We recently connected with Julie Falzarano and have shared our conversation below.
Julie , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
The mission of REJuled is to encourage thriving in life rather than surviving. Through my use of repurposed materials, I created beauty in jewelry and art from transformed raw and discarded materials. My aim is to show what a shift in perspective paired with a creative approach can do. When we look at things differently, we can feel them change and empowerment follows when there is a feeling of being in charge of your life. Small steps and small shifts make a big difference and REJuled is a physical and wearable representation of this reminder. You can change how you view a difficult situation and that leads to growth in unique ways.
Recovering from trauma has been a large part of my life and art has been the key. After several traumatizing situations, with support and adapting the mindset of looking for silver linings, I rebuilt my life. While I’m not always thriving, it is always the goal and I know now that I deserve a beautiful life. In life, this perspective helps me shift when I look as challenges as opportunities for growth. My mission is to inspire this in others.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
As a lifelong artist, I chose to teach art as my first career. I love working with children and adults and giving them a voice through creation. Art supported me in this way when my voice wasn’t valued or encouraged. I found I could communicate with visuals, movement, sound, and writing. It was the act of making something that made me feel like I was real and having real experiences. Kids thrived in my classroom, and the challenged ones were assigned to spend extra time with me. It comes naturally to me to look for the good within a person and encourage them to grow. Often all anyone needs is a compassionate ear and heart, and help finding their way back to their own inner guidance.
Early in my career I was a pedestrian involved in a drunk driving accident. During my recovery I began to create jewelry while my mobility was limited. That accident left me with physical injuries, and through that seek for help I found physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. My quest for health led me to explore many alternative modalities; acupuncture, yoga, reiki, spiritual mentorship and eventually led me to pursue a masters in Transpersonal Psychology where I began to synthesize my knowledge and learned to use it to help others.
I began working in my community as an artist and activist aimed at urban revitalization through the arts. Our artist collective used under-utilized spaces in our city, Utica, NY to bring energy and foot traffic to the downtown by hosting art shows, performances, and classes. With combined voices we made a greater impact in the community and it helped each of us grow through collaborations and combining resources. We established a fully supplied art room at the CNY Veteran’s Outreach Center in Utica, NY that gave working space for veterans to create in community.
My career highlight from this time are acting as the lead artist for TEDxUtica where I created large sculptures for the interior set for TEDx Talks. Art and performance pieces were created to align with the themes of the conferences; Dream, Develop and Deliver in 2013 and Limitless in 2014. Sculptures were made using recycled materials and a choreographed performance piece with music, costumes and dancers set the tone of the event. The audience felt inspired by art in the environment as they listened to the speakers.
While NY had always been home, the cold weather became increasing difficult on my body after the injuries I sustained from my accident. I could not heal fully physically, mentally, or emotionally until I relocated to St. Petersburg, Florida. At the time this was an up-and-coming art community and in the 10 years I have lived here the arts culture has grown exponentially. My husband and I bought a foreclosed house sight unseen and began investing our time and resources into that rehabilitation. This was a long and arduous renovation project and during that time, I began working with stones and creating jewelry again. These small projects were satisfying to complete while I trudged through home reno. I feel in love with jewelry making, built my brand and have created connections with women who buy my pieces.
This year I began a new component of work to deepen these connections and have created a community for women by facilitating women’s gatherings at my studio, inspired by the cycles of the moon. Women’s Circles are held bi-monthly on the full moon and new moons. This community is creating sisterhood using multiple creative expressions of art, writing, poetry, dancing, toning, sound making and authentic soul sharing. I hold workshops for jewelry creation, ceramic work, collage work, mandala making with soul sharing, writing, music and movement as supporting modalities to enhance the creative experiences. I also offer the opportunity to work with me one on one.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Teaching Art was incredibly rewarding, but as I travelled in my healing journey, I realized that it was unsustainable for me to teach the quantity of students I was responsible for with the personal attention I wanted to at the high level of art that I strived for. It was a crossroads and I took the heartbreaking risk to leave teaching. I was pursuing a Masters in Transpersonal Psychology and choose to put all my efforts toward that degree. I earned great exposure for my artwork during that time and created large installation sculptures for TEDxUtica that highlighted my passion for repurposed materials and the opportunities a mindset shift can inspire in art and life. Following this work, I chose to leave the cold of NY for my physical and mental health.
Moving to Florida held new challenges. We knew only a few people, so while it took time to build community, but it was a clean slate to completely design the life we wanted. There are many artists in St. Pete, so that initially felt overwhelming until I found my place and the organizations to invest my efforts into.
To make this move successful required a constant evaluation process of what to keep and what to let go of, both in physical items, which artists naturally have a lot of and a reassessment of habits. As a self-employed artist my success or failure was in my hands, and I knew there was no longer space for alcohol in my life. 8 years later, this was the best decision I ever made for my health and another real turning point in my life. I use juicing and herbal creations to support my health, just as my learning in the culinary arts aided my recovery from an eating disorder 20 years prior. Moving to Florida allowed the space to process and heal from the complex post-traumatic stress which had complied from the 35 years prior. With the absence of alcohol I learned to self-regulate on a fluid basis and manage situations as they arise without experiencing backup as I did before.
The intersection of health and art is a passion area for me and it will be taking a lead in the next phase of my work. Art making and the creative process has supported me in every part of my growth journey. The process of creating unlocks energy and when you experience the creation of something tangible, it inspires a sense of confidence to tackle bigger things. Experiencing this in my own life has been life shifting and I feel called to guide others to use creativity to reach with goals.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
At REJuled I have a variety of jewelry products available for purchase, earring, necklaces, and bracelets. In my work, I’m inspired by stones and design around this natural element. My signature pieces that are always in stock are upcycled copper chokers that activate the throat chakra, stone chokers with button clasps, stone sparkler necklaces on silver chain, stone bracelets perfect for essential oils, earrings made with fishing lures and bullet casings.
My favorite kind of creating is making one-of-a-kind pieces that feature a unique stone and manipulated metal. During this process, I’m cocreating with the elements and let them guide me. When a combination or shape takes me by surprise, often taking my breath away, I know I’m on the right track. I have dabbled in stone cutting and shaping called lapidary art and love when the natural hidden characteristics come out during that polishing. I also drawn to metal melting and surrender of control that happens during that process.
My brand really came together when I developed my own unique wooden packing and displays. I use repurposed wood sourced from our home renovation projects. Using my woodworking and printmaking skills developed during my undergraduate degree I create handmade earring cards, necklace displays, and price tags. I highlight the metaphysical properties of the stones in each of the jewelry pieces and this lets my client wear their piece with intention. Photographing my jewelry pieces is another piece of the process I enjoy.
The REJuled stone bracelets have been a product that my buyers have loved, to my great surprise. I have handmade and sold thousands of bracelets because the demand has been so high for them. My first bracelets were made with materials given to me from supplies someone was not using anymore. They sold so well at markets that I started gathering my own supplies and became intentional with their design and creation. What began as a trial with extra stones and elastic has become a bedrock of my business. The sale of REJuled bracelets helped me fund IVF to build my family. I created a private goal to create 2000 bracelets that would pay for another step in the process we desperately wanted, a third egg retrieval, but we’re on the fence because of finances. I met and surpassed my goal and in addition, the meditative process of stringing these bracelets during my treatment calmed my mind and body allowing me to stay positive and productive and sink into the process.
I am blessed to have two small children now and my work at REJuled is perfect for my life and allows me the flexible schedule to be a fulltime mom while still creating meaningful work.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.REJuled.com
- Instagram: Rejuled
- Facebook: Rejuled