I’m Becky, the founder of Cepheid Studio.

Originally from the UK, I moved to Paris after finishing my PhD in Astrophysics so I could combine my creative and academic passions. As a scientist I'm a stickler for precision, so I use my in-house laser cutter to realise my designs. This means that I can ensure all measurements are precise, down to a fraction of a millimetre. On the flip side, cutting these detailed designs into wood means that natural variations in the wood grain show through, making each piece unique.

I use rulers and computer programmes to measure the things I’m working with, but astronomers wishing to measure the distance to objects in the universe can’t work in the same way. Instead they can use ‘Cepheid variables’, which are pulsating stars. In 1908 Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered that there was a strong relationship between the luminosity of these stars, and how fast they were pulsating. This meant that, if we observe the pulsation rate of a Cepheid variable, we also know its luminosity. And if we compare this intrinsic luminosity to the apparent magnitude we can observe from the Earth, we can calculate how far away the star is. BOOM! They’re like astronomical rulers!

When I'm not creating beautiful pieces for my shop, you can find me writing about life as an étranger in France.

If you want to get in touch, you can send me a message here. I’m also on Instagram, and I’d love you to come and say hi on there too!