Meet Ele Keats-Yates of SANTA MONICA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ele Keats-Yates.

Hi Ele, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Thanks for asking. So, I started designing jewelry in 2005 and it was really out of a necessity.
I was told I needed to wear an emerald for protection, for an intuitive reason and I went on a search to find the perfect, simple setting, which I couldn’t find and so I designed my own and it was really just a personal need that became a career.

People would stop me on the street and wanted to try on my necklace.
I was at a party and I had a girl ask me if she could buy it off of me in that moment and so I decided that I would make her one and hence a jewelry line was born.

So it started with just me futzing around with some pieces that I had, some vintage pieces, and kind of re-purposing them and creating unique things and then I got really, really into colored stones.

I was focused on emeralds, sapphires, and rubies and that’s where I began and that’s where the journey began.

I made a small collection and I went to a film set. Diane Keaton bought pieces for Lauren Graham, Piper Perabo, and Mandy Moore as wrap gifts on the film “Because I Said So.” That’s how that started, and that was pretty cool.

When Philip Seymour Hoffman won his Oscar, the next morning he went out to a store called, “Caviar and Kind” where I used to have my jewelry, and he bought my heart shaped ruby as a gift for his partner and that’s the beginning of my jewelry line.

I started really, wholesale.
I was in a shop in New York called “ABC Home and Carpet,” I was in stores in Japan, and then in 2013 I had the opportunity to open my own little boutique.

I started with a tiny little wall of crystals, which then has now grown, four moves later, into a 1,000-sq.-ft. beautiful store that is 50% jewelry and 50% crystals because of my absolute love, devotion, and connection to the gemstones and the crystals.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been the biggest learning curve of my entire life! Opening a store and learning how to navigate being a boss, a creative, a visionary, and having the discipline and business savvy sense.

I’ve learned more about myself and people and how to interact and care for them and for the higher good, and for my clients.

There has definitely been incredible challenges along the way. I can just say looking back over the past 12 years, I’ve grown in ways that I could never have imagined and I’m really, really grateful for the woman that I’ve become through this process.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
What I’ve been known for is my intuitive and creative connection to crystals and being able to connect clients with their perfect crystal companions. I’ve been called a crystal shepherd. I have a special deep connection with crystals that I’m extremely grateful for that continues to grow and blossom. I’m also known for placing large scale crystals in homes and in businesses.

We are currently working on a couple of very large scale projects with crystal furniture both on the East coast and Tucson. I have some projects in Las Vegas, as well as New York, and Los Angeles.

I am known for being able to place crystals in a creative and intuitive way to help people transform and uplift their home and personal as well as business life.

I have a dual profession because I’m also a fine jewelry designer and I work with the healing qualities of the gemstones, always honoring the beauty of the stone and it being about the gemstone or crystal itself.

I have a special connection to these incredible crystal geniuses and so I love to set stones with the utmost of care. The intention is really to uplift people in all ways, create something beautiful for them to wear, but it’s also a talisman that helps them and supports them in their lives.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Aww I love this question! Well, I’m a third culture kid. I was born in Paris, France and we lived between New York and Europe until I was twelve. We then ultimately ended up settling in Santa Monica.

As a kid I was flexible, resilient, I had to learn a language, German, being in a German boarding school and so I had to stretch myself as a little one. Not being able to speak English in boarding school, they would only let us speak German so I became so fluent that I was able to think in German which really just tapped in on a different part of my brain.
I was always very enthusiastic, some might say hyper, and some might say that I talked a lot (laughs), my mother would probably say that. My sister would probably say I was quite hyper.

I just had a lot of energy and excitement, but I was always, always very sensitive and very intuitive.
I really tapped deeper into that intuitive nature in my early ’20’s. I had a lot of anxiety as a late-teen into my early ’20’s.
And that was a transformative part of my life that really allowed me to move into what I’m doing now which is to help people through the use of crystals and gemstones as tools for healing and transformation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://elekeats.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elekeatsjewelry/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EleKeatsJewelry
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ele-keats-jewelry-santa-monica-3?osq=Ele+Keats+Jewelry

Image Credits
Jessica Karr
Payam Arzani
Noelle Merrihew