Jewelry As a Voice: Empowering Survivors and Economic Resilience with Amanda Nicol

In this heartfelt episode, Nina Rodriguez interviews Amanda Nicol, a museum-quality jewelry designer and survivor of intimate partner violence (IPV), about transforming trauma into empowerment through her one-of-a-kind jewelry. Amanda shares her journey of resilience, community support, and the importance of storytelling and purpose in her work.

Jewelry One of a KIND is a Miami-based jewelry house creating one-of-a-kind pieces designed to be collected. Small batch. Handcrafted. Built to last.

Amanda’s jewelry and story highlight how art, purpose, and community can foster healing and resilience after trauma. Explore her work and consider engaging with her workshops for a meaningful experience that supports survivors and promotes social impact.

Key Topics:

• The concept of resilience as a model, not just a metaphor, and how Amanda applies it through her jewelry business
• Personal stories behind her jewelry pieces, including reflections on grief, trauma, and healing
• The role of community involvement and advocacy in addressing violence, substance abuse, and mental health
• How creative expression can reclaim agency and aid in trauma recovery
• Ethical and sustainable practices in jewelry making, including fair wages and environmental considerations
• The power of shared experiences, community workshops, and experiential gifting in strengthening bonds
• Practical insights on balancing business growth, activism, and authentic storytelling

IPV Data & Resources:

• A 2018 by the CDC found ~$104,000 is the average cost of IPV per female survivor in the U.S. (Source)
• The lifetime economic cost of IPV in the U.S. is estimated at $3.6 trillion. (Source)
• freefrom.org
• Reports by FreeFrom
• Nat'l Survivor Financial Security Map & Score Card (search your state)

Connect with Amanda Nicol:

• jewelryoneofakind.com
• Shop Collections
• Book a Meeting
• Experiences / Workshops Page
• @jewelry_oneofakind
• Substack: Jewelry One of A KIND Journal
• LinkedIn

Transcript

most important aspect of what I'm doing with Jewelry One of a KIND is talking about the financial abuse that goes along with physical abuse. It's estimated that each incident costs a woman over $100,000. You just lost your loved one. Now what? Welcome to the Grief and Light podcast, where we explore this new reality through grief-colored lenses.

I'm your host, Nina Rodriguez. Let's get started. What if the objects we wear could carry our stories? Not just as symbols, but as evidence of survival, authorship, and resilience. Today's conversation is about returning to what first gave you a voice and about the power of making meaning and reclaiming agency. Our guest is Amanda Nicol, a jewelry designer, founder of Jewelry One of a KIND,

and a five-time survivor of intimate partner violence. Amanda creates museum quality, one-of-a-kind pieces in sterling silver and brass, grounded in the belief that objects can carry memory and story. Her work centers fair wage creative labor for survivors, inviting them as artists and collaborators, not as stories to be told, but as makers shaping their own livelihoods.

After early success with a brand carried by the MoMA Design Store and Fred Siegel, Amanda's path was reshaped by recession and personal upheaval. And what she's building now is a sort of return, a rebirth rooted in creativity, economic resilience, and deeply human work. I'm so excited for this conversation. Amanda, welcome to the Grief in Light podcast. Thank you so much, Nita. that gave me goosebumps. Wow.

It's all you, my friend. And for our listeners and anybody watching, I have the pleasure of knowing Amanda personally. We're both here in Southeast Florida and we've shared some wonderful moments and memories together. But this side of the conversation is something new even for me. I love what you've created. I love the meaning behind it, the intention behind it. And I would love for our listeners to learn about it as well. Let's start with resilience. In your website, you say resilience isn't a metaphor, it's the model. What do you mean by that?

I wrote about it in one of my first sub stacks, which is an exciting experience for me to be that vulnerable. And resilience is the model because I really never thought I would get back into jewelry again. I have the talent, but I thought that I needed like all of the lists of things to be able to do it again. And honestly, the universe had a different path for me.

At one point, I really looked at the numbers and realized that everything that I've made came from jewelry, whether it was small orders, whether it was selling something on eBay, whether it was consulting work for another brand, like it literally all. And I'm like, wait a minute, I think this is supposed to be something that I'm doing. And then the resilient model is because of a lot of the nonprofit work that I've done throughout my career.

which had nothing to do with jewelry. And then of course my experience with intimate partner violence. So it all really culminated in, and I do a lot of writing, you know, I journal, I've been having a journal practice my entire life. And so all of that really worked together in my experience of just inner talking and thinking about where I should be and what I should do.

