Greta Auwerda walks the beach of Gloucester Niles coming across beautiful seaglass, with her creative mind and unique thoughts, she decided that the glass she was coming across, made into jewelry would be amazing.
“I started making jewelry because when I started collecting the seaglass, I had so much and I wanted to use it to make something,” Auwerda said. “Once I wired one, I couldn’t stop. I loved seeing the different designs I could make.”
“I haven’t bought anything off of her but I’d love to, her work is beautiful and creative,” senior Marisa Soffron said.
Auwerda is a 19-year-old girl who graduated from Triton High school with the class of 2017, she was undecided about her plans for after high school but did not want to rush herself into a college that she wasn’t certain about going to.
She took the semester off to focus on herself and take time to decide what she wanted to do. She now is planning to attend the University of Massachusetts-Amherst this coming spring.
During her time off of school, Auwerda worked at Harvey Tool in Rowley, putting in around 32 hours per week.
She started finding new hobbies and love for things she would’ve never known she loved without the semester that she took off. She started doing yoga, making and eating healthy foods, and best of all, started making jewelry out of seaglass that she had collected herself.
Auwerda discovered how patient she needed to be when making them because it could be really easy to mess them up. She offers personalized jewelry so you can tell her what color you want and how you want it wired and she will make your piece based off of your desires.
Senior Meredith Kennedy bought a necklace off of her “I love it, I got it for $15 which is a great price for the quality of the necklace,” said Kennedy.
This became more than just a small hobby. She started a business out of it. She began selling her work and succeeding in it.
The business is called ‘Greta’s Glass’ she went to a festival in Gloucester and says that it went a lot better than she had originally thought, she started social media accounts to promote her work, and overall fell in love with what she was doing.
Auwerda explains that getting her name out there wasn’t too hard. “Social media plays a big roll,” she said.
“I haven’t done much with it for a while because I’ve been so busy with work and applying to school, but I am planning to get my stuff up on my Instagram and Facebook for the holiday season,” said Auwerda.
Although she doesn’t have much time for her business, she wishes that wasn’t the case. “I wish I had more time for it because I think it could be bigger than it is, it’s just very time consuming.”