We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sheila Szulanski. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sheila below.

Alright, Sheila thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

When I was a kid and having a bad day, I used to go to my mom’s wardrobe and try on some of her jewelry. As expected, the sparkling diamonds and shimmering gold and silver made me feel better over and over again. Many years later, while working in the film industry as a wardrobe stylist, I realized that my mother’s jewelry, most of which was antique and inherited from her mother and grandmother, was still popular and worn by movie stars and was seen in all the magazines.
I had been looking for a career change for a while, so this idea caught my attention and led me to my first jewelry course, which I started by the end of 2019.
My greatest ambition was to learn the abc of traditional jewelry techniques so that I could create timeless classics that could be worn every day. From that moment on, making jewelry has been my passion and obsession. Not a day goes by without me thinking of new designs, packaging, marketing strategies, and so on.
Being in the styling industry, I came across several jewelry businesses that sell industrial jewelry and sell to thousands of customers. While I am not against this, this is not the jewelry that I fell in love with as a child and that had the power to change the way I felt.
Obviously, my pieces do not have a 100-year history, but each one of them has a complete process from its conception to its handcrafted process. Each piece is unique because it is handmade and has a story to tell.
Within the holemaking process, I work with fair-trade suppliers and am proud to use recycled metal in all of our sterling silver and solid gold jewelry.
Our pieces are designed to be sustainable, wearable, and timeless classics.
I am thrilled to share that I am currently working on our new collection, which will include a couple of pieces with Lab Grown Diamonds, as some clients have asked me to include them in new products. I hope to launch them soon… Stay tuned!

Sheila , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Szulanski is a jewelry boutique aiming to provide you with everyday essential pieces handcrafted in an ethical way and with the finest materials. Founded in 2020 by Sheila Szulanski, our design process begins first with high-quality materials and meticulous craftsmanship that can only be done by artisan hands. Our jewels are contemporary creations and we take maximum care of the details. We offer everyday essentials and affordable luxury to last, aiming to be different from the traditional speech: jewelry is about being an accessory to be worn every day.
All the pieces have a different meaning and each one is unique, giving our customers something individual with each purchase. These are pieces you will wear and love for a lifetime.
Making our customers feel special is our goal here at Szulanski.
We are proud to use recycled metal in all of our sterling silver and solid gold jewelry. This means that we can offer you accessible luxury jewelry that is both affordable and ethical. We are a sustainable company working with fair trade suppliers.
Our pieces are designed to be sustainable, wearable and timeless classics, using traditional and artisanal techniques alongside new technologies.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Finding the right path to scale. Balancing marketing and operations considerations, new product development and bringing existing products out there, experimenting and managing the day to day, prioritizing projects while keeping your voice consistent. Social media plays an important role in how clients discover, research and share information about products. For a fashion business, it allows for direct connection with a target market, freedom to express brand values and create a streamlined experience for clients to purchase products. The ability to target across platforms, reach a global audience and create many types of content creates a great environment for an independent jewelry business. Nowadays the fashion industry is highlighting more small businesses and pushing towards slow fashion, authenticity, and sustainability.
The most challenging aspect of starting and developing an independent brand is reaching our target audience and building brand loyalty with these new and prospective clients. As we reach new clients, the challenge is creating brand loyalty and a sense of alignment to our values

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

2020 & the pandemic: was (in some way) perfect timing for me. I found myself in lockdown so I couldn’t work at all because the film industry got shut off. As I am a really restless person, I had to do something with all that spare time: started making the brand image. I was still taking metalsmith classes (online) and as I was learning new skills, I started buying jewelry supplies and suddenly had a workbench at home full of hammers, sandpaper, saws, files, blowtorch… all the equipment required to make jewelry.

My creative process is often a little unstructured. A lot happens with my subconscious taking inspiration from my surroundings, from patterns, nature, themes. Then it materializes in shapes, sometimes built literally on my couch, while others it requires more exploration and iteration.
I build most of the original shapes in wax, I then have them casted in sterling silver and do all the finishing (filing, sanding, buffing etc). What is great about jewelry is that if a prototype is not good it can always be remelted and turned into a new product, making the creative process very “circular” and more experimental.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://szulanski.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/szulanskijewelry/

Image Credits
Photography: Ezequiel Salvatierra Styling: Shei Szulanski Model: Sofia Toledo MUA: Ania Taniguchi