Name: Jeff Hong

Age: 29

Location: Palos Verdes, California

Hometown: Los Angeles, California (Korea Town)

Occupation: Jewelry designer; co-owner and manager of a jewelry store in South Central, Los Angeles called Iceefresh

In The Rough
I use my knowledge of what I like to do and try to combine it with jewelry. I’ve never bought a piece of jewelry in my life. What I think about is how I can make it. I thought it was fresh cool to sell something I had designed.

Iceefresh
I couldn’t do this by myself. You need a family. You need a real good team. You need a lot of trust. They have to trust me and my designs. I have to trust them when they make it.

And Those Are His Things

1. Highway 10 necklace ($65,000): “I hold onto it for a friend. He doesn’t like to keep it at his house for safety purposes. Basically I’m his banker.”

2. Pencils: “Everything I make, I draw first. It relaxes me, sometimes better than sex.”

3. Movies: “My favorite movie is Scarface because it’s about someone who made something of himself from nothing.”

4. Baby Shoes: “I guess it was my mom who put my first sneakers on.”

5. Jeweled skateboard: “This is the skateboard that started it all.”

6. Grills: “They’re like makeup for some people.”

7. Par grinder jewelry tool: “You can grind things. You can puncture holes into any jewelry, you can polish, you can paint jewelry with it.”

8. Keys to his Porsche 997: “I like speed. If I’m not playing with my hands, I’m playing with my feet.”