F. This.

Behind The Bling With Local Jewelry Outfit F. Is For Frank.

F. is for Frank is the handmade jewelry line brainchild of Shoshannah Frank and her business partner Casey Melton.

Frank started making jewelry in high school and continued doing so through college before she officially launched F. is for Frank in 2007. Because of the passion showcased in her younger years what was originally planned as a housewear and fixtures business evolved into a full-on jewelry business in 2009.

“I would occasionally make things for myself and friends,” Frank tells us. “People would always ask 'Where did you get that?' So we kinda started [doing jewelry] as a fluke. And now it's the main thing we do.”

While Frank and Melton don't sell their wares at many stores around town aside from a few pieces available at We Are 1976 and The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, they do have a thriving online business.

Plus, a number of outlets around the country have picked up their line after checking out their collection exhibits at the various trade shows that they attend every year. Among those entities shilling F. is For Frank bling? The Getty Museum in Los Angeles. And that's pretty major.

Recently, I had the chance to swing by the studio and sit down with Frank to chat about her business.

First of all, where did the name come from? Is it just your last name?
Yeah. [Laughs.] That makes it a blessing and a curse because it makes people ask. But sometimes people have a hard time understanding me when I'm telling them my email address over the phone.

Yeah I could see how saying “fisforfrank.com” might be a bit of a tongue twister. What would you say your inspiration is?
I would say a lot of nature and architecture. And also my friends, like what they want or think is cool. The fox and the bunny masks were all for my friends Holly and Jen, and they happen to be one of our best sellers.

Speaking of friends: What role does Casey have in the company?
We both do everything. It's all a collaboration — everything from the designing, making, marketing and trade shows.

So what was the discussion behind the new collection y'all just brought to market? I saw the rope pieces and love those!
Well, we started with a lot of ideas, and ended up breaking it down into the strongest ones. I had wanted to do some knot things for a while and it just happen to work in with our other ideas this time. I was also reading a lot of The Hunger Games at the time.

Ha! That's awesome!
They're actually three collections that initially weren't related to each other. One was the rope collection. Another was inspired by the St. Louis arch. For the third, we used miniatures. But we wanted them to speak to each other, so there is [a design aspect] of each one in all of the collections.

Do you continue to sell your older collections as well?
Yes, but this year we discontinued a lot of things and that's why we have a big sale on our website right now. It's the things we have left but will never make again. So, once it's gone, it's gone.

So do you sculpt, make the molds and cast everything yourself?
Yes. We do it all in house. But it's really three different techniques we use. We sculpt, use found objects and use a fabrication technique. The only thing we don't do is the plating.

At the moment, Frank is busy filling her orders from this year's trade show schedule and from online orders. You can check out her work in motion to the right and the full collection online here.