E:If someone didn’t know who you were or what you did, what would you say?
D:I make 3D-printed wearables- from jewelry to costumes, things that can’t really be produced any other way. It’s very fast, and I try to make it super playful.
I take a lot of inspiration from nature and anything that’s a little out of this world.
E:Tell me more about the jewelry brand.
D:It started with making jewelry to go out and party.
That’s how you get people to notice you, and then you get more jobs and make more friends.
I recently did a piece for Zara Larsson … they’re kind of blowing up.
E:Creative work in New York, can have really high highs and crushing lows. What have they taught you?
D:You can have the biggest job ever and be working nonstop, and you’re like “Oh my God, I’m so tired. I don’t know if I can do it. This is so hard.”
And then you crave that. That’s all you want.
Then when you have these lows, you’re like “Oh my God.” It feels like the Charli XCX album, honestly. One minute you’re like “I’m the worst,” and the next second you’re like “Fuck, I’m better.”
It’s just so fast.
A lot of things might pass you by. Someone might say “We want you to do this big name. This is going to be so sick,” and then it doesn’t go through. You can’t let it defeat you.
You have to think “At least they called me. I just have to be ready and better for the next time they call me.”
E:Do you have any advice for creatives?
D:Make sure your priorities are straight. Make sure you have good-ass friends who inspire you every day, who you want to be like, and who bring up your average.
I like being around people that you want to be like because every day you want to be better like them.
Keep making work, even if it sucks. Keep posting on Instagram, even if it sucks.
There’s so much shit that I’ve posted and done that sucked. My first pair of shoes didn’t even fit. They would all crush because I had them pushed out at the neck and they would just collapse under the pressure of the weight. I almost killed a girl.
But whatever. I learned a lot.
E:What does your artistic evolution look like at this point?
D:I feel like I’m my next Pokémon.
This is all I wanted. This is all I dreamed and begged for. This is where I am right now, and now it’s like “What now?”
I’m so excited for the future because my options are limitless. I’ll decide by how hard I work, who I surround myself with, what I create and what I choose to do with my time.
It’s inspiring because once you do something big and you’re like “Wow, I got what I wanted,” you know for the rest of your life that you can do that again.
If I wanted to go be a rocket scientist, I could do that. If I wanted to go get an architecture degree, I could do that. I don’t know.