"You ain't gone put no earrings on?"
The words my mother said every time we walked toward the door. Not a suggestion. A standard.
Iris Yvette Leasure 1965–2007
Her friends still say the same thing when they talk about her: "Your mom loved her girls. Her whole life was about her girls."
She was creative. She was intentional. She was the kind of woman who didn't tell you to put your earrings on; she'd look at you sideways and say, "You don't want to put some earrings on before you leave?" And you knew what that meant. It meant show up for yourself. It meant you don't walk into the world unprepared. It meant you matter enough to take that extra moment.
She encouraged everything I ever created: painting, drawing, beading, writing. She saw the artist in me before I could see it in myself. She nurtured my curiosity and always encouraged my creativity.
When she passed from bladder cancer in 2007, I was seventeen years old.
I stopped creating. For a long time, I didn't make anything at all. I used every vice I could find to numb the pain instead of facing it.
And for years, that's how I carried my grief... by not carrying it. By hiding from it.
But you can only run from someone's love for so long before it catches up with you.
I didn't start Iris Studio Jewelry because someone told me to. I started it because I needed to share my mother with the world.
I picked up polymer clay and started sculpting earrings by hand, not because I had a business plan, but because jewelry was one of the things she loved the most. And creativity was the thing she always saw in me. Those two things, her love of jewelry and the artist she raised me to be, became the foundation for everything.
I named this business after her. Because as long as we keep saying someone's name, they never really die.
ISJ didn't start with a strategy. It started with grief, a mother's wisdom, and a pair of earrings. It became a love letter... to her, to Black women, to every woman who's been told to shrink but chose to show up anyway.
She's Still Drawing People In.
At every market I do, her photo is at my booth. People stop and ask, "Who is the woman in the picture?" Some tell me they walked over because her face caught their attention — her warmth, her beauty, her presence.
Eighteen years later, she's still making an impact.
That's the kind of woman she was. And that's the kind of legacy this business is built on.
This business is about saying a name that never dies.
It's about honoring our loved ones, dead and alive, through the things we put on our bodies. It's about healing grief through creative expression. It's about women's empowerment and the radical act of getting dressed with intention. It's about jewelry as heirlooms, not accessories. It's about storytelling... yours, mine, my mother's.
Every piece I hand-sculpt carries her spirit. Every earring is shaped by the belief that we deserve to feel beautiful, powerful, and prepared for whatever life brings.
That's what "Wear Your Story" means.
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CULTURE
Black luxury meets artistic intention. Sacred, warm, rooted in who we are and where we come from.
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CONFIDENCE
Empowerment through adornment. The belief that how you show up for yourself matters.
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CONNECTION
Legacy preservation. Storytelling. Community. The thread that ties a mother's wisdom to a daughter's purpose.
In loving memory of Iris Leasure.
Mom, I'm still saying your name. 💜