And so the model really not only was very personal, but how can I make an object and continue that creativity and bring jewelry to the public, but also make it so that like, we don't need more stuff. You know, so how can I help my community? For me, it's very personal and how can I help my own community? So here in Miami, how can I help?

literally a woman right now that is thinking about how am going pay my bills? How am I going to get out of the situation that I'm in? And how can I do that through jewelry? And I realized that the resilient aspect of it and the model was something I could put together and rather than like having a donation for a nonprofit, I could have a for-profit business where we can pay someone a living wage to help them immediately because that's what they need because that's

literally been personally one of my experiences. also, everyone loves to wear jewelry. I mean, we love to be adorned. So how can I combo, like, combine those two aspects through my own experience? And really, that's the very long answer to how the model came along. Well, I love the meaning behind

everything that you do. You've held some beautiful events for your local community. That's part of the times that we've shared together. So I do know from a first-person experience how important community is to you. And you also mentioned that a lot of this started not because of jewelry, which the way in which we met was through one of the organizations that you support. I don't know if you want to make room for that in this conversation and maybe talk about the ways that you have supported the community in various capacities as well.

So I was working for a nonprofit in the fight against the fentanyl crisis. And I also met with a wonderful man whose name is Tommy Guerra, and he has a nonprofit called F-Fent. And we became very friendly. And I'm now on the board. And I was the executive director for a number of years, working with him very closely.

to engage the community and really, I mean, the work that I do there and the work that I'm doing with Jewelry One of a KIND and what you're doing with your podcast, you know, we're talking about really heavy topics, but people are afraid to talk about stuff like this, right? And the topics that we're talking about really need to be talked about. We don't need to be afraid to talk about drug overdoses.

intimate partner violence and the grief that people go through. We want to celebrate it, not because we want to objectify any of it, but it needs to be a conversation to be had so either it doesn't happen or people know how to deal with it or people know how to not be consumed with the fear and the stigma.

So to answer your question about the work that I got involved with was bringing Narcan to music festival, you know, where we've had a relationship with them now for, I think we'll be there for, this is our third or fourth year there inside the festival. And like last year, now I goosebumps again, I have people coming up to me and hugging me because they're like, we're so happy you're here because we can help them to be safe. And I'm not condoning anything.

But what I am doing is making sure you're not gonna die. And I still, like I said, I'm still on the board and actually have a board meeting on Friday. So full circle, yes. And I wanted to include that because that's how I had the pleasure of meeting you. Yeah. University of Miami for one of these events in support of all of the life-saving efforts that Fentanyl and other organizations do.

This is just who you are. guess that's what I'm getting at. This is who you are as a person, somebody who deeply cares, who's deeply rooted in her work and in advocacy. And you're absolutely right that when we talk about these things, we shine a light, pun intended, on all of these conversations. It quite literally saves lives from overdose to somebody struggling in intimate partner violence. And it's important to talk about that side note. Tommy's going to be, he's a friend of the podcast. He's going to be featured here in a few weeks as well.

That's really fun. But I want to go back to your story. And I do believe that so much of navigating life and the challenges of life and everything is how we reclaim our agency, how we reclaim our story after a struggle. People will struggle, life will life, things will happen. And that looks different for everybody. But it sounds like jewelry and creativity has been a grounding force for you since the very beginning. give us like paint a picture, if you will.

of how you first started working in the jewelry space in the first place to what it has become now, that overarching story of the evolution of your work. And how has that helped you reclaim your own story? So to answer the first, some of the first pieces that I designed.

And if you're watching, she's showing them on video. They're absolutely gorgeous. Yeah. this piece itself is really incredible. I'm going to take it off too. This isn't one of the first pieces I designed, but this has a really incredible story. And this I'm going to tell because this is a Puerto Rico story. This is called the Kulebra Claw. It's a Kulebra link.

It's also perfect for this podcast because it's about grief. So I'm going to talk about this one. But the majority of the pieces literally have a story as well. Like this one is the Namibian wire line. It's now called the Amanda, but it's a classic. but this piece itself is, so I had a family tragedy and four family members and one.

Five family members were killed in a plane crash. So my uncle's plane crashed into El Nyonque on January 5th of 2002, and there were no survivors. So my uncle, my cousin Didder, her husband Mark, her child from her first marriage, Heath, who was five, and her mother-in-law, they were all killed instantly. We had many memorial services and many funerals. But one of the memorial services was on Culebra.

