Meet the Founder- Ashlen VanDeBogart
A Lifelong Artist
Ashlen’s path to jewelry design was a series of seemingly unrelated events. As an outdoorsy-bookworm-artist child, she spent much of her adolescence reading, making art, and escaping into the nature of the Pacific Northwest. She dreamed of being an artist and archaeologist.
However after beginning a modeling career as a teenager, Ashlen began working in the luxury fashion industry, and felt torn between two worlds: high heels or hiking boots?
When she entered the fine jewelry world at age nineteen she found a place where her worlds met, and her nature and historical art inspiration could be expressed in gold, diamonds, and gems.
Over the years, she has worked across nearly every corner of the industry- fine jewelry design, client consultations, vintage and estate evaluation, repair and appraisal analysis, and working in-house with jewelers and craftspeople to truly understand the structural aspects necessary to create beautiful and functional jewelry meant to last the test of time.
She has designed for hundreds of clients throughout her career, helping translate their stories, relationships, milestones, and sometimes wonderfully weird ideas into pieces meant to represent them.
As an independent learner, she has chosen industry certificates to further her interests. She has earned certifications from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Harvard Business School, and the Diamond Council of America (DCA).
Ashlen is greatly inspired by love stories, including her own with her husband (and muse) Kyle.
In 2026, Ashlen founded Avow Designs to create the kind of jewelry company she wanted to exist. As an artist, a business owner, and someone who loves creating and sharing meaning with others, Avow represents taking ownership of one’s own path and making something beautiful from the experiences that shaped it- while helping others transform their hidden stories into something tangible, lasting, and above all: meaningful.