Faith Oftadeh has landed in Paris.
The 38-year-old, a mother of two, flew from Los Angeles to invest in her passion. While her day job is at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, Calif., off duty she’s been making jewelry.
“It’s really been through word of mouth,” she said of her growing business, Yara Sophia, which is named after her four-year-old daughter (her son is one).
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It began as a hobby, an urge to create amid the pandemic. Often wearing her own designs, she’d get asked about the pieces, gift them to friends and began attracting a clientele. By 2021 she saw traction on Instagram, where she’d post her work and get international orders via DM. “I winged it.”
The trip to France is for NouvelleBox, a by-appointment, pop-up showroom curated by Valery Demure in the capital’s 8th arrondissement through Oct. 3. Oftadeh has been expanding the brand, adding categories with earrings and pendants — all by hand, herself — as she begins to work with a wholesaler in L.A. for the first time. At NouvelleBox, she sees it as a chance to meet with buyers and editors during Paris Fashion Week as she unveils her newest collection: Beauty in the Universe.
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“I have pieces that look similar to what Enceladus would look like,” she said of the Saturn moon, discussing the line. She specializes in rings, taking custom orders at yarasophia.com. “Or what Europa would look like.”
Europa, which orbits Jupiter, has been on her mind; JPL is building the Europa Clipper, a spacecraft expected to launch next year to investigate whether conditions are suitable for life.
“So, there’s blues and browns and greens, and there’s sort of this pattern that’s reminiscent of planets,” she went on.
Using 14- and 18-karat yellow gold, Oftadeh works with diamonds and other gemstones sourced globally. Recently, she’s been gravitating toward moldavite, which comes from a meteorite.
“It’s a green stone,” she said. “It’s really rare. I’ve been using it a lot lately. That’s sort of a new direction I’m going in.”
Oftadeh has a clear brand DNA; she leaves her touch on every piece, forming a galactic, organic look and feel.
“I look at the stuff every day,” she said of the solar system. “I’m not really working hard to find these images. I’m just always seeing it, you know, walking down the halls to go to my office.”
She been at JPL for nearly a decade, currently working as strategic communication director for the office of technology, infusion and strategy. Her projects include the CADRE mission, which is heading to the moon.
“It’s always in my peripheral, so it’s not something that I seek to find,” she continued. “And that’s probably why I don’t put it on my wall. It’s so ingrained in my mind.”
She’s referring to the mood board in her home atelier. It’s a display of food still life imagery — stacked apples, a coconut, an open lychee — and sea life.
She’s attracted to the natural world’s “irregularities,” she said: “It’s what is truly beautiful. It’s from Earth and I love — I’m just so, so, so interested in that. There’s this beautiful art to the way food looks, fruits and vegetables.”
With a laugh, she added, “I’m the sucker who wants to buy the box of all really bad looking fruits and vegetables.”