Astali

ASTALI jewelry is designed and hand-made by Los Angeles-based artist, Shannon Astali DeJong. Since her childhood in rural Iowa, she has been collecting discarded objects and crafting them into something new. She would often rescue materials from the waste basket and use them to fashion ornate gifts. Early projects included popsicle stick jewelry boxes and elaborate playhouses for her guinea pig. She eventually began to customize jewelry and would find ways to turn just about anything into an adornment.

Music has always played a big role in Shannon’s life. She was classically trained in violin and viola from the age of 3. Her grandmother would tell tales of great concert halls and classical virtuosity. Shannon instead dreamed of playing her violin in a rock band out West. In 1997, she threw everything she owned into her car and moved to Los Angeles. Within a week of arriving, she was already playing with a local rock band and performed her first gig.

During the day, Shannon spent time cultivating her passion for jewelry design. She worked behind the scenes for many successful L.A. jewelry designers. She worked her way from production, to sample-making, to design, and then onto management of both design and production teams. She always kept a home studio to refine her skills and design concepts. Her double life as a designer-by-day and rocker-by-night culminated in the birth of a line attributed to an alter-ego she named Jack Astali. As the line evolved, its subversive, rebellious nature emerged. Hallmarks of ASTALI designs include rugged and unexpected materials – spent bullet casings, used guitar strings, snake vertebrae, buffalo teeth, vintage transit tokens, antique keys, and much more.

ASTALI became a full-time endeavor when Shannon moved to New York in the Fall of 2008. After establishing her brand for 3 years on the East Coast, she has returned “home” to Los Angeles to build on that momentum from sunny California. When she isn’t making jewelry, Shannon spends a great deal of time doting on her brood of chinchillas, trying to understand why they do what they do.