Ep13 - Crafting Timeless Beaded Jewellery with Zoe form Zoitza

Episode 13 is a conversation with Zoe, founder of Zoitza Jewellery in Melbourne -  and our first interstate guest, who kindly took time out of her holiday to chat with us (making this one feel extra special)

We chat about where it all began, from making beaded necklaces with her cousins as a kid to now creating playful, considered pieces across necklaces, bracelets and earrings. That early love for beading laid the foundation for what Zoitza has become today; a brand shaped by colour, individuality and personal expression.

Zoe shares her journey into jewellery design and the evolution of her pieces from concept to creation, with each one carefully made by hand, infused with love and intention. We talk about the beauty of slow, thoughtful craftsmanship, the time and care behind every piece, and what it means to create something tangible in a fast-paced world.

This episode is for anyone drawn to fun, expressive design, slow fashion and the idea that the things we loved as kids can often shape the paths we take.

@_zoitza_

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

All the juice straight from the maker booth. Welcome to the Booth Juice. Welcome back to another episode of The Booth Juice. I am so excited because I have my very first interstate maker joining me today. So please welcome Zoe from Switzer! Thank you so much for joining me, Zoe. Thank you for inviting me. Of course, I know that you are up on holidays with your beautiful family from Melbourne. So I really appreciate you taking the time to tell your story today. But for those who don't know you and don't know what you do, do you want to give them a bit of an intro?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Yes. My name is Zoe. I am the designer and founder, I guess, of Zoitsa, which is a handmade jewelry brand.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Yeah, I always pronounce it wrong. I do apologize. You're not the only one. Everyone does. Zoitza. Zoitza. Okay, cool. Alright, I'll promise I'll get that better. It's juicy. It's Romanian. So beautiful. So how did you start making jewelry? Where did the name come from?

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Yeah, so I started, oh, it's 2020, the start of COVID is when I started. Um it was like a fluke accident, really. The beginning of the brand. Um, there was a necklace that I wanted that was from Europe and it was crazy expensive. So I was like, I want to make it myself, and I did, and then other people were like, I want one, and that's how it started. Yeah. But when I was a young girl, my cousins and I would make jewelry all the time. We would just bead, spend all of our spare time beading. Um and the name Zoitsa came from my nonno, he used to call me Zoitsa. And it wasn't until we went to Europe, what, eight years ago? I went with my mum, my nonna, and my aunties, and we stayed in his hometown in Romania. Oh wow, and we found out that his grandma's name was Zoitza, and he just never told us. Wow! Oh, that's so special!

SPEAKER_01 2:11

I know.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

So, yes, that's how the name came about. Beautiful. Yeah, and so you're based in Melbourne? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Based in Melbourne, nice. Have you always been in Melbourne?

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Always lived in Melbourne, grew up there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

But I know you spend quite a bit of time in Port Douglas.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yes, yes, yes, we do. It is our holiday destination. My fiance's dad or family actually have a holiday house here in Port Douglas. They got married in Port Douglas, so it holds a special place in all of our hearts. It's definitely we look forward to coming here as much as we can.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Yeah, and um, your mother-in-law, Michelle, shout out to Michelle. She's um always been a really big supporter of maker as well.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Definitely she loves it, loves it here. Yeah, that's actually how I was introduced to makeup through Michelle.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Oh, I know because I remember Michelle saying, Oh, my daughter-in-law's a little bit shy to ask, but she's actually got a really wicked brand. And I was like, Why is she not coming in? Um, and yeah, it just sort of the one, which is so beautiful. Yeah, so the necklace you're wearing at the moment is one of your pieces. It is.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

This is the Zalia necklace. Yeah, it's beautiful. They're one of my favourites, then flower designs because I love to wear you can wear them at the front or you can wrap them around and have the flower hanging down the back. Yeah, my one of my favourites, so beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

We need to get some more in. We've just I feel terrible because we go through quiet season, and I just, you know, we have I think we have 147 makers or something at the moment. So restocking them is a is a process. And I'm always like, every time I see, because I know that one of the girls have got a couple like a necklace of yours, and every time I see them wear it, I go, oh gosh, we've got to restock them. No, a lot of stores. I will have some more in soon.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Yeah, a lot of stores have really been struggling with placing orders this this cut past couple two years, really.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Yeah, it is such a yeah, it's roller coaster, proper roller coaster, but yeah, and we're we've been told Easter's gonna be good though. So hopefully, yeah, so hopefully the season this year. Do you run your business full-time now or no?

