Life & Work with Szilvia Gogh

Today we’d like to introduce you to Szilvia Gogh.

Hi Szilvia, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m founder of Gogh Jewelry Design. I’m a SCUBA diver, stuntwoman, yogi, cancer survivor and mom. I started my jewelry design business 20 years ago because I love beautiful things, but as an active woman, I couldn’t find any silver jewelry that was both meaningful and functional – so I started creating jewelry myself. I wanted to wear jewelry that reflects my passion for the ocean, my love for travel and jewelry that inspires and keeps my positive outlook on life.

My source desire is to be happy in my own skin and help others find long-lasting happiness too.

My friends and family were always skeptical when I shared my visions and dreams about traveling the world and making a living of my passions: scuba diving and creating jewelry. I didn’t want to end up like most people around me. They also had amazing dreams and visions but ended up living in “reality.”

I did not want my potentials and opportunities pass me by. My source desire is to be happy in my own skin. I believe that living out our dreams is the key to long-lasting happiness. And at the end of the day, we all want to live happy – even during a pandemic 😉

Since I started creating jewelry, people have been drawn to my pieces for the same reason I created them. Beauty and functionality is important, especially when I’m diving, doing yoga or playing with my son Enzo. Having my jewelry be able to keep up with me and stay in one piece is so important to me, and I’ve learned that it’s important to so many other people out there as well. Check out my jewelry and see how it could keep up with you!

Recently inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame, I was the youngest female in the world to become a PADI Course Director (scuba teacher’s trainer).

Empowerment through teaching people scuba diving and the jewelry I create – has always been important for me. It’s all about being confident in your own skin and not to yearn to be someone else, live somewhere else or look like somebody famous…

When I teach someone to breathe underwater and they experience the state of weightlessness, I open a door in their mind. After you scuba dive, you will never think the same way about Mother Nature and the possibilities in your life than before you swam underwater.

My individually crafted pieces are meant to reflect your journey through life and help you gain the confidence you deserve.

It’s a new world we live in, surrounded with uncertainty. It’s time to focus our intentions for the future. Many of my jewelry designs have mantras and words that have helped me focus my intentions. I use these mantras in my yoga practice or when I meditate. Setting intentions is not as easy as making resolutions. We all want to exercise more or eat healthily or save money more effectively. But setting intentions will help us achieve our goals and resolutions by focusing our energy on our innermost self. My goal is to stay positive.

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?
Atelophobia is the definition of fear of imperfection, the fear of never being good enough.

The need to be perfect bombards us from every corner of our lives, from social media to TV programs and magazines.

As I navigate through an overload of information, I find examples of perfect skin, perfect bounce back after pregnancy, perfect homes, even perfectly behaving pets.

As we scroll through heavily modified images and small snapshots of posed moments, it becomes tough not to compare, and the thought that we are not good enough surfaces.

It’s a silent and long-term killer.

We feel the pressure from family and friends to fulfill particular standards of life and so often of perceived beauty.

We scrutinize each corner of our appearance and struggle to match the proposed standards with our situation.

The fact is that there is only one reality, ours. It’s created by our history, by our mistakes and mishaps. We have made them, learned, changed, and now it’s time to move forward. We are not bound to our past.

We are free to choose and think differently. We have the power to decide what is best for us, even when others around us judge, whisper, and work to dismantle our foundations. No choice is a wrong one.

We can pursue that high degree or otherwise decide that it’s not for us. A few letters before or after our name do not change who we are inside.

When people ask me about my life, I always tell them that life is half choices. We can decide to live one or the other half. We can live a life of independent freedom or create a family, we can live one first then the other, but we cannot have both simultaneously.

Hardly everything comes at one hundred percent. My rule of thumb is to pick the fifty percent that makes my heart beat a little faster and smile a little bigger and live it at a hundred percent of my capacity.

I have decided to live without comparisons, fear of missing out, and primarily first judgment. The day I wake up and no longer be happy with my fifty percent, I will change and create my next destination.

I want to share with you something I wrote a long time ago and still resonates with me:

I am not a perfect girl.

My hair does not always stay in place.

I spill things a lot. I am pretty clumsy, and sometimes I have a broken heart.

My friends and I sometimes fight, and some days, nothing goes right.

But when I think about it and take a step back, I remember how amazing life truly is and that I like being “unperfect” because I am enough.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
About Gogh Jewelry Design Szilvia Gogh creating jewelry – Gogh Jewelry Design

A unique line of stunning jewelry made from nature’s most basic elements that inspires gives back and celebrates life. Any jeweler can sell you jewelry; few can hand create, from conception to completion, a unique and personal talisman. Artist Szilvia Gogh specializes in distilling clients’ needs to create stunning handmade jewelry that becomes a reflection of their souls.

Handcrafted jewelry inspires two types of value. There’s the monetary value expensive diamonds and gems provide. The second type of value is sentimental.

A piece of jewelry that has meaning and purpose can offer more value than opulence. For jewelry designer Szilvia Gogh, pieces can be beautiful and say something too. This is the philosophy you’ll find within the collections of Gogh Jewelry Design.

