Having grown up in the 70's in a liberal progressive town, Susan Crow was raised to question the norm; and in 2008, after working as a successful consumer product and jewelry designer for over 20 years, she returned to school to complete a post-baccalaureate program in Sustainable Design. The outcome was East Fourth Street - Crow's contemporary company of handmade jewelry that is created from recycled precious metals and recycled or fair trade gemstones and diamonds, which helps reduce the environmental impact of mining new diamonds and precious metals. East Fourth Street is handmade in the U.S. in a low-impact, environmentally conscious studio, where the eco-jewelry is created with the assurance that it is, "a culmination of design with the core belief that we need to preserve and restore our environment, not take away from it." Stylistically East Fourth Street has been described as modern with an industrial architectural edge - combining clean lines and geometric patterning.