And I literally fished the langoustine, the claws out of the garbage can. This was before I started designing jewelry. I had not designed anything yet. But I knew that I was going to make something. I had gone to art school. I had always been creative. I'd always have a love for jewelry. Like every holiday, every vacation, everything was always about

literally getting a piece of jewelry, like wherever I went. It was like, you you bought something to celebrate that place that you went to. So I knew I was going to make something. My family thought I was insane. They're like, she's lost her mind. Why are you fishing in the garbage cans? I still have some of the shells. But in my mind's eye, I saw this bracelet. Like I saw this rock and roller.

bracelet that I wanted to create. And years later, I ended up taking a wax carving class. This was after I started my business with a woman whose name is Tova. And she is a master wax carver who carves for a designer whose name is Barry Kilson Stancourt. Look him up. Incredible. Very popular in the 80s and the 90s. And so I learned how to carve from a master carver in New York City. And I made this bracelet.

Everything I've made, like I have a whole, I have a dogwood line and that was like my grandmother, my mom's mom, she had dogwood trees. And once I started making things in whack, I suck at drawing. I'm the worst drawer on the planet. I've taken so many drawing classes. I've taken jewelry rendering classes. I went to art school, like everything. I'm a photographer and I am a like mini sculptor maker, right? Like, cause you have to carve this stuff. So it's like making mini sculptor, sculpture.

but I just can't draw. can see stuff in my mind and then I can make it, but I can't draw it. So with the wax, it's incredible because I can make things with the wax and then I can sculpt it and stuff. a lot of the pieces that I've made or the wire that I make, I can talk for hours, please stop me. And I just wanna pause one thing to give our listeners some context. I'm first of all, so sorry about that.

horrific accident that took so many of your loved ones lives. This happened in El Yunque in Puerto Rico and the piece that you're referring to named Culebra, and I'm assuming it's because of the little island off of the island. it's also named Culebra. So this is all tied to your experience. And I do know that you wrote a sub stack actually today, either shared yesterday or came up with this story. I will link it. Please continue. My family, my aunt's been going there since the 70s.

She had a shack and now they have a place on Zoni Beach. The shack is gone because in the 80s, got like one of the hurricanes, it's gone. A of hurricanes, yeah. But yeah, they've been going there since forever. So I've been going down to Puerto Rico since I was a child. All of the pieces have a story. This ring itself was, this is literally the first piece I carved in wax. That was one of the first pieces I carved in wax.

This gives us a preview of where you come from, the way that you're inspired by events and the materials. And I love that you say that you can't draw because in your sub stack you put a picture of the, not clay, the molds. What are they called? The technical terms? So the molds themselves, actually that's the wax. what happens, like 90 % of the jewelry that we wear is made from the lost wax method. I mean, it's done in a...

huge commercial way now. The way I do it is I carve it by hand and it's a wax that's really, it's not like a candle wax. It's almost like plastic. So I carve it with a Dremel. It's similar to literally what your dentist does with the, when he does your teeth, right? Right. I mean, now it's all done in CAD and now it's all done with computers and things like that, but I literally do it by hand.

And it's really fun. It's very tactile. It's very artistic. And then you take a rubber mold. So you lose the wax because you put the wax in a rubber mold. You lose the wax, but you get the indentation of the piece of jewelry. And then you shoot the metal in it. So you can make more than one. So you can reproduce it. So this itself was done. So it's hand carved, hand cast, hand polished. So it's all handmade, but I'm not like

making each individual piece out of metal, I'm doing it with wax. yeah. So it's all, you know, one piece. And for our listeners, if you can't see the video right now, which I highly encourage you to do because she's showing some beautiful art pieces here. It's a necklace that each piece she's showing that it's being carved the way that she described. And I'm sorry if I'm not using the right technical term.

And so how did that love and passion for jewelry yield to the work that you do today? And, you know, I know a lot of your personal story has to do with that and last year was a really pivotal year, it sounds like. So tell us a little bit about that shift and how it's evolved and what it is today. So when I moved to Miami, I feel like I should give like a tour. So when I moved to Miami, I moved from a two bedroom house in Princeton, New Jersey to a studio apartment in Miami.

I do not have a storage unit. I had a thousand square feet of a basement. So when I moved into that house in like 2011, the magic to my ears to the movers was put it in the basement. I never really looked at it ever again. So when I moved to Miami, I was like, oh my God, I have to unload this basement. So I don't have a storage unit and I kept.

Everything but my acetylene torch because I was not bringing an acetylene torch and if anyone knows what that is, it's like it's huge and also like I thought maybe explosive not safe for a studio apartment in my But all right But I kept all of my jewelry supplies and all of my jewelry equipment So in a studio apartment everything else like I got so it's really kind of packed in here I'm a I'm a minimalist maximalist like everything it's like a little

I don't know, everything is very curated. So my old jewelry bench is literally outside on my balcony and I flipped it over and it's like my outdoor table. And I have everything in drawers and stuff. So what happened when I had that aha moment of, my gosh, everything that I've done has come from jewelry and maybe I should start this jewelry business. And I had boxes and boxes of gemstones and semi-precious stones. So I started creating.

