Susan DJing at now-closed Caucus Club during her Austin days—she and three friends had a weekly party there. Though Susan Domelsmith feels right at home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, these days—she’s been working from the same shared studio space for four years now—she can’t help but be nostalgic for the place where she came of age and started Dirty Librarian Chains, her collection of  big, bold jewelry re-made from vintage finds. These are the things on her agenda and the places she hits whenever she heads west. Eating Tacos: “Tex-Mex is my favorite food. I kind of grew up on that. An old favorite is Curra’s. They have the best potato and cheese breakfast tacos, and they have this roasted red pepper salsa, which I’d just die for. And then there’s Torchy’s, which just opened up recently, that has a fried avocado taco that is really greasy and good. I’ll go for consecutive meals—like, ‘Where am I going to eat my five tacos today?’” (Curra’s Grill: 614 E. Oltorf St., 512-444-0012; currasgrill.com; Torchy’s Tacos: multiple locations; torchystacos.com) Thrifting: “Savers on South Lamar is where I bought my very first gold-chain necklace that I turned into Dirty Librarian Chains. I always find some really good shoes there. Some friends from college started this vintage store New Bohemia—they also opened up a men’s store called New Brohemia, which is really funny. They have really great taste, and they keep expanding and opening new locations—I’m so proud of them.” (Savers Thrift Stores: 4001 S. Lamar Blvd., 512-442-8011; savers.com; New Bohemia: 1606 S. Congress Ave., 512-326-1238; New Brohemia: 2209 S. 1st St., 512-804-0988) Playing in the Water: “We would always go to Sculpture Falls. The water has carved out these rocks where you sit. The water flows into it, and it’s really bubbly—it’s like a natural hot tub. And I really miss tubing down the Guadalupe River, getting a bunch of friends together and hanging out for the day. Then there’s Barton Springs [pictured above], of course. It’s a spring-fed swimming pool, and a lot of people go there. It’s kind of magical.” Catching Some Music: “Emo’s is a good standby for live music—it has a lot of good punk shows, a lot of good indie shows. I’ve been there countless times and have seen Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Unwound, The Make-Up, and so many that I can’t remember. Maybe one day my band will get to play there.” (Emo’s: 603 Red River, 512-505 8541; emosaustin.com) Don’t miss out on the amazing necklace Susan created for us—just 17 of them in the whole world.

Susan Domelsmith isn’t with the band. She’s in it. Four years ago, the designer behind jewelry line Dirty Librarian Chains started making music with Jill Bradshaw, now the trend director at Stylesight, eventually forming Open Ocean. These days, it’s Susan manning the keyboard, Jill singing and playing bass, Sarah Frances Kuhn (a Teen Vogue editor and the brains behind the rad camera straps of SFK) working the guitar and doing some vocals, and Angela Barrow (a stylist with her own line Cheek-ie) rocking out on the drums. Here, Susan offers us some insights on Open Ocean, and—in case you want some audio to go along with your visuals—you can download songs off of the act’s EP for free over at Bandcamp. From left: Angela, Sarah, Susan, and Jill, as photographed by Mariesa Conmay. “Well, to be honest, we were all really involved in music. We would go out and see our friends who are DJs and in bands, and we noticed they were all guys. We were like, ‘You know what? Why don’t we do this ourselves?’ It’s been really fun, and we’ve come a long way.” At Open Ocean’s first big show, at the Williamsburg venue Bruar Falls. “I Heart [a now-closed boutique in Nolita] was our first practice space—Jill used to own the store—and apparently it was Sonic Youth’s old practice space, too. The Beastie Boys also worked out of there at some point back in the day. There were a lot of good vibes going on in there.” Susan playing keyboard on Sarah’s roof, taken by Peter Beste. “We just did a video shoot. It was two days in a row when I was right in the middle of shipping all my fall orders. It was like, “AH!” But it was really worth it. The first day we went to Fort Tilden. The next day we did a mini-fake show on Sarah’s roof. It was really windy, and the streamers were blowing around like crazy. I can’t wait to see it!” Make sure you don’t miss out on the rockin’ edition Susan made for us: a mixed-metal necklace. It’s a huge hit around here.

Nine necklaces, ready to go.Instead of casting forms from scratch, Susan Domelsmith works from found chains, beads, and pendants to create jewelry that feels entirely new, mixing metals and shapes to give Dirty Librarian Chains a certain octogenarian-takes-the-L-train effect. Here, two old-school components she uncovered that make our necklace really special. Don’t miss out on the necklaces she crafted just for us using some very awesome finds—there are only 17 of them! “I started off small, going to thrift stores and using eBay and stuff, but then I kind of grew out of that. It takes a lot of time to find the right materials that way. These hexagonal guys—I found them in Providence, Rhode Island, at a jewelry factory that closed. Providence is where a lot of the jewelry manufacturing was done in the U.S. before it moved overseas—mainly to China. There are a lot of factories that have closed down that still have all these components around.” “I actually have had this chain for a while. I bought it from this woman in Florida—I’ve never met her, but she emails me photos whenever she has chain she thinks I’ll like. She goes to a lot of estate sales. I’ve been holding onto it for the perfect purpose, and I finally found it.”