The Daily Orange is a nonprofit newsroom that receives no funding from Syracuse University. Consider donating today to support our mission.

Syracuse University junior Julia Schwenderman was making earrings for themselves when they began receiving compliments from other students. And when they did, the students asked where they could buy the jewelry.

“It’s kind of just something that I do because I love it,” Schwenderman said. “Because I know that it makes other people really happy, and they think it’s really cool.”

Schwenderman then created their online shop, QWLRY, in August. QWLRY mostly sells earrings, along with charm bracelets and keychains. Customers can find photos of various products or reach out to Schwenderman with custom orders on the shop’s Instagram page.

Schwenderman said they get a lot of influence for their jewelry from custom orders. Most of the time, a customer will request a new object be placed on an earring. Then Schwenderman will open up the new item to all customers who visit their page.

For Schwenderman, the emphasis on the jewelry they create is how fun and different it is. The inspiration they get for their jewelry is “anything that’s fun and different.” For materials, they will go to supply stores, as well as repurpose items like wine corks. They also have turned objects such as plastic aliens and rubber skulls into earrings.

The inspiration Schwenderman got for their jewelry is “anything that’s fun and different.” Young-Bin Lee | Staff Photographer

Katie Volkomer, an SU junior who placed a custom order through QWLRY, said the process was simple and it was easy to ask for certain changes and specifications. The earrings Volkomer purchased had stars on them, and even though Schwenderman didn’t initially have star jewelry in stock, they fulfilled the special request and created the earrings.

Recently, Schwenderman completely rebranded their jewelry store. The shop started off with the name ShopSchwendy, a play on their last name, but they changed the name to QWLRY to define the shop as a queer-owned business.

Car Shapiro, an SU sophomore and QWLRY customer, appreciates the emphasis the shop has placed on the LGBTQ community. As a queer student, they would go out of their way to support a queer business on campus ”just to create that sense of community between people,” Shapiro said.

Schwenderman plans to bring the shop back home to the Philadelphia area with them over winter break. They also hope to eventually arrange fundraisers through the shop for organizations they care about.

“My earrings are still for anyone,” Schwenderman said. “It gives a lot of other queer individuals on campus or people that I’m selling to outside of campus a way to express themselves outside of the ordinary and also see that there are other people on campus who are happy with being fun and different.”

Published on November 19, 2020 at 12:00 am