Atelier Zayeh: When self-assertion and jewelry collide

Meet Anne-Sophie, the passionate self-taught woman behind jewelry brand Atelier Zayeh.

With a degree in Materials Engineering and currently pursuing a masters in Industrial Food Design, Anne-Sophie decided to launch her own jewelry brand at the end of the first lockdown in 2020.

Anne-Sophie tells us how hers studies -while not fashion related, have helped her in her journey and how creating her own brand helps her express her boundless creativity, and defy the limitations of society and social media.

 

How did you come up with the idea of creating jewelry?

I was in my final year of Engineering and Materials and Applied Arts and we were assigned a project. The idea was to make jewelry inspired by the four elements of the Earth. It was interesting, but at the same time super restrictive. I couldn’t incorporate my own inspirations into it, so I that inspired me to make something of my own.

 

Where does the name Atelier Zayeh come from?

So Atelier is to refer to the handmade aspect of the craft, and Zayeh is in homage to my mother, whose middle name is Zayenda. 

 

 

Atelier Zayeh offers polymer clay jewelry. What made you choose this material? 

Polymer clay is a very versatile material. You can do so many things with it, you can paint it, you can bake it, you can varnish it, you can also sand it. In fact, it’s like play-dough so you can make infinite shapes.

 

What inspires these creations? 

A little bit of everything! I lived in Savoie for three years and at that time, for example, I was creating a lot of earrings inspired by the mountains. Since I joined the School of Design, I have been more interested in the graphic aspect.

 

Are there any African practices or know-how that can be found in your creation or that inspire it?

Yes, if I can find things that refer to Africa in a subtle way, I’ll apply them. For example, one of my earrings is inspired by the texture of cassava, this slightly brown texture with streaks inside. One day I also cut a piece of cassava, and I rolled it on polymer clay so that the texture would stick to the material..

 

What are the steps that lead to the creation of Atelier earrings?

What I like to do is look at different materials, and try to reproduce their effects with polymer clay, because for me you can wear everything in earrings.

I start by drawing inspiration from a theme. I then produce it in several forms and carry out several experiments. If they are coherent, I will put them together and make a collection.

I try as much as possible to recycle my creations that don’t work, keeping them aside to rework them later. 

 

Who are these creations desitned to ?

At first, I thought I would be speaking to creatives like me. But my first pop-up store at the Christmas market in Germany, in a small town, proved me wrong. 

There were women in their fifties who wanted to buy me earrings, children and also young people. This made me realize that the brand appeals to a much larger and more diverse audience than I could have imagined.

 

Sometimes when you have your brand on the internet you limit yourself to your subscribers. When in reality, you have no limits. It’s all about the connection with the product.

Through social networks it’s difficult to get very tangible information because behind the likes, I don’t really know what the person thinks about it. When in reality, the person gives you their opinion directly.

 

 

Does your field of study help you in your brand in any way ?

My studies help me a lot because in design school, you have workshops in which you can work on personal projects. When I have events such as pop-up stores, I prepare them there, I do laser cutting or scenography and I can get advice from a workshop manager.

During my Erasmus in Germany, I sold at the Christmas market for a week and I printed my photos in large format at the school. I also organizes photoshoots with students from the school.

 

As a young jewelry designer, are there things you face that we don’t necessarily imagine?

At first, I had difficulty finding suppliers. My student budget didn’t allow me to print the boxes I needed to ship my earrings.

Additionally, as it’s for packaging that is going to be thrown away, I thought I might as well do something much more affordable at home. So based on these financial issues, I found solutions at my level. 

 

Then there’s also the fact that I find it difficult to promote my project by selling myself, because I tell myself that I only make earrings. I think I feel a lot of this imposter syndrome, the fact of thinking: “actually, there are many more talented than me. Why are they going to buy this product from me?”.

 

What can we expect in the future with Atelier Zayeh? 

I’d like to offer something broader than earrings, but I think it will come when I feel that I’ve exploited all forms of this experimentation.

The next step would be to experiment with the shapes and apply them to the hair.

I would love to make locks jewelry! It’s not necessarily success that drives me, but rather stimulation and experimentation. So even if today I don’t have 46,000 customers, it’s not a big deal because today I do what I love and I do it for people who really understand what I want to share. 

 

Now I’m giving myself time to learn from my mistakes. I don’t put pressure on myself to do drops every week or anything. 

 

 

What message do you want to convey through Atelier Zayeh?

The essence of Atelier Zayeh is that each pair has its identity to allow you to express yours, and it is unique like you!

It’s the act of playing with everything, not setting limits and experimenting as much as possible with your style. It’s a way for me to emancipate myself from the limits that people wanted to impose on me.