Within the world of product design, furniture was Julie Valuskova’s first love, though it was far from her last. It was only the beginning of her creative journey, dating back to when she was young, watching her father upcycle street furniture. “I was that kid collecting toilet paper rolls and making a kaleidoscope out of it,” she admits over an early morning Zoom call from her studio in Queens, New York.

Home for Valuskova was the Czech Republic until her family moved to the US when she was in grade school. Her parents recognized her natural gravitation towards anything creative, but when it came to higher education, her immigrant mentality led her to something she knew would score her a job in the future. She eventually made the decision to pursue a degree in Interior Architecture, later doing an additional year in Sculpture and achieving a double degree at the California State University in Chico.