these one of a kind pieces where like, for instance, this necklace, when you purchase it, I name them now after women that have either been killed by their partners by femicide, or because people literally come and tell me their stories about how their friend was killed in 2018, or another friend whose daughter was killed. Or they'll tell me their story of

They're like intimate partner violence story. So this one, for instance, is like one of our most popular sellers, but it is like all different colors. Originally it was called sunshine, right? Because it's all these beautiful colors of yellows and things. But each piece, when you order it in the yellow color way, it'll come in different, it never comes the same. It's one of a kind because it'll come with two pearls.

but all the other pieces will be different because I have a box of different colored ambers and citrines and quartz and, you know, carnelian and all of these different colored stones. So that's the one of a kind aspect of it. So each individual piece that you get looks like candy.

which was a whole line that I did for the Museum of Modern Art. I did a candy line for the Museum of Modern Art. That's where the influence came from. But I wanted to reuse and recycle. There was no reason to buy anything new because I had all of these supplies. And I wanted to honor the fact that I'm reusing and repurposing stock, that back stock, really. I think that's the word.

that I already had. So now that's really the basis and the brass that I use and the sterling that I use is also, it's called Fairmind. So I'm very much trying to be as purposeful as possible with the stock that I use. There is no way to be 100 % eco-friendly in any way in producing anything in this world. But I am very much into the SDGs.

sustainable development goals, which is part of the UN, paying women that work with me a living wage, you know, to get them out of poverty, myself included, and making sure that I can be as sustainable as possible and working with the manufacturers. Like there's literally, you can buy fair mind metals to work with.

And you can also ask for different ways when you're working with your manufacturers and you're working with your casters and when I'm working with my stones, because I do need to buy new pearls and things like that. So there's ways in which I can make sure that that's what I'm doing is respectfully to the environment in the world as possible, but it's not perfect.

Well, thank you for sharing that. the pieces are stunning. I will link a lot of that in the show notes if you want or listening and are interested in taking a look. And they are for sale. I do appreciate that they are all unique. These are the women that you employ, to my understanding, have their own stories. And this is part of how you help them reestablish themselves and reclaim their agency. Right. So this year I did a real inventory on what was successful and where I should go forward.

And I think one of the wonderful things about it was, especially in business, and this is where I put my little business cap on, I think it's really important to take an inventory, like what's working, what's not working. And I spent a lot of time on Instagram and I realized it didn't bring me what I wanted in terms of business. And I spent a lot of time on Instagram shopping, did not work. I'd spent a lot of time on my foundation of learning because I took a lot of classes and I also got a tremendous amount of support.

support from the Idea Center and from Commissioner Higgins, who's now our mayor. And I got a lot of grants. And this is all in Miami. This is we're all in Miami-Dade County. love Miami-Dade County. I love the support we get from our entrepreneurial hub here. And then I partnered with Lotus House and I partnered with Leap for Ladies. Lotus House is actually one of the largest shelters in the United States for women.

And because I immediately got an influx of cash from the grants that I did, and I also partnered with the library, the Miami-Dade Public Library System. They have 50 libraries to do community workshops. And then I partnered with some of the hotels to do workshops, which were going to be paid workshops. All of them are paid, but the hotel ones were going to be much more lucrative. So that was like the huge success and the foundation. The thing that wasn't the greatest was a lot of things got canceled.

So I learned how to rework the business and rework the model. But the beautiful story was I went to Lotus House to interview people and I had 25 women show up and I got to listen to the stories of these resilient women who reminded me of myself because I've been there and I've heard and I've done it.

They didn't look like me and I showed up looking like this. So a lot of the time people don't realize that I have scars all over my body because I have had five different partners that I've had very violent and traumatic and horrific things happen to me. And it started in high school and it went through until 2018. So, and I still have horrible.

pain and things that I'm dealing with on a regular daily basis because of all of the things that I've been through in my life and I don't have to trigger or you can just imagine. I think the most important aspect of what I'm doing with Jewelry One of a KIND is talking about the financial abuse that goes along with physical abuse, which is sometimes worse because it's not something that people talk about and it takes, sometimes it never actually you recover from it.

It's estimated that each incident, each incident costs a woman over $100,000. So the financial abuse is just tremendous. And this isn't just about someone like taking money from you. This is about all of the medical bills that you, all of the

jobs that you could lose because you're either in bed or you can't show up for work or whatever it is. the amount of the stories talking to these women. I was slated to hire one woman for workshops and one woman for production. And unfortunately, we're still on hold with that. So I want to be fully transparent. It's in the business plan to do that. But currently,

We are on hold because of the cancellations that we have had. So I'm in training and that is part of the plan. And I've been in conversation and I literally have this like amazing woman that keeps following up with me. She's so great. And I can't wait. We're in a holding pattern right now until we get more workshops. I do know that the experiences are where we're going to flourish in 2026 and 2027.

