With the success of their first major trade show behind them, the wife-and-husband founders of Gold and Smoke say their message of transformation and empowerment is resonating with retailers and consumers, who want to see the industry embrace gender fluidity and unconventional materials.
Kelly Selcer and Manos Phoundoulakis of Colorado-based Gold and Smoke came away from Denver’s Hardrock Summit in September with a lot of feedback and new partnerships. Having the industry respond so positively during the brand’s trade-show debut was exciting for the three-year-old brand, says Selcer.
For their jewelry, Selcer and Phoundoulakis create casts of flattened bullets (which they’ve fired at a shooting range) to make gold and sterling silver pieces. The brand’s tagline “You are bulletproof” nods to the material and highlights the wearer’s strength and resilience.
“The flattened bullet is this solid thing that has a transformational journey, and it turns into art,” Selcer says. “It’s symbolic of our own trials and tribulations, victories and challenges.”
When Selcer first saw a flattened bullet, she saw its potential for jewelry. So the couple experimented, tracking their process in spreadsheets. Phoundoulakis, a colored gemstone expert, says he especially enjoys trying to find the right piece to turn into jewelry.
“Normally, when a bullet hits a hard target, it explodes into a billion little bits. It takes the right moment—the right energy—the right metallurgy, for this to happen,” Phoundoulakis says. “We went at it scientifically to find out how and why.”
He and Selcer started Gold and Smoke in 2020, but held off on marketing during the pandemic to focus on an industry mask-making project that raised more than $10,000 and distributed some 4,500 masks. They also used the time to explore what Gold and Smoke could be, refining its design plans and messaging, Selcer says. What evolved is a jewelry brand centered on empowerment.
Selcer says she and her husband realize people may not like the use of bullets and they understand such hesitation, but in Gold and Smoke jewelry, the bullet is a symbol of transformation and empowerment. “People can see the story behind it and connect to the message,” she says. “All of us have been through hard times and come through to the other side. It represents that journey.”
Gold and Smoke makes bracelets, pendants, rings, cufflinks, and pins from flattened bullets. Phoundoulakis also designed a specialty link used in chains for the brand’s necklaces and bracelets. The link jewelry has sold well, he says, as it offers both simplicity and refinement.
“What’s great about it is you can wear our jewelry with jeans or you can wear it with a ballgown,” Phoundoulakis says. “Everyone has become more casual, so you can dress it up or down.”
The couple designed Gold and Smoke jewelry to be genderless as well, bypassing any terms on its website and social media that says who should wear the pieces. Instead, they offer choices in size, such as small and large signet rings, and feature gemstones on some bullets—thanks to Phoundoulakis’ gemstone expertise—thus allowing clients to determine what they want to buy and wear.
“It’s for everybody,” Selcer says.
Top: Manos Phoundoulakis and Kelly Selcer are the husband and wife who created Gold and Smoke, a brand that makes what they call empowerment jewelry, out of flattened bullet designs. (Photos courtesy of Gold and Smoke)
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