Traci Kearns, Alchemy's founder and principle designer was exposed to great design at an early age, after spending time in Milan, Italy and other design rich cities. Many of her weekends as a child were spent experimenting in her grandfather's woodshop and with her grandmother designing and making her own clothes. Traci quickly learned that she not only loved but had a talent for combining materials and color, working with her hands, and simply creating. A graduate of University of North Carolina at Greensboro's Interior Architecture program, Traci's design approach is influenced by her studies in Finland of modern Scandinavian design and her more recent work in Asia designing for a specialty furnishings company. Traci's work has been featured in Fine Homebuilding, and she was selected as the interior designer for the 2008 Green Southern Living Idea Home in western North Carolina, one of the area's first LEED certified homes. Her professional memberships include the International Interior Design Association and the Western North Carolina Green Building Council.