Cargo Emporium Close-up: Tasi Designs

At Cargo, we prize the beautiful and the handcrafted, both qualities TASI embodies. TASI’s simple but elegant jewelry featuring gorgeous natural gemstones and rare, antique beads from around the world has been a customer favorite since we first started carrying it 8 years ago. So when the opportunity came to welcome TASI Jewelry into the Cargo emporium as a stand-alone shop, we jumped at it.

Taya Koschnick launched TASI Jewelry in 2007, but crafting jewelry is in her DNA. Taya’s mother is a jeweler and metalsmith in Oberlin, Ohio. What’s more, Taya’s stepfather is a third-generation bead and textile trader from The Gambia, giving her insider access to one-of-a-kind beads. As a girl, Taya made jewelry and sold it to the other kids at summer camp. By age 12, she was taking her jewelry to crafts fairs. While a student at Reed College, she sold necklaces and earrings at a coffee shop. 

TASI favorites include sterling and oxidized sterling silver jewelry, 24-karat vermeil, and 14-karat gold settings featuring gemstones, centuries-old beads, and even bits of ancient Roman glass. TASI’s sister jewelry line, Stowaway, has a style that blends delicacy and rawness at affordable prices.

Now that TASI has a shop, Taya has added candles, bath and beauty products, and accessories—after years of attending crafts fairs, she knows where to find the best artisan-made products. She’s also growing her jewelry offerings, and TASI now features a new collection of labradorite necklaces and earrings, plus a line of rings set with conflict-free diamond rings in brilliant salt-and-pepper and gray tones.

We’re fans. The next time you come in, there’s a good chance you’ll find at least one of us wearing TASI earrings or a pendant—or both.

Follow Tasi on Instagram at @tasidesigns and check out her website at www.tasidesigns.com.