Anya Elise Origin Story

In this blog post, I will be sharing the story about why I started Anya Elise back in 2023 along with how I make my cast seashell jewelry.

It all started with a shell. And not just any shell. The spotted cowrie – trivia monacha. 

Prowling the Laguna Beach shoreline for treasures, I'd rarely find one of these beauties. I've been told they look like coffee beans...as well as certain feminine features. After all, nature repeats itself. This is the very shell which inspired me to found Anya Elise.

While I have been classically trained in music, theatre, dance, and drawing, I didn’t have any experience in jewelry. Years ago, I would walk up and down the beaches in Laguna playing my bamboo flute and picking up seashells. I’d find a ball of knotted up fishing line, untangle it, and thread it with seashells. I called these my “mermaid leis”.

Some of the first necklaces I made back in 2021!

My Aunt Kelly, a Kauai-diving shell-lover, quickly encouraged me to start my own jewelry business. However, I soon found out that taking shells off the beach was a crime and selling them even more so!

How would I share my love of seashell jewelry with the world? I consulted the mother of one of my best friends and an established jewelry artist in town, MerriJane Morrison, and she encouraged me to begin loss wax casting.


My first fine silver pieces (cowrie shell and eucalyptus)

I made my original pieces using silver precious metal clay, according to the steps detailed in the following visual.

I then made silicone molds of my original pieces which are used to make wax duplicates. The wax duplicates are put on a wax casting tree, and through the loss wax casting method, are turned into solid brass or sterling silver.

My first waxes, made from beeswax I harvested on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Voilà! I figured out a way to preserve the beautiful shells I found on the Laguna coast without harming sea life or your pockets.

From my first collection at the Sawdust Art Festival

I began to sell these designs at the Sawdust Art Festival in the summer of 2023, and the rest is history…

My latest creations

While I still use this method on a majority of my pieces, I have been exploring new techniques, such as electroforming, which I will address in the next blog post. I cannot wait for you to see the beautiful new sea glass rings which I will be debuting this summer.

Thank you for reading, and I can’t wait to share more of my journey with you, one story at a time.

xo, anya elise

Anya Elise Gourley
Founder, Anya Elise
anyaelisejewelry@gmail.com
@anyaelisejewelry