Meet Tory Pittarelli of Mischief Collective in Edgewater

Tory, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
The Mischief Collective began as music, art, style, and travel blog, and the idea was always to give it the freedom to shapeshift. I was traveling around the country, writing for music festivals, making clothing and art, taking photos, you name it. The idea behind The Mischief Collective is that collaboration will get you farther than working alone. For a long time, I used Mischief as a platform to promote other people’s artwork, showcase the writing and photography of others, and so on. Eventually,

In 2013 I started playing around with simple jewelry making and quickly fell in love. Since then, I’ve maintained a focus on jewelry. After learning the hard way that teaching yourself to silversmith is expensive and frustrating, I took a few workshops at the Denver School of Metal Arts and took off running. I now run The Mischief Collective out of my home studio, making mainly statement jewelry, custom designs, and small-batch collections of my designs. Though the Mischief Collective is primarily a one-woman designed jewelry brand, it would be nothing without the help and support and input of my friends. The original idea remains intact- success is better with collaboration.

Has it been a smooth road?
As I like to say- It’s hard out there. In some ways, every day it gets harder and harder to make a living as an artist. The temptation to just give up and get “a real job” will probably always be sitting somewhere in the dark corners of my mind. Self-promotion has always felt a little slimy to me, and it took a long time for me to get over that. I’ve found that most of the time I’m feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or scared, it’s because of my own mindset. There have been a few times where I’ve been in tears and thought I wasn’t going to be able to keep going. My best friend has a particularly good knack for dragging me out of that by brainstorming and consulting with me on creative ways to get things back on track. With her help, I learned that giving back to charity and engaging my audience in philanthropic campaigns, in turn, accelerated my own business and left me feeling inspired and full-hearted. When I’m having problems overcoming my own fears, its a real mindset shift to take a step back and focus on larger issues. Suddenly your “problems” can feel like things you might actually want to be grateful for. She actually started her own consulting firm, Level, around this idea.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with The Mischief Collective – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I’m known for making one-of-a-kind sterling silver jewelry. My jewelry is gemstone-centric, the stone is usually the focus of the design. I love doing custom design work. I have found that one of my greatest joys in what I do is to help a client find a stone that has meaning to them, then make it into something they can wear everyday. My friends and clients tend to be huge music-lovers, so my most proud moments are when I look around me in a crowd and notice that most of the people around me are wearing something I made them. It’s the best feeling. I’ve also been making a lot of wedding jewelry lately- like bolo sets for a groom’s party, or earring sets for bridesmaids, jewelry for the bride, etc. It’s incredibly moving to see someone wearing your work on their big day.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Denver is a great city to live in if you make art. It’s a great city to live in if you don’t make art too, but there’s a thriving “scene” here. As I mentioned, my clients tend to be music-lovers, and there’s always tons of live music in Denver. This culture has been a huge part of how the business has grown. I’m also very grateful that I have a silver supply store in my neighborhood. Lots of designers who do what I do have to order their materials online, which comes with serious delays if you don’t plan correctly.