Though Erica Weiner’s a New Yorker through and through, she has a soft spot for Maine, where her parents now live and where she does a lot of sourcing for her  jewelry line, which is full of antique trinkets (that she somehow makes very cool). “Growing up, I spent every summer going to camp there, like a good Jewish kid,” Erica explains. These are the places that fit her food- and accessory-consumption needs.Orphan Annie’s“It’s mostly Victorian stuff—mostly jewelry. But the owner is, I think, the only gay guy for miles around, so he has things like beefcake postcards, too. It’s really weird.”(96 Court St., Auburn, 207-782-0638) Erica outside of Elmer’s Barn in 2007. “That place is insane—but a goldmine.”Elmer’s Barn“It’s like a mile from where my parents live. It has cachet now—I think Martha Stewart discovered him, and he was told by his daughter or something that he needed to raise his prices. So now his upstairs is exorbitantly expensive, but the basement is still cheap. He also has a giant, pot-bellied stove in the middle of the barn, and in the winter he just sits there and heaves logs into it. So it’s really warm and cozy.”(Route 17, Coopers Mills, 207-549-7671)A1 Diner“The owners are Brooklyn people who moved up there like five years ago and bought this old dining car of a train. It’s Park Sloped out—in the middle of, really, nowhere—and it’s always full. They do an amazing chicken marsala from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook, and they have fantastic desserts—delicious gingerbread, lots of pies.”(3 Bridge St., Gardiner, 207-582-4804; a1diner.com)Liberty Tool Company“It’s a rural tool-and-parts barn, and it’s incredible. Also, it’s like a three-story firetrap.”(57 Main St., Liberty, 207-589-4771) Erica eating oysters at Red’s Eats. Red’s Eats“It’s a shack at the side of the road—with two-hour waits. They serve lobster rolls, steamed lobsters, fried clams, fried shrimp—simple stuff like that.”(Main St. & Water St., Wiscasset, 207-882-6128)Morse’s Sauerkraut“A lot of German people moved to Maine in the 1910s and 1920s. Someone opened this place called Morse’s, with sauerkraut, pickles, and German meats. It’s a roadhouse kind of space that’s half beer hall, half deli/grocery. They serve completely amazing food—some of the best German food I’ve ever had.”(3856 Washington Rd., Waldoboro, 207-832-5569; morsessauerkraut.com) Nobleboro Antique Exchange“I just bought a whole lot of stuff there. There’s this lady, Miss Helen, who I didn’t meet this time but whom I have an appointment with. She’s 90 years old and a collector of Victorian antiques—I bought a lot of stuff from her booth. You tell her what you want—say, you’re looking for Civil War-era diamond solitaires—and she’ll make you a little package of what she finds and mail it to you. You keep what you like and send the rest back with a check written for what you kept.”(104 U.S. 1, Nobleboro, 207-563-6800; nobleboroantiqueexchange.com) Some of the specialties at Hussey’s General Store. Hussey’s General Store“I think it’s mostly for Mennonites, but they have everything: chain, hardware, snacks, animal feed, and, yes, wedding dresses.”(510 Ridge Rd., Whitefield, 207-445-2511; husseysgeneralstore.com) Check out the exclusive necklace Erica Weiner designed for Of a Kind! There are just 17 of ‘em!

Erica Weiner has grown her business in many ways in the five years since she launched her ever-more-popular jewelry line—moving her operations from her kitchen table to a Lower East Side studio, for example, and eventually opening her first store. One of her biggest sources of pride is the group of lovely (and photogenic) women who work with her. “Every year, we’ve hired one more full-timer. So now we have five full-time people,” Erica says. Here’s your chance to meet them, pictured in hiring order. Lindsay Salmon, co-ownerErica: “When I got my first big order, I was in way over my head. I just went to sleep for almost 24 hours. I woke up a day later and was like ‘Oh, fuck.’ I called my friend Lindsay, who’s my business partner now. She had just lost her job at a bar. I said, ‘You gotta help me.’”Lindsay: “At the time, I was changing careers. I was taking a lot of art classes. So I said, ‘I’ll make jewelry for you for free so I can learn how to do it.’ Then everything just got really big really fast.” Sophie Fader, wholesale managerErica: “I taught a class at Sophie’s camp.”Sophie: “I was a counselor-in-training, and Erica mentioned to my head counselor that they were looking for an intern. I was 17—a senior in high school. First, I worked at the end of Erica’s desk at her apartment. Then she and Lindsay remodeled the closet and put in a desk for me.” Chelsea Williams, sales managerErica: “Chelsea’s roommate was an old high-school friend of mine. I think we’d just gone to our high-school reunion a week or two before, and we reconnected. And he was like, ‘My friend would be really good for your business.’”Chelsea: “I was just going to help out short-term, but I stayed!” Andrea Lipsky-Karasz, extraordinary maker of thingsErica: “Andrea is the only person we got without going through a friend. She answered a Craigslist ad that we put out for help, but she was just, like, born to do this. She also dresses in full 1920s sequins to work.”Andrea: “I got my whole life on Craigslist—my roommate, my furniture, my job. Not my boyfriend.” Erica designed a truly amazing geode necklace just for Of a Kind. Check it out here!

Between attending Vassar and starting her own jewelry business, Erica Weiner worked damn hard, doing the kind of jobs that required ingenuity—and a knack for dealing with children and very small celebrities. These are the gigs that eventually led her to her namesake line, which she launched from her kitchen table. Check out the necklace that the very clever designer made just for Of a Kind here! Disillusioned camp counselor“After September 11th—and a year in New York—I was like, ‘I’m going to be a camp counselor. I’m going to forget the dream—the Vassar dream—to be a famous artist or something and be a summer-camp counselor.’ I worked in the theatre department.” Costume-creator and leotard-repairer for the stage“At the end of camp, my friend said, ‘Someone just dropped out of the wardrobe spot on a national tour that leaves like tomorrow. Can you go?’ I kind of knew about dance costuming, and I made my own clothes. So I had a phone interview from the camp telephone in the mess hall—with all the kids. I totally lied my way through it. I got the job, and I did it for two years, for shows like Fosse. We went around on this tour bus—60 dancers, 10 crew members, and 4 semis. I got good at fixing things and jerry-rigging stuff. If we were in Reno or Nebraska and a pair of earrings broke, I’d have to figure out how to get the goddamn parts in one day.”Erica in her New York studio with her dog Bunny. Fashion workhorse“I did a couple of years of unpaid fashion internships. I lived in my boyfriend’s apartment for free, and I was on food stamps for a year and a half—I was so poor. Eventually, I broke into the fashion world a little bit because I was good at getting things done without panicking. Somehow people heard that I could do stuff for fashion shows at the very last minute, so I got calls where people would say, ‘We need a whole dress by tomorrow’ or, ‘We need all of these dresses to go from cocktail-length to tea-length.’ I’d somehow do it, and I’d make what felt like a lot of money. It wasn’t very good for me, and I didn’t sleep a lot.” Do-everything girl for a buzzy fashion line“At Imitation of Christ, I did the line sheets, communicated with the buyers, made dresses, cast models, designed shoes, talked to factories, sketched, visited the factories in Midtown—a lot of work. I had some glamorous moments there, though. Mary-Kate Olsen was around a lot. I would do fittings and have to tailor dresses to her tiny, tiny body. It’d be her and me in a bathroom—her completely naked, me with a bunch of safety pins. I would think, ‘I’ve got to text my friends because this situation is so funny.’”