A universal language

OLGA LIVSHIN

“Fear and laziness are the two main reasons people fail. If you conquer your fears and eliminate your laziness, you can achieve anything,” said Sasha Shkolnik in an interview with the Independent.

Her own life could be a case in study: through perseverance and courage, not to mention her talent, Shkolnik went from being an immigrant with few resources to the owner of Juvelisto, her jewelry boutique in Richmond’s Steveston Village.

Shkolnik immigrated to Canada with her family in 1995. Behind her were art school in Ukraine and several years working as a ceramic artist. In front of her, however, was the unknown. “I realized very soon that I couldn’t make a living as a ceramic artist. Local people did this sort of thing for a hobby. I needed re-education,” she recalled of her first days in Vancouver.

“At first, I considered a new career as a denturist. I could easily learn, but my heart wasn’t in it. I wanted something in the artistic field, and I got lucky. Even before we emigrated, I fancied learning to make jewelry, and here I discovered the jewelry art and design program at the VCC [Vancouver Community College]. It started just a month after we arrived. I applied, and they accepted me.”

That first step required a great deal of courage. Shkolnik wasn’t proficient in English at the time, and the course wasn’t geared towards English-as-a-second-language students. In fact, she was the only immigrant there, although one of the most experienced artists. Despite the culture shock and the language barrier she faced, Shkolnik worked hard and found her footing soon enough. Her graduation project two years later even received an award.

Her next big project was finding her first job as a goldsmith and, again, courage came to her rescue. “I was a naïve immigrant,” she said with a smile. “I didn’t know people don’t do this sort of thing. I came off the street into the shop of one of the most prominent jewellers in the city, Karl Stittgen, and asked for a job. They were so surprised, they offered me a three-day trial; I had to make a pendant. It was complex, and I botched it. So I asked for a second chance, promised to make it in one day, and that one came out fine. They took me [in].” A dozen years later, she still sounded amazed.

At her next workplace, Costen Catbalue Goldsmith and Design, she stayed for 12 years. “I learned so much there: various techniques and design styles, working with clients, and how to conduct business. It was a good job and they were great people to learn from. I was very grateful but, after a while, I started thinking of striking on my own. I wanted to expose my name as a jewelry designer and I couldn’t do it there. Every design I produced belonged to them. On the other hand, I was scared to leave a secure job and start from scratch again.”

To satisfy her craving for creative challenges, Shkolnik started making jewelry at home in her free time. At first, she did it for relatives and friends only, but then word began to spread. Without advertising, her unique pendants and rings and her straightforward approach attracted new clients: friends of friends of friends. She also sold her collection on Granville Island and at craft fairs, and her reputation grew. Still, she was reluctant to take the plunge and abandon her steady job.

By 2008, Shkolnik was feeling uninspired. “I was stagnating as an artist, searching for a new direction,” she admitted. Then she found an unusual outlet for her creativity. “We went to a body painting competition and I was inspired. I remembered my training as a painter. I started experimenting, painting young models. A body already has a shape, all those curves and lines, and painting it was fascinating.”

This new artistic tangent resulted in the colorful 2010 Body Art Calendar, which Shkolnik created with a team of multi-talented collaborators, including her husband, award-winning photographer Leon Shkolnik. “Every picture for every month of the year was chosen out of about 300 frames. All of us – the artists, the models, the photographer – were immersed in it for a year. We had a marvelous time, a year of pure happiness.”

The calendar venture finally pushed her out of her comfort zone. She gathered her courage and opened Juvelisto in March 2011. Suffused with its owner’s dainty charm, Juvelisto is much more than a shop, it is Shkolnik’s art studio. “The name means a jeweller in Esperanto,” she explained. “Like Esperanto, jewelry is a universal language, the language of beauty.”

At Juvelisto, she makes, displays and sells her original and custom-made creations. She also offers jewelry, arts and crafts by other artists from the United States, France and Canada. One of her contributors is a young, local artisan and fellow Jewish community member, Shira Laye (shiralayejewelry.tumblr.com).

“I’ve been teaching Shira ... for the last three years,” Shkolnik said. “She is extremely talented…. It’s been my dream to open a jewelry school. Most of modern jewelry is created by machines, but I do everything the old-fashioned way, by hand, and I’d like to preserve the tradition before it disappears. I think that when you make a beautiful thing with your hands, it carries the warmth of your hands and your heart forever.”

Juvelisto, at 3500 Moncton St. in Steveston, is hosting two grand-opening evenings, Thursday, Nov. 24 and Friday Nov. 25, 6:30-10 p.m.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

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