Scosha Loves — Catherine Costanza

March 23, 2018

- Amina Smith, Store Associate 

 Tell us about Catherine Rising. How did your business begin and what inspired the name "Catherine Rising?"

My business began about 7 years ago.  I was living in Brooklyn and working for a designer, Erica Bradbury (of Species by the Thousands). She was opening her store in Williamsburg, and we were making dream catchers and wall hangings for display.  Customers wanted to buy them, and other stores wanted to carry them, and it kind of grew from there!  

Rising initially came from this dream my dad had about this man named Anima Jacob Rising who wanted to buy his truck (?!) Strange, I know, but I thought his name was so beautiful and I felt like I had this connection to him, so I took his last name.  As the brand has developed though, the meaning of the word has grown for me.  I am interested in the expression of the word rising and have shifted the mission of the brand to help support the growth of other women makers and farmers here Upstate.  

Why did you decide to move out of the city and to Upstate NY? Has living upstate influenced your work in any way? 

I met my partner in Brooklyn. We lived in the city, did long distance, and traveled for a few years before moving to Rochester, NY where his family has a business.  I love living here.  For me, it is a simpler and easier way of life.  We live in a beautiful old home in the city but are close to parks, the lake, and farm country.  The fact that it’s so inexpensive to live here really allows creatives to be free, to experiment, to collaborate, and have fun without worrying about expenses.  People are really community-based here as well.  Living upstate has allowed me to work with other women who are doing amazing things like raising goats and bees organically and quitting their day jobs to open flower farms.   

 You work a lot with Sage and Palo Santo, do you believe in their spiritual as well as medical properties? 

I really do.  I think they are so powerful.  I am so honored to have connections with the farmers who harvest our Palo Santo in Ecuador, and the woman who grows our sage in California.  I burn them every day.  

 An artist that inspires your work? 

 I studied painting at Pratt Institute.  There was a class called Light, Color, and Design, and I was so obsessed with it, that I took it 3 times. I design with the principals of that class and my Fine Arts education in the back of my mind.  I also look at art and think about art as much as possible.  We have a museum here in Rochester that has an amazing collection.  There is a huge Helen Frankenthaler there that I am obsessed with.  I also just stopped into a gallery in Vergennes, VT last weekend called Northern Daughters.  Their current show is paintings by Hannah Secord Wade and I can't stop thinking about them.  

 What is your favorite Scosha piece? 

So many!  But I'd have to say the Lolli Ring in Gold with Diamonds.  A Scosha classic!!

 Check out more of Catherine at www.catherinerising.com and @catherinerising!