We were lucky to catch up with Mana recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Mana Made grew into a small business from a passion project – designing and making jewelry has long been my creative outlet. Early in this process, I started getting inquiries about the jewelry I designed for myself – staple pieces I would wear everyday. First from friends and family and then from the general public, who would frequently ask about the pieces I was wearing and where they could find them. Around this time, I was working at a metal arts studio and the owners, who were also my mentors, encouraged me to create my first collection of jewelry and taught me about small batch production. Being able to fabricate pieces by hand and utilize sustainable production practices was at the heart of the brand since the beginning. To this day, all of my pieces are designed in small batches in partnership with production partners located in the jewelry districts of NYC and LA. It has been amazing to see this small business grow – it now utilizes several sets of hands during the production process! Working with small family run production houses located domestically in the US is a way to stay true to the handcrafted process, utilize local sources, and create less waste by not having to over-produce pieces. We keep a small stock of inventory and fabricate most of our fine jewelry pieces to order. Working with local suppliers and production facilities allows us to have a shorter turn-around time and order only what we need.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

‘Mana’ is my childhood nickname, created by my younger sister, who’s one year old vocabulary had a creative take on my birthname ‘Amanda’. When I was thinking of a name for the brand, my mind went back to this creative moment early in my childhood. I also wanted it to be reflective of the importance of the jewelry being ‘made’ by hand. This is what is at the heart of the brand – it is what I always loved the most about the design process. To this day, as I’ve seen the brand grow, ‘handmade’ is still at the core of the production processes (although now several hands – which account for those of our production partners as well). Each piece of jewelry is designed in my own personal studio and I work with production facilities in NY and LA (the two places I lived over the years) to cast pieces and assist with some fabrication. The design process always starts and ends in my studio, where final finishing takes place.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Throughout the past decade, I spent most of my career working on the business side of the creative world, managing nonprofit arts programs and consulting for museums across the nation. This work exposed me to a diverse range of artists, designers, and all-around creatives. It sounds cliché but being around art – and really the artists themselves that I encountered along the way – inspired me to further explore my own creative side. I spent a summer as a fellow at an artist residency program and that gave me a real glimpse – a “behind the scenes” – of the art world and opened my mind to becoming a designer/creator. This is where a real pivot in my life happened. Seeing creatives dedicate their life to making art really inspired me to pursue my own creative interest – jewelry design. This was something I explored the first time I took a break from the corporate world years back when I was re-figuring out “what I wanted to do”. I would spend much of my free time designing and learning how to fabricate jewelry from a friend – we would search for vintage beads and unique stones to transform into wearable art. But I did not necessarily see this leading to a “career”. Instead I ended up pursuing my master’s degree in nonprofit arts management. I don’t think I really ever saw myself as an artist or an entrepreneur…so, if I was not going to be one I thought why not support the arts and artists who did take that path.

Fast forward to leaving the corporate arts world, I once again went back to jewelry design but this time learning more about fabrication. I would say it was a pretty steep learning curve starting with metalsmith techniques then production practices, which allowed me to make enough pieces to sell outside of my early customer base of family, friends, friends of friends – all of who encouraged me to put my jewelry out in the world. While it was a gradual process over a few years, it all seemed to happen pretty quickly from the initial incorporation of ‘Mana Made’ to selling at pop up markets and then some larger design shows, which led to being picked up by my first store. That was probably the first time I felt like an official business – the start of a whole new career.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think resilience pretty much describes this very moment in time for both myself and my brand. I recently became a mom and up until then, my business was my baby. Something that I invested so much of my time, money, and heart into. And then throughout this past year, I saw my whole heart (and every ounce of energy, time, and penny in my bank account) go to this amazing little human. Simultaneously, I lost my NYC studio space that I had since I started this brand. With my studio in storage, and in the midst of figuring out my ‘new’ self and role as both a mom and business owner, my brand began to feel like a past love. It became a struggle to find the physical and mental energy to create. But I knew I wanted to figure out a way to give my heart to both my new little family and business. And re-build my studio in a place that would work – both logistically and financially.
There were so many days where I could have allowed myself to be defeated…the sleep deprivation and lack of creative energy that comes along with having a baby to care for as your number one job… the endless fruitless search for a new “affordable” studio space in NYC. But instead, I allowed myself to slow down – maybe the first time ever – and refocus how I was going to run my business. First there was navigating around having no studio space. I already had a small production team to build on, so it was time to let go of some of the fabrication work I was doing (at least for the time being). Afterall, that is a step in growing a businesses that most of us brands have to take at some point. Turns out, it was time to do this. And it gave me time find a place to re-build my studio. In this process, I had to say goodbye to NYC – the place I spent the past decade living and building my business. There of course were additional set backs, and many moments of feeling frustrated about the city and how it was feeling like less and less of a place where you can grow a small business and raise a family on a working artist income. Needless to say, it’s been a long goodbye – I have spent the summer finding a house to live in close to my family on eastern LI where I can re-build a studio on the property. I look at this as a goodbye for now, maybe not forever. And an opportunity to live near the very place I grew up – by the ocean, which is an inspiration behind my creative design process.

So that is my story of resilience – and just letting go and taking what could seem like a series of major setbacks and turning them around to see them as an opportunity to let go of some things that were not working and creating room to grow. I am excited to enter this busy fall/holiday season with a more efficient and accessible studio space located near my family. And living and working amidst the ocean air will help clear my mind and allow space to be creative again. This also means a new collection will be launching soon!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shopmanamade.com/
• Instagram: @manamadejewelry
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/manamadejewelry/

Image Credits
Philip Harris, Dioptra Creatives