Thank you so much, Amanda, first of all, and thank you for your openness and vulnerability and honesty. Because in talking, again, in talking about these things, it's how we support other people. And if you're listening and feeling identified in any way, shape, or form, then we see you. We hear you and we hold you in this conversation. I would argue that business requires so many iterations, and you are continuously iterating, trying to figure out what works. And you're doing a phenomenal job. I love that you partnered with the

library system, with the Miami-Dade system, with the hotels. You're encompassing so many different communities. So congratulations to that end. That's no small feat. That's huge. And I know how much heart you put into all of that. And I know how much heart you put into your business. About the intimate partner violence, and this is such a sensitive subject that I want you to honor whatever your capacity is to talk about it. One very cringe statement that I hear often is, why didn't you just leave?

What would you say to that person? So I actually read an article recently and I thought it, well, or maybe it was a meme on one of the DV domestic violence sites that I follow. it literally asked the question, why don't you leave your job? And I just thought, oh my god, that's amazing. Because how many people don't leave their job because it's literally connected to their livelihood and their safety?

and all of their health insurance, like all of those things. So if you think about it in that capacity, of course, like I can't speak out against my whatever it is. So if you flip it that way, it makes so much more sense. And then the other way in which, you know, we're living in this society right now, I mean, it's in the paper every day because of what's going on with you know who, you know,

There should be absolutely no reason that victims should have to explain anything. Period.

Yes, thank you. No. It should never, ever, ever, ever, ever, period. Like, F you is all I have to say to that. But when I thought about, I just feel that the best explanation is if we talk about it in a financial way. And that's why I think the financial abuse is such a really important conversation to have.

Because when you take out the emotional aspect of it and you talk about financial aspect of it, people really, unfortunately, can identify with it a lot more. And people don't think about it that way. And if I equate it to my job and the loss of all of that safety that I have around it, or when you're talking about the racism in job because of, you know, change your hair and you don't want to say anything about it because you may lose your job or

to cover up my tattoo because I have to show up to work for that because of whatever the conservative aspect of my job is. I'm not going to leave. I'm, of going to put makeup over my tattoo or a shirt over my tattoo or whatever it is that I think people can identify with. And even if you can't, just open up your heart to understand that you don't know and you don't understand what you don't know and what you don't understand.

different people experiencing different things and not everybody has the access to safety that maybe some other people experience, My personal experience is that like on the trajectory of it, especially having gone through so many different trauma treatment programs and therapies and all of the things that I've done over my lifetime and like the last experience that I had, I...

could not believe that I was like, my God, this is happening again. I was sitting there at a party with family members of the person and friends of the person. It was 4th of July and I got a concussion and I was just sitting there, like literally as we are talking right now and nobody did anything.

And it wasn't like we were fighting or anything. I just got walloped. It was bizarro. And it took three months for me to leave. And the reason it took three months for me to leave was literally just logistics. And also the capacity of like, did this actually just happen? Because nobody else in this environment that witnessed this, that we're like literally at a barbecue and it happened. And I was like, no one else did anything.

So I was like, maybe it really wasn't as bad as I thought, although like the next morning I woke up and I had a huge black eye and the kids were like, what happened? And I was like, that was last night. And they're like, really? Like it was nuts. So it's really very, I don't know what the word is. It's cunning and baffling. I guess that's what it is. And it's also like,

It's a very, it's insidious. Insidious, think is something that I'm feeling right now when you were describing that I'm so angry for you and I'm so angry that people don't step up and that is part of the system that keeps these things continuing to happen. That I'm so sorry, first of all, that any of it. It's okay.

comfortable talking about it, like, I shouldn't be talking about this right now. My body's everything in my body is like, I shouldn't be talking about this. I'm like, why? There's nothing wrong with me talking about this right now. Nothing, absolutely nothing. I did nothing wrong. And it's wild how we're still having this conversation. We should not be. There is nothing wrong with a woman or a man having a conversation of

telling the truth. Absolutely. And it reminds me of that recent story from Giselle Pellicot. She's a French woman whose husband essentially drugged her for years and had other men, thousands of men to my understanding, abuse her and all these things. And she said the one thing that just resonates in the hearts of so many of us, it's shame needs to switch sides. It does not belong to the victims. It doesn't belong to the victims. And I cannot wait. I don't know if I want to read her book because it might be too

intense, but I read the article in the Times and I, that woman is holy hat. She's incredible. And she's the fact that she was saying that, you know, this is going to be live and this is going to be televised. And they were so angry at her for doing that. And she was like, no, I have nothing to be ashamed of.

