Jill’s career as a jewelry designer started when she was 3 years old. Forbidden to have pierced ears, she craftily resorted to gluing beads to her ears. The daughter of two designers, you could say she has design in her blood. You could also say she crossed an ocean to find it. While her design education from Cornell and Pratt gave her discipline, it was her travels through Europe in her early 20s that ignited her passion. Her love for shopping led her to bead stores, and her talent for putting them together in unique ways found her her first admirers as she traveled on trains. It was then she realized that she could be making money to buy her an extra day in Europe. That extra day turned into a year, and Elements/Jill Schwartz was born.