Interview with Emery & Opal, Montreal based jewelry company!

Emery & Opal is a Canadian, women owned & operated jewelry company that we broke into over the last couple of years! Stocking beautiful pieces from (but not limited to) their Tarot, Astrological & Birth Month lines, Emery & Opal create beautiful, simple & high quality jewelry. There is a piece for everyone in their line of gold filled & gold plated earrings, rings & necklaces!

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Gaia: Hello Emery & Opal!! Such a pleasure to be interviewing you. Can you tell us, who you are and a little bit about yourselves?

Emery & Opal: We’re Amanda and Tiffany, sisters, best friends, and founders of E&O! We’ve been making jewelry since we were little kids, selling friendship bracelets to all the other kids on the block! We always knew that we wanted to work together when we grew up. Through school, jobs and raising a family we kept pushing towards the dream of running our small business and leaving our full-time jobs.

Gaia: What prompted you two to start a jewelry business?

Emery & Opal: (Amanda) I have always been fascinated with making jewelry. It’s my calling in life. We spent the better part of our teenage and young adult lives going to school and trying to get a conventional job. We both found that wasn't the path for us. A little over 12 years ago we needed a way to raise money for a breast cancer walk we were doing. By making bracelets and selling them we were able to raise $2000! We started posting the bracelets on Etsy and soon enough started selling them! Slowly we started adding more and more pieces and through patience and consistent hard work we were able to grow the company into what it is today.

Gaia: How did you come up with your name ‘Emery & Opal’?

Emery & Opal: Emery, representing the May birthstone, symbolizes the month Emery and Opal was born. Opal, the October birthstone, holds a special place in our hearts, representing our late grandmother, Beatrice. Her spirit is the driving force behind our success. She was the hardest working woman we knew, showing us that women are strong, independent, and can accomplish anything.

Gaia: What prompted you to have jewelry pieces in your line that are inspired by spiritual themes, for example the Astrological & Tarot necklaces?

Emery & Opal: It comes from being exposed to these spiritual ideas as children. Our grandmother was very superstitious, we liked to call her a kitchen witch and she would often heal and fortify us with her many homemade concoctions and remedies. Our aunt was very into astrology and tarot reading. She bought us many astrology books, after which we became obsessed with guessing people’s zodiac signs, which is something we still do to this day!

Gaia: What are your favorite pieces of jewelry that you produce?

Emery & Opal: I love making custom items for customers. Creating something meaningful that I know they will carry with them and that has the ability to evoke an emotional response and connection.

Gaia: Do you consider yourselves spiritual?

Emery & Opal: We do! Like the vast majority of people today we consider ourselves spiritual but not specifically religious.

Gaia: How do you think you have grown as a person in the last year?

Tiff: I took a lot of time to heal old wounds and focused on doing what’s best for a happy life. Getting rid of negativity in my life.

Amanda: I’ve learned that in many ways I’ve been repressing my true feelings and who I really am for a long time. I’m slowly learning to express my true inner being more authentically and fearlessly.

Gaia: What is one thing you would like to grow about yourself in 2023?

Emery & Opal: We have both have the same goal for the year!  Letting go of our fears. We’re so controlled by the 'what ifs'. We both want to let go of the fear, follow our intuition and be ok with where we end up. Mistakes will be made and that’s ok!

Gaia: What is your sun sign and do you feel you relate to it? If you know what your moon and ascendant signs are, do you feel like they reflect in your personality?

Amanda: Sun Sign is Capricorn – I 100% relate to my Capricorn sign! I’m a very hard worker who is ambitious. My favorite Capricorn fact is that we age in reverse. I was a workaholic child/teen but now I have much more of a work/life balance! I think I laugh more now than I did as a kid. My Moon Sign is Scorpio and Rising is Cancer – Yes, I have so many deep emotions! Sometimes I feel the internal battle between the emotional water signs and the stable earth sign.

Tiffany: Sun Sign is Virgo – I’m a Virgo through and through! I’m organized, practical and very creative! My Moon Sign is Taurus and Rising is Capricorn. I absolutely relate! I love all things aesthetically pleasing. My Capricorn rising makes me seem cold and rigid and then people get to know me and are like, wow, you’re actually a very nice person.