I'm speechless and thank you for her. Absolutely. And for the countless women that this is so timely with everything that's happening right now without naming too many names. all know who we're talking about and what we're talking about. And it is an important time to, first of all, I honor that you say like internally, maybe this feels almost threatening or dangerous or like weird or just maybe I shouldn't be talking about this. And that's exactly how it feels to speak up. It feels incredibly uncomfortable.

sometimes even threatening depending on the level of trauma that you've experienced or if you're listening and this makes you uncomfortable, that's totally understandable. That makes sense, especially if you've endured some kind of traumatic event or can relate to any of these stories. But it is, but, I'd like to say and at the same time, it is important to share this because the shame does not belong to the victims or the people that have been on the receiving end of violence. It is not yours to carry.

The same way that, for example, it's the reason, really, one of the main reasons I decided to start this podcast. I don't like talking about fentanyl for those who know my story, that's how my brother passed. I don't care for it. I don't want that to be a part of his story. And yet here we are facing the reality head on so that other people don't have to go through this. And if they are going through this, then they see a way forward. And I think that's so incredibly important and powerful.

the one thing that's been a gift to me, but also it's been pretty intense is that when I tell people that I have a mission-based jewelry company, they say, what does that mean? And I say, I work with domestic violence survivors and they're like, isn't that terrific? And then I say, I'm a domestic violence survivor. either get a, and then I'm like, okay, those people are not for me. Or I get, so am I. And then I get someone's story or

So is my daughter, or I haven't gotten any male stories yet of intimate partner violence, although I know it's out there. But I do get so many people telling me their stories as well. It's been an opening for engagement of This Is My Story 2, which is, if you look on the website, every single name of the piece of jewelry is a real human being.

They're all real people. Yeah. I love this link. that reason. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. No, no. And your brand has the word kind, like one of a kind in the double meaning type of way. And I'm going to read some things from your website that I just love the phrasing because so much of it is rooted in this meaning and in this purpose. So it says, we are kind to people, materials, and to the creative process.

We are one of a kind, each piece is singular, sculpted like art, never repeated. Kind is our signature beauty with backbone, elegance with an edge. So kindness is such a theme throughout everything that you do and it's part of the purpose. Why does that feel important to say beyond the obvious?

Because it is double edged and it wasn't intentional, but I think it was divine because I am very empathetic and they're all, you know, individual pieces, but I'm being kind to other human beings here in my backyard. And it's because it's needed. Love is needed right now. And I know that sounds so hokey.

but it really is true. And if I can't do it, who else is going to? Like I said, it brings out the conversation and it's really important for me. You know, we wear our jewelry. You know, I'm wearing, what am I wearing? This is something that my grandmother gave me, right? Like this was some coins that I got for graduation. I'm wearing pieces that I made that means things to me. Like everything that we all wear, I mean, we as human beings have been wearing things.

from the beginning of time. So the fact that I can wear something and it means something, I can make something and it means something. You're actually paying someone $27 to $30 an hour to make the jewelry when you're buying Jewelry One of a KIND, which is a living wage. And a living wage is not minimum wage and it's not an exorbitant amount, but it's the amount.

rather than donating it to a cause and it goes and it gets trickled down, you're literally putting money into somebody's pocket and not as kind. You are feeding them, you're helping them with their gas, you're helping them with their rent, whatever it is, you're literally putting money into their pocket and we need that. First of all, the jewelry is stunning.

If you like jewelry, if you like handmade jewelry and custom jewelry, the design is just beautiful. You have the training, you have the eye for it, you have the natural gift for it. So just jewelry in and of itself for the sake of holding a beautiful piece that you can even pass down as an heirloom is just stunning. So that's there. And that aside, or let's say in addition to that, you have the meaning and the purpose behind it and the way that you support yourself and others.

the beautiful messaging behind it, which like you said is so, so, needed. It also reminds me, as you were touching the necklaces, it reminds me of when you said, I have physical scars from awful events with domestic violence. It made me think of like a tattoo as a way to reclaim what goes on your body and the way that you adorn your body.

It's not a tattoo, but it's this art, it's wearable art that can make you feel like you are the one that decides what goes on your body, how it's treated, how it's loved, how it's adorned, how you treat yourself after something so difficult. That's one of the feelings that I gather from it. So it serves so many purposes in one product, one effort, and you have the

experience of it because the people are welcome to create. So maybe touch on a couple of things. Where can people find information about your upcoming events and buy your jewelry? And talk about the experience aspect of it as well. So the Jewelry One of a KIND, you can purchase on Instagram, @jewelry_oneofakind, my website, which is jewelryoneofakind.com.

