Hello & Well-Met!

My name is Alexandria Sun, but you can call me Sunny.

I am a Queer, Neurodivergent, Chinese American, accepting she/they pronouns. I grew up JerseyFresh and I believe that Central New Jersey exists, and I will not tolerate any out-of-state slander! I am a biologist by training, but an artist by blood sweat and tears. I self identify as an informational omnivore, meaning I know a little bit about a lot of things. Which is good for trivia games, but bad for surviving late stage capitalism.

Like many little girls growing up I played a lot with beading kits, friendship bracelets, DIY accessories. I always loved the idea of custom and bespoke jewelry, so when I knew I was getting engaged in 2022 I took it upon myself to design my own engagement rings. I brought my ideas and sketches to local jewelers, and by the end of the experience I thought to myself "I bet I could do that". Queer and ADHD audacity at it's finest (and most dangerous). This quickly escalated to taking silver classes, cabochon classes, faceting classes, CAD classes. But it wasn't until I realized that I wasn't getting bored of it, that it became the start of something new *cue music*.

I continued taking classes and working on small pieces that I could make by hand at home until I lost my full time job in spring of 2025. At that point I had already wanted to set up a home studio and with my husband's support I bit the bullet and bought my own faceting machine and jewelry bench. Now I work on pieces from a limited home studio which I am hoping to continue fortifying with additional equipment as I am able.

While jewelry & lapidary (aka gem cutting) is the primary business of SunnyAmpersand, like many ADHDers I dabble quite a bit in the making of many things which will occasionally be available under "&More". I started this business in the hopes that what brings me joy, will bring you joy as well. Your continued support makes this possible.

What's in a name?