How Emwa Jewelry started

Emwa started in November 2017, but in a way, it started a long time ago with my family passing on to me the love of arts and crafts. Growing up, my mother was a garden architect and talented painter, my father a sculptor, my grandfather and aunt were graphic designers, and my grandmother was a seamstress. It was a household filled with creativity and a passion for making things by hand.

I first got into the world of jewelry making during a high school excursion to an "old-fashioned" craftsman's site. We saw glassblowers, blacksmiths, and jewelers working their crafts. That day was truly magical for me, and on the way home, my mom took me to a DIY store to buy some beads and threads. I started making jewelry as a hobby, but as I grew older and became a teenager, I lost interest for a while.

In 2017, after finishing high school, I took a year off for a sabbatical and stayed with my boyfriend in North Carolina. He blew glass in his studio, and his mother designed clothes and painted. Seeing them so active, I also wanted to do something with my own hands. I took a few wires from his mom's studio and started working with them. To my surprise, after an hour, only about ten rings were on the table. I was thrilled. So for the rest of my stay, I continued to create simple jewelry made of copper wire.

After a while, my boyfriend's mom encouraged me to sell some to her girlfriends for a small price. As some local women were happy to help me make money, I decided to create a Facebook page with my creations. When I came back from the United States, I started my university studies in the Netherlands. Since the cost of studies there was high, I had to find work to help finance them. So I took small jobs in Maastricht, cleaning and waitressing, while continuing to work on jewelry as a hobby.

As I posted photos of my creations on Facebook, I started receiving orders from friends, family members, and other students at my university. With the increase in orders, I could afford to buy more tools and explore new materials and techniques.

Over time, one thing led to another, and I slowly grew the list of people interested in my creations to include people I did not know anymore, created an instagram page, started working with semi-pro and then professional photographers, started casting my own design, plating them in gold… The flow of orders continued to grow, enabling me to do so too in my practice.

Few things fill me with as much joy as this one. I love to explore my creativity, alone or in collaboration with my clients. I like to share my love of detail, carefully selecting each stone and metal and then making the jewel. I love the process of creating jewelry, sometimes difficult, sometimes complicated. And I like to keep my hands busy, not thinking about anything for hours, and concentrate on my creations. Making each piece unique.

In January 2020, I became an official business. So I decided to find a name that really matched the brand identity I had established until then. Talking about it with my family, we came up with the name Emwa.

Emwa, 

Emma, Emoi, 

Et moi, Aime moi. 

A name full of meaning... if you understand French!

All these words, for me, represent well the jewelry that I create for you.