SPEAKER_00 4:20

I used to because it was COVID, of course, and I was able to put so much time and effort into it, but now I am working full-time as an early childhood educator.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

So I am struggling to dedicate time towards it. I've had this collection about for about two years now, whereas I usually like to do a new collection every year, but I just haven't had the time to create one, and I'm still getting such a good response from this collection, so I thought, why not? We'll just keep it going. Why change a good thing? You know, I mean, I would like to, even if I just tweak the collection a little bit and create new designs, but yeah, working Monday to Friday only allows me time to do orders after work, which is full on, yeah, and store orders I just say for the weekends. So yeah. And so it's just you beating it. It's just me. It's just me. And it's not only the beating side of it, it's the content of posting. I was used to be really good at like recording myself and doing catch-up videos because that's what people like. They like the person behind the brand, the story, I should say. Of course. Um, so I've really lacked on that side of it. But that's right, you go in phases, like yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

So your content's beautiful though. Everything that, yeah, I know, I know, but I found myself pinching some of your stuff sometimes when I'm strapped for time.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

So well, at the start of when I first started this collection, I did this one big shoot with um this one girl, Sophie, she's amazing. Um, and I had some help from my cousin who's a content creator and her friend who was a photographer. So I have was so fortunate to have such a good team creating that shoot. Um, but I have found that my content can be a little bit repetitive, so I've started to branch out and take photos for myself. Yeah, beautiful. Um, and I've even like reached out to girls and been like, Yeah, can I send you a couple pieces to take photos? Just so I've got a bit of diversity in my content.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Oh yeah, I know it's a full-time job, but yeah, that user-generated content really helps sometimes when you can say, Hey, can you just send me some stuff? Definitely, definitely. Yeah, that's awesome. So, what inspires you the most with your creations?

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Like, do you sort of find yourself like you have to have a certain process, or honestly, I have found that people and places in my life have a big influence on my designs. Yeah, especially at the beginning. I was basing necklaces off yeah, people in my life, like my goddaughter Aurora. I had one named after her because it reminded me of her, or like the Aries necklace. Um, it was inspired by like the terracotta cliffs off the coastal town Aries Inlet, um, and the um turquoise water there.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

And do you know off the top of your head how many stores you're stocked in as well? Because I know you've got a few stockers.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Yes, currently about nine. That's awesome. All in Australia? All in Australia. I did at the beginning have one in New Zealand as well, but that kind of fizzled out, which happens. Of course. Um, but yeah, my first stockist was form store in Byron Bay. Oh, yeah. And they actually reached out to me by Instagram. Wow, that's awesome because they're stunning stock. I know, I know, I couldn't believe it. Because I had never thought to be in stores, I thought it was just gonna be an independent solo kind of journey. Um, but yeah, so they were my first stockist. And was that in 2020 as well? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Cool. So you must have just sort of started making and then went, Yeah, okay, this is actually gonna work.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Honestly, I'm pretty grateful because my cousin Lola had a pottery brand, Lolita by Lolita. Oh, and she became quite well known, and she kind of started wearing my jewelry and posting about it, and that's how I that's awesome, yeah, opened that part of the world. Yeah, um, and then when Form Store contacted me, it opened my mind up. Maybe I should be contacting stores too. So that's how it all started with the stores. So now I've got about nine consistent stores, yeah, that place orders.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

That's so cool. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

And are they all smaller independent kind of stores? Yeah, all small boutiques across Australia. In Melbourne, oh, I've got one in Melbourne, yeah, but everything else is elsewhere, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Cool. I'm assuming we're probably the fur furthest north. Yeah, definitely. Oh, that's so good. Definitely, yeah. Do you get a chance to visit your other stocks as well?

