Long before Jessica Rangel made jewelry, she collected rocks, mesmerized by the texture of each stone. As a child she always had a rock in hand, which is nearly still true today.
As an adult, Rangel remembers shopping for jewelry but never finding exactly what she wanted to wear. Rather than settling for store-bought pieces, she activated her creativity and fused it with her fascination with rocks.
Earlobe makeover
For a look at Jessica Rangel’s current designs, visit copperandstone.art and be the first to see new collections drop on Instagram @copper.and.stone. Reach out to the jeweler with queries by emailing jessica@copperandstone.art.
“My husband turned me loose. I had the stones at home, and he gave me a bunch of his electrical wire, which was copper, and a hammer,” Rangel told the Sun. “He just said, ‘See what you can do.’”
That was around 2015, and for the next five years, Rangel made earrings for herself and gifted them to others. Stones were always the star of the show.
She enjoyed making jewelry as a hobby, a “creative escape,” until 2020 when she suddenly had a lot more free time to play with. Rangel launched an Instagram page showcasing a collection that sold out immediately.
“That was kind of when I knew, ‘OK, I’m going to make this happen. This is going to be what I do,” the jeweler said. “This was kind of a way for me to continue feeding into that childhood love of collecting stones, but now I can share it with people.”
Through her business, Copper and Stone, Rangel sells earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, and anklets online. The necklaces are made with gems and beads, but most earrings are dangly, featuring stones or metalwork in the center. Designing earrings is Rangel’s true passion.
“My favorite thing in the whole world is to make other people feel good about themselves,” she said about her work.
She makes her jewelry on a cyclical timeline, but every January there’s a transition phase when business lulls after the holidays. The jeweler works on building new prototypes to test, making sure they’re structurally strong enough to wear.
In February, her normal schedule will resume for the rest of the year. Three weeks out of every month are dedicated to crafting a certain collection, usually with a theme, like the upcoming celestial collection. Rangel normally makes around 75 pairs for each collection. Depending on the complexity, she might spend a few hours or up to a few days working on each pair.
Rangel will then use the last week of the month for shipping the orders (the farthest to date was Australia) and resetting her workspace, a studio built by her husband in their Casmalia home.
Completely self-taught, she saws, hammers, solders, and assembles everything inside her workshop. She sources stones from local lapidary artists and recycled copper from electrical projects her husband works on.
“Once I started expanding the designs I wanted to do, it grew into having a torch and a whole soldering station, a Dremel for polishing, a tumbler so that I can also harden the pieces that I make,” Rangel said.
One of her goals is to connect with other small businesses that might carry her jewelry in their stores. Such retail outlets would work for her classic triangle and hoop earrings because they can easily be re-created, but the stone earrings would be more complicated. Most of the patterns in the stones are one of a kind.
“I want people, especially women, to feel beautiful and confident just as they are. So I think when I get to work with natural stones that are just so incredibly beautiful, and it’s all natural, it’s like a nudge to step out feeling bold and beautiful and confident about yourself,” Rangel said.
When she appears at makers markets, her message shines even more clearly. Though it’s challenging to set up and take down a pop-up display, the personal connections with customers are worth it.
She’s sold her wares at markets in Santa Barbara and Orcutt and up to San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles. For now, her schedule is open, and she’s also looking to pursue new locations this year.
“What I get to do is such a privilege, and it’s so fulfilling to me personally because I’ve always been an artist, creative type,” Rangel said. “I just really count it as a privilege to get to do this every day and share what I love with others.”
Staff Writer Madison White also admires stones. Reach her at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in January 15 – January 22, 2026.