Conversations with Kalissa Caneda

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kalissa Caneda.

Kalissa, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started off with just making wired rings. I never intended to sell my rings, but I just enjoyed making them for myself or my friends. As a college freshman, I had a lot of time on my hands and got a lot better at it. I decided that I should try to sell my rings to other students on campus at Grand Canyon University. I got my first customer within an hour of making my first post.

Over the summer, I decided to try to experiment with other forms of jewelry like necklaces and bracelets. Next thing I knew I was making gold-filled jewelry, keychains, and bookmarks, and improving the quality of my wired rings. In September 2022, I applied to do on-campus markets and expand my business. I was gaining followers every day and really growing my business. Now, people around campus say they love my jewelry and I even see a few people wearing it.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have definitely been some challenges in the past year and a half. My main obstacle is being homesick. I was born and raised in Hawai’i. My jewelry is inspired by Hawaiian culture and the things I grew up around. I am very lucky that Arizona has a lot of other people from Hawai’i and places I can go to when I am homesick.

Another obstacle would be me. I am always looking for ways to improve my jewelry or my social media. I sometimes get too hard on myself, but the people I surround myself with are what keeps me going.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My determination is what I am the proudest of. All my products are made by hand and made by me. It takes time and hard work to make a lot of jewelry. But, when it’s done, it’s the best feeling to see all of my products on display.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
When people ask me how I come up with my designs, I really don’t know what to tell them. I can’t really answer the question because I just create things that I would want to wear and hope everyone else will like too. I spend hours at a time playing with my wire and hope I make something out of it. It seems like a very unorganized way of creating my products, but the process just seems to work.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jewelrybykal/