We’ve all heard the snickers from people back east. They like to paint our fair city as a breeding ground for flaky, lululemon-clad cultural eunuchs. It’s a stereotype that helps get many SAD Torontonians through the long winter months. Not Karen Fung, though. She’s an upbeat Ontario native who embraces all things B.C. with love and devotion. And, according to her, it was love at first whiff for this jewellery designer.

“Six years ago, I was visiting a friend who moved out here to go to school, and as I stepped off the plane the air smelled fresher, so I was just like, ‘This is it. This is where I want to live, this is where I want to be,’ ” recalls Fung, who sat down with the Straight at her pop-up-shop booth at the Rize Building (at 10th and Kingsway). “My first trip back to Toronto—after being out here—I actually wanted to turn around and come back because it was middle of summer. The [airport] doors opened and the heat wave hit me. I smelled nothing but exhaust. I was just like, ‘I can’t live here anymore.’ ”

And within three months, the Oakville resident was living in Vancouver.

“I quit my job, sold everything, and came out here with a backpack and four boxes,” says Fung. “I needed a fresh start. I was stagnating in Ontario.”

Part of her stagnation was her occupation at the time.

“I was doing web design and I found the work pretty soulless,” she says. “And I always wanted to have my own business. I just never knew in what capacity. And I found jewellery-making quite therapeutic. And I really love the fact that someone’s wearing a piece of my art on them every day—that whole idea really appealed to me.”

So the self-taught designer decided to launch Meiku Designs, a jewellery collection that she’ll be selling at Make It Vancouver—a hip craft fair where dozens of Canadian artisans will hawk their unique and beautiful handcrafted wares this Thursday to Sunday (November 24 to 27) at the Croatian Cultural Centre (3250 Commercial Drive).

Perhaps not surprisingly, Fung’s debut collection pays homage to—you guessed it—Super, Natural B.C.

“I’m inspired by Vancouver, B.C., and all of the rugged nature that’s really captured my heart,” she says. “And I wanted to express that through my jewellery, so I use rough cuts, agate slices, and gemstones that really invoke that rawness of the mountains and the shoreline.”

But that’s not all. Her line is very fashionista-friendly as well.

“I also wanted to express the sophistication of Vancouver, because we’re also a very chic city, very fashionable,” she continues. “I noticed that people here—even though they’re really laid-back—still have more of a sense of fashion than out in Ontario, where everyone just wears all black.”

A classic example of this juxtaposition between modish and mountainous is her long, gold-filled chain necklace with three pendants ($165), including a medium-size gold Om symbol that unapologetically represents Vancouver’s love of yoga, a tiny pearl that represents the ocean, and a jagged agate geode that mimics our ragged mountain range. What makes it chic is how the agate’s naturally serrated edges are electroplated gold. It’s the kind of quintessentially B.C. accessory that can take you from a granola-eating retreat on Galiano Island to a power breakfast meeting in downtown Vancouver.

Another standout necklace from her collection is the long chain with mini gold-dipped pine cone pendants ($89), a perfect layering piece for both fashionistas and nature lovers.

And then there are her classically cool gold hoop earrings: little jagged gold vermeil beads are woven on with an earthy wax-linen thread and topped with a humming-bird ornament dangling in the centre of the hoop—a truly lovely design that proves West Coast clichés are nothing to be embarrassed about.