Interview with Spirit Soaring
You know those people you instantly click with? My friend Nicolas Evgeniou is definitely one of them. I have known him for a little over a year, but we started getting close this past summer. He is truly a fantastic person and I could talk about him forever (but for the sake of the word count I’ll keep it to a minimum). Today I sat down with Nic and asked him a few questions about his small business, Spirit Soaring. I remember not knowing the extent of his talents until April of 2023, when I attended his pop-up shop in the West Village, where he had somehow arranged an intricately beautiful display of all his recent pieces in a small but lovely space. While my word is biased because Nic is a valued friend, I fell in love with his artistic talent with virtually no resistance and I think after learning more about him and seeing what he is capable of creating, everyone else will, too.
Can you provide an overview of Spirit Soaring and what inspired you to start it?
“Spirit Soaring is the alias I create jewelry under. Though I’ve been making jewelry for quite some time now, I stumbled upon a quote from a National Geographic magazine that mentioned the namesake, which felt like the missing puzzle piece to connect all of the things I’d been making. Those two words evoked what I feel is the ethos of my work, so last spring I decided to launch a website and began to officially market my jewelry under the alias. It's mostly inspired by my bicoastal upbringing, as I’m from the Jersey Shore and both of my parents are from Greece. The work mostly looks to emulate the leisure, magic, and youth that is felt on both beaches. I like to say Spirit Soaring should feel like the sand in your shoes at the end of the day. This is very much an outlet for me to have fun and make wearable, everyday pieces that can exist outside of my other artwork.”
*Nic shared the exact line from the National Geographic magazine he took inspiration from: “Achieving the summit, body drained, spirit soaring, he found something more.”
What is your long-term vision for Spirit Soaring?
“My long-term vision for Spirit Soaring is to keep creating and sharing small collections—I want to genuinely have fun with it, rather than being driven by profit—though I’d love to see the work styled on some of my idols, as well as be worn alongside some of my favorite designers’ pieces. Ultimately, in a more short-term sense, I would love to stock some of my jewelry in stores that have a curation style that inspires me; I am very particular about the environment my work exists in.”
Talk about some of your favorite pieces. Why are they your favorite, and what inspired them?
“A piece I always tend to go back to is this one (below), which is the first piece I had ever made for a class. I used an eight-strand braid and wove some beads onto those same threads. The piece was meant to be a humorous reference to a lifeguard's whistle; the person wearing the necklace can blow into the shell while they're swimming to signal attention if they need help.”
“The next piece is one from this past summer, which requires a less strenuous method of creation than that of the eight-strand braid, yet still evokes a similar quality. I had a lot of fun working with new beads and shells this time around, specifically operculum seashells from Crete in Greece. I liked that there was no pendant.”
“My last pieces are ones I’ve made most recently—my first time exploring with wire in quite a long time. I think these pieces, though easier to make, are perceived as the most ‘worth it’ to a consumer. I think people are really into metal, and are more willing to wear something that has this kind of hardware.”
What does your creative process look like?
“I think anything I create, as corny as it sounds, starts on the beach. I take in the landscape and often fish around to find some shells or glass that may find themselves in the work too. From there, I reference things that inspire me, be it other artist’s work, old photos, music, things I’ve read… it’s like a cannon of inspiration, and I’m like a sponge. From there I’ll get to working inside, whatever has to get done inside, like, for example, if I have to drill some shells. But after that is said and done, I like to take the work back outside to complete it. The natural landscape genuinely becomes a part of the piece.
Almost equally as important to the making of the piece is how I choose to present it. I spend a long time finding the perfect textures or photo to shoot the necklace against— whatever I feel compliments the piece most.”
What challenges have you encountered so far in running a small business, and how have you addressed them?
“I think a pretty big challenge was definitely understanding that if I was going to start the business, I had to go full-throttle. Despite having sold jewelry on social media for quite some time, starting my own website was the first move in a professional direction, and with that came so many other steps I wasn’t anticipating. I had to put on my big-boy shoes. The best way to combat this was to be organized, for one. I wrote anything and everything down. More than that, setting a deadline for myself made the process motivating—I knew that I had a certain amount of time to get this all done, so I did!
Another struggle that I think any artist feels is the separation from your work before it even reaches the outside world. You spend so much time from conception to production of the pieces, that by the time you are ready to upload them online, you feel like you are already thinking about what you want to do next. I can’t say I’ve found a way to combat this one yet. ”
What is your approach to sustainability within running your business? Does that ever become difficult?
“I think the biggest issue in terms of sustainability lies in our relationship with consumption and excess. To be honest, it feels wrong to be producing anything new at all. But with that, I try to take it into my own hands and produce pieces that have a longer lifespan, ones that can be passed from one person to the next, in hopes to extend the bandwidth of the cycles we are seeing in fashion right now. When it comes to my materiality I try to use vintage or recycled beads, as well as natural seashells, and even this new wire I found made from recycled steel and recyclable nylon. All of the packaging is biodegradable, too.”
Can you share any milestones you may have reached with Spirit Soaring since you have started the brand?
“Before Spirit Soaring was even Spirit Soaring, I made pendants from old coins that somehow managed to blow up in my hometown. People were recognizing them and talking about them even when I wasn’t in the room. I remember looking back at my yearbook from senior year of highschool and pointing them out in peoples portraits…to me, this was the greatest motivation. I am so grateful! Since then, parallel to the launch of my site, I hosted a pop-up in the East Village in New York. What started as a joke between me and my friends quickly became a mission of mine, and I’m really happy to say it happened. What makes it a milestone is that so many people I love had come together in the same room that day, from my friends from back home, like Hayden, to peers from my classes at school. Hell, even my mom came into the city. In that moment I realized I am the luckiest man, and that I really wouldn’t be doing the things I do without having so many epic people right there with me.”
What advice would you give to someone considering making and selling their art, or starting their own small business in general?
“I think the best advice I could give, though I don’t think I am in the position to do so, is that you will feel it in your chest when you are ready to start sharing your work. I can’t explain it, really. You can spend so much time working with something until then one day, you wake up with this notion that it is ready to see the outside world. Your work will keep changing, as you will too, and your confidence in sharing it will definitely waver. Though, you have to remember that feeling in your chest from the start, latch onto it, and chase the things that make you feel it even stronger. I really don’t know how to articulate it better. I hope someone else reading this will know what I am saying.”