As with all great stories, it started with the frogs.
Gloria Rank just couldn’t get them out of her head. She didn’t like frogs. Was maybe even a little scared of them. But she wanted to like the vibrantly-hued hoppers. So she made the only reasonable decision: she designed a piece of frog jewelry so cheerful and colorful that it would completely erase her ambivalent feelings about the august amphibians, and instead force them to become a symbol of bold optimism.
This is how Gloria’s jewelry line, Onirikka, was born.
It makes sense– Gloria had always dreamed of jewelry. She’d always dreamed in jewelry: the lush nature from her childhood in El Salvador transformed into emerald-tipped leaves and diamond-studded turtle shells in her imagination.
She was ready to make these dreams a reality, but was instead encouraged by her parents to pursue a safer career route: hotel management. (Cue sad trumpet sounds.) Gloria tried to love the metrics and margins of hospitality, really she did, but found herself daydreaming through class instead, wondering which color would look best as a bright pop of enamel on yellow gold. And who could blame her? After a year of studying, she opted out of her hotel management classes and instead followed her heart to Florence, Italy, where she enrolled at the prestigious Le Arte Orafe Jewellery School.
Finally, Gloria was on the right path.
Then: life interrupted. She met her now-husband and they had two beautiful children. (Three if you count their adorable French bulldog, Emma.) But the siren song of jewelry always thrummed constant, so she returned with a dive into the deep end: an intensive summer GIA course on the New York campus, where she fell in love with the vibrant hum of Manhattan.
She chose the name Onirikka for her line, based on the word oneiric, and an English adaptation of the Greek word “to dream,” the term is a fitting sobriquet considering the jewelry is an extension of her inner imagination.
Inspiration comes from every corner of Gloria’s world: art, music, dance,… even photos from a friend’s vacation. Each piece is a vision made manifest.
The jubilant jewelry produced by Onirikka reflects a vibrant and joyful look at the world: dance in the morning, be inspired by great art, and turn your fears into something beautiful. Ribbit ribbit.