Those are the two places. I'm in conversation with local museums. I'm in conversation with local hotels. And I encourage you to contact me. And so I'll tell you a little bit about what we offer. I bring people to your facility. So if that's a hotel, if that is a restaurant, if that is a community location,

and you are looking to bring a really incredible experience and you want to engage the community, you can bring a jewelry one-of-a-kind experience. The minimum time frame is two hours because it takes about two hours to engage and also learn. Contact us to find out all the information on our website. And the ones that we've done mainly with the hotels have engaged brides.

So when you think about it, brides need to, in case you don't know, buy all of their bridesmaids something, which is a lot of work. And they usually have some type of party. So our main focus this year is to engage with brides and wedding planners so that we can say, hey, here's the package that we have.

They have an experience. So they leave with one, an incredible experience, two, it's a custom. They can either have their own charms, they can make their own bracelet, they can make whatever they want at whatever price point works for them. And the person that we're engaging with, whatever that audience is, we work with them. Always making sure that who am I working with, there is a equal balance of economic share, I guess is the word.

more of that please. I wish that I knew I had something like this when we were getting when I was getting married because that would be such a meaningful experience with a bride with your bridesmaids with your loved ones making something that is not just memorable but durable and meaningful for the rest of your life. And this is one of like the tons of examples that you can

think of because I feel like this could even be virtual, this could be in person, this could be at a hotel, this could be at a private home setting, this could be, this is something that works all across the board. So I will definitely include that information in the show notes. We're in hospitality general and experience gifting is a $17 billion industry and it's expected to grow. And so people really are,

yearning, I literally wrote a white paper on it, they're yearning for experiences. People want to, and a lot of the hotels and a lot of the community spaces are doing this right now. It's because people really want it. They really want to engage. They really want to make something. And they really want to be with their people. mean, community is so important. And so I really

Because I'm so community oriented and I gotta say the workshops that I've done, I love it. I love teaching. The last one I had, I had 20 year olds and I had 90 year olds and I had two men bring their moms and their grandmothers. I absolutely love that and it's something that I would totally attend. So whenever you're having your next one, I might sign up for it because I think that would be so meaningful and so fun.

all ages, it's all demographics, it's a beautiful way to bond with your ones too and your community. Amanda, by now our listeners have a taste of who you are, what you literally bring to the table, and also your story. And I know that if somebody's made it to this point, you are resonating so much. I do want to dedicate some time because you touched on two very

two parts of grief that affect a lot of people. So one of them is the loss of multiple members all at once, like in a traumatic event, in a tragic event. And then the other one we touched on, obviously, the domestic violence aspect of it. what would you say to somebody who has experienced multiple back-to-back losses or a sudden tragic accident? And what would you say to somebody who, unfortunately, is facing a domestic violence situation?

This is going to sound really wacky, but you need humor in your life and you need, seriously, like you need some humor. I know it's crazy, but I think the first episode that I had, which was really,

I remember I was hysterical and I wasn't hysterically crying. I was hysterically laughing at the hospital. Like that was my reaction to it. And the doctors didn't know what to do with me because it was at the time when they just didn't know what to do with people. And they just sent me home and I went to my friends and I had friends that really took care of me. This was in, this was the second episode because that was, this was college. So it was a second, it was the second one. And

So I was very lucky. I had friends. And I immediately got into therapy. I remember I had a therapist, and she wasn't getting paid. And she still kept me on because money was being used as a weapon. I was very lucky, and I took advantage because I was in college. I was able, I don't know how, but I was able to ask for help.

And so, you know, whatever.

Whatever's offered, don't be afraid. Like, I don't know, for some reason I've been graced with the ability in my life to ask for help, regardless. I mean, I really just leaned on my community. I had a huge community at the time.

That year that that happened, so my grandmother died and it was September 11th. So grandma mop died, it was the last day my whole family was alive together. And then September 11th, her funeral was on September 11th. And then Wojci's plane went down like for what? September, October, November, December, January, five months later. And then my cousin, and this isn't really answering your question, but it's telling you like the literal,

So grandmama died, Wojcic plane went down, and then I get a telephone call a couple of weeks later, and it's my cousin Susie, and she's like, and this is Susie is Ditter's sister. And so was her father and her sister and her nephew. And she's like, I need you to come to Fort Lauderdale. It's like, why? She's like, my mother-in-law just died. And her babysitter, her brother was sick.

and she'd know and take care of the kids. And Susie and my mom, my aunt Carol, were all going to Ditter's house to get the cat and clean out the house because no one was there anymore, right? So I went down to Fort Lauderdale to take care of, and I'm in my 20s, right? I am in this huge, like, mom mobile. Everyone is like 11 to 5. I've got five kids.

in this mom mobile here in Fort Lauderdale from, I was in Brooklyn, I was in New York City. And I'm driving this car, having like a horrible anxiety attack, trying to be an adult and I want ice cream. So I'm like, we're going for ice cream. And Alex, who's like now like 30 something and like, know, an engineer from Princeton graduated working, says to me, we haven't had dinner yet. And I was like, we're having ice cream before dinner, right?

