Jesse Aviv grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and has always had a love of patterns and engineering. While his primary focus in school was mathematics, his grandmother, fiber artist Jane Sauer, always pushed him to seriously explore the visual arts. Aviv’s first introduction to textiles was a lesson from his grandmother on a road trip for his 8th birthday.

Aviv moved to Singapore at age 16 upon receiving a scholarship from the United World College of Southeast Asia. The school has a focus on servant leadership, and Aviv became interested in how studying patterns and statistics could be useful within the public health field. Noting his drive to make a difference, the school funded his gap year in Timor Leste and Swaziland. He volunteered at a free medical clinic in Timor Leste and a pediatric HIV hospital in Swaziland, studying patterns in patient treatment and outcomes, and started collecting textiles on his travels.

Aviv then began university at Emory University on their most prestigious scholarship, the Woodruff scholarship. A year after beginning university, Jesse took medical leave and in his spare time began making chainmail in Chicago. He enjoyed the durability and forgiving nature of the material, as well as its versatility in creating either loose or structured shapes. Jesse is entirely self-taught, making outfits first for himself and then others in the local queer and club kid scene.

Upon finishing his degree in chemistry from Emory, Jesse Aviv moved to the NYC metropolitan area. He entered the workforce in the biotech industry as a computational chemist, but never stopped making chainmail. Aviv began focusing full-time on chainmail in September, 2023. Free Maison was launched as a chainmail couture and accessory brand in February, 2024 by Aviv and partner Tay Dun.

Contact Jesse Aviv at jesse@free.maison.