amount of time needed to fulfill on orders. We are still working to overcome this obstacle but we seem to have a solution -- an online production tool that will enable the cooperatives to update their daily production numbers. This enables everyone to know what has been completed, what's left to do. Developing new product lines that are compatible with our existing line can also present a challenge.

all about growth | I'm a small business owner -- if everything goes well this IS my career.

my website| http://www.escamastudio.com