We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sarah Malim a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today The first dollar you earn in a new endeavor is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.

I started working as a bench jeweler at the end of 2015 – which just means I was working for other designers making their jewelry. My first personal client was a wedding band for a close friend in May 2017. It was so exciting to get paid fully for my work, not just my hourly wage! I’m so thankful that my friend trusted me with the making of her wedding because it became the start of my five year side hustle designing wedding and engagement rings for friends and friends of friends. For three years I had no website – it was just word of mouth. This was a very conflicting time for me because on one hand I was supplementing my income but on the other hand I was primarily making the designs that my clients wanted. So while I’m incredibly grateful to all of my early clients it was a rather unfulfilling time for me creatively. Early in 2020 (pre covid) I was meditating heavily on what own designs would be. By the fall of 2020 I had finally opened a web shop with maybe five ring designs on it, ha! Looking back on this time something that was just as significant to me as my first client was my first online order in December of 2020. Not me sending an invoice but someone (also a friend) going online and ordering a new wedding band for his wife. There is something so invigorating about having things available for purchase and people clicking the buy button. That will never get old to me!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I finished my third year studying biology at San Diego State University when my boyfriend Joey (now husband) decided to move to San Francisco to go to culinary school. I was in the beginning stages of deciding that I didn’t want to be a dentist anymore so I dropped out and moved to SF with him. I ended up taking a year off from college trying to figure out what the hell I wanted to do with my life. Joey is a big dreamer and encouraged me to enroll in Academy of Art University. I’d always been a creative person but never considered it as a career. So I enrolled in AAU as an art education major – this allowed me to take the intro classes in all of the departments – because at this time I was open to any sort of creative field and there was no option to be undeclared. Long story short, I took my first sculpture class and was hooked. At the time jewelry was in the sculpture department, but by the time I graduated it had split off so I graduated with a BFA in Jewelry & Metalsmithing instead of Sculpture. I was incredibly lucky to get two part time jobs as a bench jeweler by the time I graduated and ended up working for my mentor for seven years before I started working full time for myself.

My brand, SASA, was officially born in 2020 in Brooklyn, NY. I had been designing one of a kind engagement and wedding rings since 2016, but became increasingly frustrated by the late of transparency offered when sourcing diamonds for my clients. I eventually realized that the diamond industry did not align with my personal ethos and pivoted to develop a brand rooted in transparency and responsibility, and actualized in bold but feminine and funky modern designs. One would describe my driving factor as ethical practices and sustainability but I truly hate how commonly those words are used to greenwash consumers.

Although not officially launched until 2020, SASA has been in development since my childhood. My dad, a geologist, encouraged my first rock collection, which ranged from core samples to polished tiger eye. And although I have moved on from granite chunks to precision cut gemstones, the sentiment remains the same: these pieces serve as a tangible connection to the earth.

Another essential piece to the SASA story is when I proposed to my husband in 2014. At the time, I couldn’t find an alternative engagement ring that served to symbolize our partnership but that also embraced my individuality and unique proposal. Ultimately both my husband and I wore heirloom family rings (I wore my moms and he wore his grandfathers) for many years until I was able to make us something that fit our styles and ethos. This ring shopping experience stayed with me and spurred me on to create SASA for everyone who is traditional, but in a non traditional way. For the people who have a deep awareness for the world around them and have the expectation that ethical doesn’t have to sacrifice aesthetics. This is for them :)

SASA is for people that care about where their clothes and food come from and I think this is also just as important for their engagement ring as well. Learning about factory farms and fast fashion was the catalyst for me investigating where my own materials were coming from. I’m really proud to say that all of the gemstones I source can be traced back to their origin (sometimes even to the person who mined the stone)! Most of my gemstones are precision cut by people around the US, not mass produced. I also use recycled and fairmined gold.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Not any particular resources, but more that I wish the Jewelry Industry wasn’t so secretive. Designers are reluctant to share their sources (this is changing with the new generation) and I wish the older generation knew that there is more than enough to go around. Just because someone is using the same gem dealer as you doesn’t mean that their designs are going to be the same.

I also wish that the consumer knew how hard it is to get information on diamond origins. For example a certified conflict free diamond does not share the location it was mined in or the country that it was cut in. For me, how can I know that the diamond mining/cutting is not causing environmental destruction and human exploitation if the dealers can not even share the origin of said diamond. There are traceable diamonds in Canada and Australia but it is near impossible to have access to these mines unless you a large jewelry corporation.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I like to tell people I offer the millennial way to buy an engagement ring – through text. I have several clients (that have paid me thousands of dollars) that I have solely communicated with them through text – no phone calls and no emails. Buying an engagement ring is such an important step in couples lives that I want them to feel like I really care about them and having access to me more like a friend helps clients feel more comfortable making this huge decision. This texting system has been reserved for my word of mouth clients and now my return customers. For my clients that find me on Instagram, I love communicating and making relationships through DM. Sure people can email, but I want to do whatever the client is most comfortable with. Since I don’t have a corporate job so I often prefer to get designs figured out through DM or text because it feels more efficient to me. This strategy doesn’t allow for huge growth so I do conduct design work through email as well but I would prefer to take on more high quality clients in this more high touch way than grow into a mass produced design machine. Staying small but thinking big is intentional :)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sasafine.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sasa.fine

Image Credits
Model: Vega Photographer: Aubrey Janelle Art Direction: Zoe Cope Creative Product photography: Jocelyn Negron