The Art of Becoming.
Cristen René started creating as a girl in a small Texas town, where the bare essentials taught her to find treasure in what was already in front of her. In college, at age 19, she walked through the Renaissance Art Market daily on the way to class. She was intrigued by the makers. As the holidays approached she started thinking about gifts to give. In classic college kid style, she was low on funds, so she began to apprentice with one of the jewelers in the market to create her own pieces. He taught her the basics of hand fabrication. They worked side by side for weeks and became dear friends. Her career in jewelry design sparked there. As people viewed his jewelry they began asking to purchase her pieces that were piled up on the side as gifts for friends and family. It clicked, she had stumbled upon a craft that fed her spirit and her bank account. She never looked back.
Her twenties were a passport. She created the pieces. Sold them. Dropped the money in savings. Booked a ticket somewhere new. Roamed freely around the world for several years. Explored cities she had only read about, but always returned to her roots in Austin. She went home with stones, found objects, and a head full of color. She did it again. And again.
A chapter in Australia ignited her love for holistic living, then another in Athens Georgia deepened her yoga practice, naturopathic studies and understanding of world religion. All the while she was designing, creating and pouring her learnings into the art. The pieces began to carry more than form. They held something deeper for the person who found them.
In 2010 there was a rich East Austin moment. Alongside a few local jewelry designers, Cristen opened a design and retail space on East 11th called René Guest Jewelry. It gave the artists a place to create together and the work a public room for Austin to shop. They hosted beautiful events, worked into the wee hours of the morning in production... danced in between and embraced the connection to the vibrant creative Austin community. With the news of her first pregnancy things began to shift. Several months after the birth, she closed the René Guest Space and moved back into the home studio. Her son came along soon after. The studio learned to live where she lived.
As the kids grew, they needed space. Alongside her partner and Father, Cristen bought and renovated a vintage airstream. It served as her creative space on wheels and quickly expanded into a traveling art collective called Sunstream Goods. It popped up at the most happening spots in Austin, then she and the family took it on a West Coast tour. Sunstream Goods partnered with swanky boutique hotels and hip restaurants for pop-ups. The kids roam-schooled, the family rested in national parks and the art collective shared work from over 35 artists’ work along the way, it was a creative dream on wheels.
After settling in Ojai California, The Visions Collection was born. The energy of that valley shifted the symbolism in her work dramatically. Cristen bought a flower shop and opened the second version of Sunstream Goods in the garden, where she hosted women's events, sold flowers and an incredible array of artisan goods. Life continued to transform her and her family.
In 2021, her family returned to Austin, Texas and there her third child was born, then fourth soon after. Cristen’s focus shifted to mothering her children and creative energy went into her family’s new home. Mini-collections came here and there, a couple holiday open studios. One of a kind pieces. Pottery. A mural. The bass guitar. Drawing. Journaling at first light. She made for the love of it, while the babies grew and her older two moved into adolescence.
This past year begins the story of a new chapter. The cocoon gave space for dreaming like a child, reflecting on the path that led her here. Slowly and intentionally, Architect of the Wild has come to life. This is the first body of work Cristen is releasing as a house. Twenty-five years of practice gathered into one full expression. Wedding the structure and the flow. The disciplined and the free, in the same hand. It is massive, layered and meant to keep creating. She has been moving toward this without quite knowing it the whole time.
Everything she makes is finished by hand, between Los Angeles and Austin, with stones she has chosen one at a time and metals she sources from somewhere honest. A portion of every piece goes to a service partner she selects each year. The collection is part of a larger body of giving.
When a piece finds its person, the hope is that it feels like a homecoming. To something already true inside the wearer. A reminder of who they are and are becoming in that moment.
