When jewellery designer Sylvia Tennant started making wire-wrapped rings in 2013, it wasn’t with the intention of starting a business. Not exactly, anyway. She was frustrated by the lack of jewellery options that fit both her style and size. If she wanted something beautiful to wear, she’d have to make it herself. So she did.

“What I could really find were just men’s rings in my size and that just didn’t feel like me,” the Vancouver-based designer, who runs jewellery brand Zaleska, says. She started experimenting with wire wrapping, using vintage brooches, buttons and stones as centrepieces.

“I was just toying with the idea of making jewellery that really, truly felt like something I wanted to wear,” she says. And then she kept going.

Those early rings brought Tennant to Vancouver’s Eastside Flea (among other markets), where market shoppers saw themselves in Tennant’s fun (and sometimes celestial) designs, defined by playful patterns and colourful gemstones.

“Being a plus-size human, wearing colourful clothing, being fashionable and confident—that attracts people. Those conversations felt safe to have,” she reflects on her early days doing markets.

Zaleska designer Sylvia Tennant. Photo credit: Kiara Schwartz.

Once Tennant found a community of people who loved and connected with her rings, Zaleska was born.

The designer has produced dozens of collections (including rings, earrings, necklaces and bracelets) since its inception more than a decade ago, but now she looks back on each of them as a time capsule of her style. 

“When you look at a body of work, you see so many past versions of yourself,” she reflects.

The Cosmos Ring, for example, has become a long-lasting favourite. To mark a recent birthday, Tennant had a version cast in solid gold and set with a diamond (online, it’s available in silver and gold vermeil for $96). 

“It was a way of honouring both the piece and where I’m at in my journey,” she says. “There are certain designs that I know will just stand the test of time, but I think my favourite collection will always be the collection that’s coming next, or the one that I just launched, because that’s the perfect picture of what I want to wear right now, how I’m feeling, what I want to put out into the world and how I want people to feel when they wear Zaleska.”

Her latest collection is inspired by earth and sea, with the Cenote Ring punctuated by an oval emerald quartz set on its side and the Earth ring, a wide-banded ring with ripples gently-carved into it, as if mimicking sand on the beach. The Oasis Ring meets both designs in the middle: a smaller, triangular emerald quartz sits in the middle of a wide, rippled band.

Featured from Zaleska’s latest drop are the Sacred Spiral Ring and the Oasis Ring. Photo credit: Nicole Robertson.

It’s been some time since Tennant was wire-wrapping by hand, but there’s still an element of organic design in her work: she starts the design process with mood boards and pencil sketches, gleaning inspiration from her environment—maybe a vintage door handle, a pleated dress or a symbol from art history. 

Some might call it analog; it’s a departure from the computer-aided design (CAD) that is widely used in contemporary jewellery design. “I don’t think either method is better than the other,” Tennant clarifies. “But I love the reverence and the magic of the hand-carved tradition.”

These days, production takes place in Bali in partnership with a women-run artisan studio where, each year, Tennant travels to approve 18 months’ worth of designs in person, working side by side with silversmiths, illustrators and wax carvers.

Where she maintains most control, however, is the sizing. It’s important to Tennant that the quality of her designs don’t diminish as ring sizes expand.

Rather than scaling a single mold up or down, her team hand-carves three base sizes: six, nine and 13. Each is then carefully graded only two sizes up or down, maintaining proportion, detail and durability. 

“When you make a ring larger, the circle can weaken,” she explains. “You risk losing detail or durability. By carving multiple bases, we avoid that.”

The result is jewellery that keeps its beauty and integrity, no matter the size. Though it may cost three times as much in production, Tennant says the cost is worth it.

“When someone puts on a piece that was made thoughtfully, in their size, with care and artistry, they feel it.”