Szilvia Gogh creating jewelry – Gogh Jewelry Design

Gogh’s necklaces, bracelets and earrings are inspired by her life as a “Renaissance Woman.” In addition to designing jewelry, she’s a professional scuba diver, stunt woman and photojournalist. Her jewelry pieces inspire the natural tranquility of the ocean to the wonders of Eastern zen practiced in yoga.

Her handmade jewelry is all assembled in Los Angeles using curated materials from her travels including natural stones and crystals such quartz, turquoise, lava and pearl. These materials are then transformed into meaningful accessories that nourish the mind, body, and soul.

Szilvia meditates daily before starting the jewelry production and plays ancient chants in the background while the necklaces, earrings and bracelets are being made – to raise the vibration of her products.

Szilvia Gogh creating jewelry – Gogh Jewelry Design

If the unique design of this jewelry doesn’t evoke these feelings, perhaps their purpose will. Gogh is an active volunteer with the A Chance for Children Foundation and works with “at-risk” youth in Los Angeles. Further supporting this cause, one percent of all Gogh Jewelry Design sales go to support projects by funding beads and jewelry-making supplies. Gogh wants to inspire others not only through her jewelry but through her charity work as well… wear some creativity while helping children explore theirs with Gogh Jewelry Design.

At the core of her journey in life is a simple philosophy. Szilvia Gogh cares. And it reflects in the materials she uses, sourcing, packaging, people and beyond.

Gogh Jewelry Design unflinchingly stands by her products and would love to hear from you. Your feedback keeps her going and helps become better at her craft.

Proudly Made with Love in Los Angeles, California.

For more information about this one-of-a-kind jewelry or this one-of-a-kind jewelry designer, visit the Meet the Designer: Szilvia Gogh page.

As a Hollywood stunt woman, professional scuba instructor and jewelry designer, I have an exciting life. I get to work on movie sets with actors like Drew Barrymore, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and directors James Cameron, swim with sharks in remote reefs around the world, and I create jewelry with natural stones and crystals that I collect from my many travels.

Yet the activity that pulls at my heartstrings the most is working with at-risk youth in Los Angeles…

Did you know that gangs start recruiting kids as young as 7 years old? Statistics show that as many as fifteen million children worldwide have no place to go after school. These children are more likely to be victims of crime or to participate in bad behavior.

The statistics are simply too sad to ignore, so as a jewelry designer and company owner, I have now focused my energies to help those “at risk” youth of the inner-city neighborhoods. I am getting help through a fantastic non-profit called A Chance for Children Foundation. Together we have been able to help these children overcome their fears and insecurities. Doing something kind for them fills me with an inner joy that money cannot buy.

Our favorite projects include bringing beads to shelters and schools around Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Christmas. This provides an opportunity for the kids to craft presents for their loved ones for free!

As a scuba divers, my friends and I have also had the opportunity to introduce dozens of kids to the underwater world and share our love for oceans.

We also talk with them about our lives, telling them stories of our amazing adventures and reinforcing the philosophy evoked by Winston Churchill’s famous words, “Never, never, never give up!” A while ago, inspired by this program, I created several necklaces around that inspiration.

If you are feeling a pulled to do something that helps the less fortunate, think of how your passion, talent or hobby could create a new experience for others. The mind is a powerful tool. Believe in something and it will happen.

How do you think about luck?
“You are so lucky” are very easy words to utter when observing someone having what we wish we had and receiving the good fortune we feel we deserve. Most people associate luck with a game of chance. And while there is an element of chance, it does not define the game.

While it’s true that some people are born with advantages or that events happen outside of our control, we can always do something to build upon what we have. When we open ourselves to new places, practice gratitude, and step outside our routine, we might become lucky.

Being lucky is a reflection of the choices we make. The smallest choices define who we are and the people drawn to us, the environments in which we operate, how we spend our time, and how we see and interpret the world. These characteristics define how the world perceives us and the possibilities that flow from that perception.

We all have great ideas; the real gift is to pick a few things we are good at, enjoy the most, and focus on them. Doing so funnels our efforts into the activities that are most likely to show success and bring more luck.

If we go through life knowing only one Latin phrase, let’s make it this: Audentes fortuna iuuat, “fortune favors the bold.” Or, for lack of better words, we are the result of the chances we take. We must remember, though, that we will sometimes fail no matter how hard we try. The trick is to overcome the fear of failure and venture outside our comfort zone to find success.

Tracking how we operate will help us understand better our chances of luck. We can start by keeping a journal and creating a small chart of what we have done successfully and which opportunities we followed.

Ultimately luck is made. Positive, productive, hardworking people create an aura of energy around them that attracts fortunate circumstances. To ensure our energy is not wasted, we must keep energy vampires away.

Let’s surround ourselves with people of a similar mindset and positive attitude who can bring energy instead of draining it. And let’s not forget to not be our own vampires by fostering a positive attitude, dropping our complaining, and embracing the change.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://goghjewelrydesign.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goghjewelrydesign/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoghJewelryDesign
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeEYAydIfejg8wSfsLWqsnw
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/goghjewelry/