Sarah Martin Rowe can consider a gemstone and create the proper engagement ring. What additionally makes her stand out as a customized jeweler is she will knock out an aria with ease, having studied and carried out opera for years earlier than reworking her curiosity in jewellery right into a career.
Martin Rowe is the proprietor and lead designer of the Leake Co., a customized jewellery design enterprise based mostly in Louisville, Ky., that she opened in 2021 after practically a decade within the trade.
Nonetheless, she’s typically reminded of the sphere she left behind. “Jewellery and singing inform each other,” says the soprano. “They’re each fascinating. With jewellery and music, you by no means cease studying. Plus, with jewellery, you might be artistic and share it in an intimate method, very like you do with music.”
Music grew to become an necessary a part of Martin Rowe’s life when she was highschool and positioned in statewide and regional competitions for each vocal and flute efficiency. She attended school on a voice scholarship, however didn’t actually consider opera as a attainable profession till she studied overseas in Italy throughout her junior 12 months.
“After I bought uncovered to conventional Italian opera, I knew that’s what I needed to do,” says Martin Rowe. “It was that incredible. I began learning with a vocal coach that summer season.”
Martin Rowe acquired each a grasp of music diploma and a performer diploma from Indiana College’s Jacobs College of Music earlier than relocating to Louisville in 2013. Whereas in class and afterward, she carried out with regional opera firms, together with the Indianapolis Opera.
“You actually need to like it a lot that you simply forgo different issues,” Martin Rowe says. “However whereas I used to be engaged on that, I wanted a job in between my music gigs.”
A pal of a pal labored for an impartial jeweler close to Louisville, and Martin Rowe utilized for a gross sales affiliate place there. Throughout the job interview she was requested about her most up-to-date jewellery buy—her description of an artwork deco platinum diamond ring was passionate sufficient to get her the job.
Inside three years, Martin Rowe graduated along with her GIA gemologist certificates. She went on to work as a gross sales rep throughout america for a global bridal jewellery designer from 2016 to 2020. That position ramped up her understanding of the design course of in addition to manufacturing.
“Seeing that degree of artistry was superb. I might sit down with the designer and study the method. And when he debuted his work, it was an electrical feeling—identical to what it felt like after I was on stage,” Martin Rowe says. “He was unapologetic about his high quality. It needed to be good, like a Swiss timepiece.”
These 4 years collectively have been transformative. When Martin Rowe felt prepared to begin her personal enterprise, she thought by each element. However none was as necessary as the corporate’s title.
She needed the truth that it was a female-owned enterprise to take middle stage, so she used her great-grandmother Susie Leake’s maiden title.
“She gave me jewellery and trusted me to maintain it,” Martin Rowe says. “I wore it to each audition. It gave me power to stroll into that room and audition. I felt like that was how I needed my enterprise to run—it could be woman-powered.”
Her favourite a part of operating her enterprise is sitting knee to knee with purchasers who need customized work. She says dreaming up concepts with purchasers brings her an identical sort of expertise as she had as a singer.
“There’s a second as a performer the place you get a pure feeling of pleasure. In any case of these years working towards, you’re lastly on stage in a job and also you get to share it with individuals,” Martin Rowe says. “You simply get to share a narrative with somebody. It’s electrical.”
Prime: Sarah Martin Rowe began her profession as an opera singer, and dealing in jewellery was only a technique to pay the payments; now she has her personal customized jewellery enterprise, the Leake Co. (Images courtesy of the Leake Co.)
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