So I'm not answering your question, but what I'm saying is like be in the moment. Just, I don't know, show up for people, say yes. I don't know. I don't have an answer. All I know is I somehow got through it, but we all got through it and it was insanity. I, for some reason, didn't die and I got help and I went out for ice cream with the kids and took care of the kids. like, rather than like,

get overwhelmed by it. don't know. I just kept showing up. I have no idea. I don't have an answer. I really don't. No, and that's the honest answer. It's Go for ice cream. No, but what I hear, if I may reflect it back to you, like what I hear is, and there's a quote by this beautiful illustrator. His name is Charlie Mackesy, I think is his name. One of his illustrations says, what's the bravest thing you've ever said? And the other caricature says, help, right?

And so just knowing, I heard loud and clear, like knowing when and how to ask for help is huge. And that could sound simple and it is incredibly difficult because in asking for help, you're admitting the reality, the magnitude of the reality that you're facing. And yet it could literally save your life. And also ice cream, like ice cream and humor when it's needed. And all jokes aside, I've been talking a lot about how joke, joy, excuse me, anchors us.

to life. posted, I shared this post on my social media, it's the only one that's ever gone viral. And thank God it was that one because it's been so beautiful about how Monet drew the famous water lilies when his two sons were at war. And he could hear the gunshots and all these things, the war essentially taking place in the background. And he says, it feels so silly, I'm paraphrasing, this is not what he actually said, but I'm paraphrasing. It feels so silly to be worrying about

what shade should I use for this one water lily when the world is literally falling apart and when I'm worried about my loved ones and all these things. And yet they are now housed in Paris as a symbol of peace, as a symbol of hope. And no act of creativity in my eyes, that's the takeaway that I got from this, is too small or not meaningful enough.

to literally get us through this thing called life. I would argue that the moments of joy, lightness, humor, ice cream, tethering ourselves to whatever makes us feel anchored, like jewelry, like jewelry making, like our purpose is the essence that is how we move forward in life. And it sounds like you did just that. And you continue to do just that. And now it sounds like you're in a phase in your life where you're also wanting to help other people see that in themselves.

through your work. So that's no small thing. I think you said it perfectly, the answer. You said it so eloquently. And I was trying to get that across in my most recent sub stack that I wrote that, you know, I was reading all of these articles and the world I feel like right now is really, really

we're having that Monet moment that you just explained and I'm talking about jewelry and why is this, why does this make sense or does it make sense? And why is it, why should I even be trying? it's, we have to be creative. It's the only way we're going to survive really. Literally, absolutely. And I thank you for.

doing that for, you know, sharing your story because I know this will absolutely help people gain perspective and also somebody who may be going through a similar situation. So there is hope, there is light, and it could all turn around, you know, when you face it head on in a way, right? Any words of advice for our listeners? Any last thoughts to close out the conversation?

We said it all. just, really want to thank you, Nina. The work that you're doing, invitation to speak and to have this conversation is really, it's been joyous. It's been inspirational. It's, I, I really all I want to say is thank you. And I want to thank you as well because I feel inspired by you too. Final question. What would Amanda today say to Amanda? Let's say that, that 4th of July day when you said, really?

this is happening, what would you say to Amanda that day?

We did it. We're here. I'm so happy. I'm so happy that I'm here in Miami and that I'm no longer in that space. So who knew? I already know actually, I found a journal when I moved to Miami in that basement. And it was from when I was 13 and the journal asked me to write about what my life was and what I loved about my life.

And it literally recreated my life here. was like, I love riding my bike. I love going to the beach. I love having these meals with my friends and being with my community. And that's what I have here in Miami. For those of you that don't know, Nina would come, I would have these meals here in my common room here in my building. And I ride my bike everywhere. So I'm the 13 year old in

in Miami on the beach. grew up at the beach and in the mountains in New Jersey and New York. yeah, I'm my 13 year old self. I'm my little girl here in Miami. Absolutely love that. Thank you so much, Amanda. It's been an absolute honor. Thank you for everything you do and thank you for being you. Thank you.

I'd also love to connect with you and hear your thoughts and your stories. Feel free to share them with me via my Instagram page at griefandlight or you can also visit griefandlight.com for more information and updates. Thank you so much for being here, for being you, and always remember, you are not alone.