In this episode, I sit down with Sabine Strauch—a queer painter and jewelry maker now living in San Francisco with her wife—to talk about the real, messy, funny layers of coming out and creating work that feels like home in your body. Sabine takes me back to college: the “am I queer?” questioning, the bad Tinder dates, and the absolutely iconic sorority-era setup that led her to the woman who’s now her wife. We also get into that fem-presenting confusion a lot of us know—how being “really girly” can make your sexuality feel harder to name, even when it’s been there the whole time. From there, we go deep on her art and jewelry practice—what “wearable art” actually means, and how her painting style (representational but not photorealistic, more topographic up close) connects to how she designs pieces for the body. Sabine breaks down her process across soldering, silver clay, and lost-wax casting (including why she outsources casting), and she’s super transparent about the business side: the mindset shift of becoming an entrepreneur, the “starving artist” myth, and why she mostly makes to order—especially with silver prices rising. What I loved most is how grounded her definition of success is: celebrating progress, staying true to your creative vision, and building inclusivity into the work—especially around representation and ring sizing. This one is for queer artists trying to make something sustainable without losing themselves.