Made her first necklace, a purple crayon on a string, when she was 3 years old. As a daughter of a textile designer she began her career at age 11, designing housewares with her mother for the Seibu.
Tomoko Igarashi was born in Tokyo 1972 where she grew up. She left Japan to study graphic design at Art Center in Switzerland and moved to New York to study fashion design where she graduated from Parsons School of Design in 1996 with a BA in fashion design.
After her graduation she worked as a sportswear wear designer and freelanced as an accessory buyer for the Japanese store Neo Dimension.
After meeting her husband, a metal smith, she learned to make jewelry and her passion for jewelry grew from hobby to starting her own line, Tomoko Igarashi, in 2001.
In 2002 Tomoko Igarashi was nominated as one of the finalist for the 2002 Gen Art Accessories Award.
Tomoko Igarashi's cut out pieces are original models with inspiration from nature - flowers, forest animals, sea shells and feathers. The cut outs are hand sawed from a sheet of silver, then filed and polished before dipped in 18k gold.
Continuing on to beaded jewelry, using semi precious stones and utilizing the lost wax process in casting her pieces in brass and sterling silver featuring skulls, ships, keys and dinosaurs.