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Or I've been to form in Byron. Yeah. I've been to the one in Melbourne. I had one on the coast of Melbourne as well, but they've closed down now. But I haven't actually travelled anywhere else around Australia that stock. Oh, there's the noosa one, Alterior Motive. I've been there a few times. Um, but yeah, I haven't really been anywhere else. I guess life is busy.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yes. I mean, I would love to, yeah, hopefully eventually. Over your journey from 2020 and you know, starting to make stuff for yourself and then starting to stop. Did you find that there was any particular milestones or highlights throughout the last five or so years?

SPEAKER_00 10:02

I've had a couple. My main big one was my collaboration with Lola, my cousin. Um, I flew up for about two weeks to Noosa and stayed with her, and we created a collection with clay beads. Oh, so we sat there for hours with the clay, like making the beads and like creating, we made three different designs. Beautiful. Um, and it was such a long process just having like fiddling around trying to finalise the three designs, and we just spent hours rolling these tiny little beads and then poking a hole through them all and then painting them all. Yeah, um did you fire all of those as well? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Oh wow. Oh, so you have to, you know, keep in mind that the hole will streak or however it works, and we have so many more because of that.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Some of them would break during the firing process. Yeah, um, but yeah, that was definitely a big highlight for me, that collection. Another milestone would be ulterior motive. The story Noosa reached out um wanting to do a collaboration. So they gave me a brief of what they wanted, or they chose the colours more so, and I came back to them with a few designs, and they chose and we just worked together with like modifying what their vision was. Um, that was definitely another milestone having collaborations with other stores.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

So maybe we should just say, you know, my brain's ticking like maybe we could do a make a collection. Yeah, collab and a unique to your store. Absolutely, yeah. We could do a Port Douglas collection. Yes. Oh, I like the way you think. Okay, stay tuned because we will make this happen. If I'm just seeing it in my head, I'm like, oh, hold on. Yeah, absolutely. Or maybe we'll have a meet and greet or something next time. Oh my goodness. There's an abundance of options in here. Do you do you find you keep stuff for yourself, designs for yourself? Definitely. I've got one of everything at home.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

And if you know me, I every day is a different one. I like to. I'm a big necklace person. I love that so much. So I'm always wearing something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Oh, that's so nice. Yeah. Oh, I love that. It is. Because I know like it's funny because I interview artists and things as well. And I always wonder, oh, do they keep a print for themselves? Or you know, or it's also nice to like reflect on all of the pieces that I've made.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah. And I'm still wearing pieces from my old collection, you know. Absolutely. It probably feels fresh again if you don't wear it for the bigger.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Oh, that's so nice. And do you find um have you got like particular colours or anything that are more popular than others, or it's kind of across the board?

SPEAKER_00 12:51

It's kind of across the board. I do get a lot of the beige in sort of repetitive orders. Yes. Um, a lot of the green, the deep olive green necklace, that's really popular. Yeah. Um, honestly, the more chunky necklaces are less popular. Yeah. Maybe because people like to wear the more dainty necklaces as an everyday piece, and they're still versatile, you can dress them up.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Absolutely. Um, and I think a lot of people stack them too. Like I know our girls in here they often do like an arms vive necklace and one of yours, and then maybe a lana piece or something. Yeah, it ends up like a really nice stack. So, do you make um necklaces as well as bracelets?

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yeah, and earrings as well. Yeah, yeah. I do bracelets and earrings. Honestly, necklaces are my best seller, yeah, but I do get lots of bracelets, especially like matching ones people do as like a friendship one. Um, and I do earrings, so I do it's usually like a hoop similar to this one. Yeah. Um gold hoop with like a pearl on them. I've got different shapes of pearls that I do. But yeah, necklaces are definitely the best set of things.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Yeah, oh that's so nice. Well, I guess that's good because that's where you started too.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

It just shows that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

And I people love to wear the matching bracelet and necklace, which is you can see across my collection, I've got lots of the matching sets.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Yeah, they're so cute. Yeah, I love them. I actually I remember um I must have been a year or so ago now, but we had your bracelets in, and I had this mum and daughter, and I thought, oh, I don't know if it'll fit the daughter because she was quite little, but they pinned it so tight, and then they walked out so tough for themselves because they bought like matching, and I just thought this is the cutest thing ever. It makes my heart so happy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so sweet. I just love like yeah, you have so many different people buying your products or you know, popping in store and stuff, and I just that's one of my favorite things is getting to see the joy that that brings them. Definitely, yeah, because I think some people can probably think, oh, accessories are very aesthetic, and you know, but you forget that accessorizing actually brings you joy as well and gives you confidence.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Definitely, I love it's so rewarding getting hearing that or when I get messages sent to me saying like how much they love their piece. I had a customer message me not long ago, she bought two bracelets two years ago. She says, I wear them every day, I haven't taken them off, and this one's just broken. Are you able to repair it for me? And I was like, send them back to me. I was like, definitely. The fact that she's worn them every day for the past two years, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Well, that also is a testament to your quality as well, because they that you work with really wonderful materials and stuff, and yeah, you can tell straight away when you when you put it on that it's really important to me for the quality to be high because people I don't recommend wearing them every day because it is not a solid goal, yeah, but people do wear them every day, and to hear that response, it just yeah, very rewarding warms my heart. So, moving forward, have you got anything on the go, or is it are you still kind of in that working full-time phase?

SPEAKER_00 16:12

I'm still in that working full-time phase. I would like to spend a bit more time maybe later this year working on some new pieces. But yeah, as I said, I'm still getting such a good response from this collection, especially these flower designs.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

So I am wanting to maybe just tweak the collection, like I said, yeah, just maybe get rid of some designs and add some new ones, but not anytime soon because I'm just not finding that I have the time to do that.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

And that I think that is an important conversation to have because a lot of creatives don't do their side hustle full time, and yeah, it's important to just give you credit for going, hey, hey, you're doing really well because you're you're juggling two big things. It's you, it's you hats off too. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

But yes, hopefully later on this year I'll have some new designs out and just keep the ones that are doing that are getting such a good response.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

So fantastic, yeah. I know that we definitely I'm I'm I'm looking at your necklace as we speak and go going, oh gosh, we really need to do a restock because they are so beautiful. Yes, yeah, and I think they're so perfect for Port Douglas as well. Like they're very almost gives a bit of an island vibe sometimes, which is super sweet. Yeah, they definitely have a coastal energy about them. Yeah, do you have a favourite piece in your collection?

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Um I it's hard to pinpoint. I have a lot of favourite necklaces. Yes. I say necklaces because it's what I'm wearing every day. Of course. Um, but yeah, my top two favourites from this collection would have to be the Alody necklace, which is this one in the per deep purple with the rose quartz pink. Beautiful. Um, that's one of them. Yeah. And the second would have to be the cherry necklace. Yeah. I don't know if you've had that one in there. I'm trying to think. It's the deep red jade beads, and it's like a chunky red jade necklace. It's just colour is just stunning.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

So those two would have to be my top two from this collection. Oh, that's so nice.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Well, we'll have to get those in our next order as well. So if anyone's listening in their ears are freaking up, we will have more stuff in the next couple of months. So yeah. Um when Zoe has time to make always, always. Now I might wrap up with do you have a piece of advice that you could give someone, whether it be to do with running a business, following your creative path, day to day, whatever it may be.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Yeah. Um, I would have to say just do it. Don't think about it too much. Yeah. If you've got it in your head that it's something that you want to do, put the time in, find materials that are good quality, because that is the base of everything. A good quality design and make things that or do things that you love. Or like I make pieces that I want to wear. Yeah. So that's just go for it, put the time and energy into it.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Yeah. I really like that point about quality as well, because I I do think that a lot of people sort of rush to to get you know the idea out there or whatever, but it's really important to do that. Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

If people are spending the money, you want them to have something that's going to last them. And that yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Oh, well, thank you so much for joining me today. Um, if people are wanting to find you, where can they head?

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Yep. Um, my Instagram is Sawitza, so Z-O-I-T-Z-A. Yeah. And I have a website, www.suitsa.com.au. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

And we will, I promise, have more stock in in the next couple of months, I promise. Um but yeah, if you if you want to shop online, we do have a few pieces left as well. Otherwise, send us a DM. Um, and yeah, just thank you so much for joining us and taking time out of your holiday. Um, we will be in your ears very soon, guys. Um, if you haven't already, please hit the follow button. Um, and if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. Um, but other than that, have a wonderful day and see you guys.