By Lakhram Bhagirat
Zoya Samaroo is one of the many inspirational young people involved in persevering our environment. She is an aspiring Marine Biologist and forms part of a core group of youths that would organize and execute beach cleanup campaigns and mangrove restoration projects.
The 21-year-old have always been drawn to the ocean and its inhabitants, beginning with her very first pet – a turtle named snappy who had surprising speed, according to her. For as long as she can remember, she loved visiting various aquariums and interacting with the animals and as she grew, her focus shifted from just the cute faces of animals to their preservation and protection.
After she completed her secondary education at St Rose’s High, she then began reading for her Associates Degree in Biology and Like many persons around that age, Samaroo was still very unsure of which career path she wanted to take.
“I had several options laid out in front of me and I felt pressured to make a decision. When I originally started majoring in biology, it was not something that I planned to stick to. But as I progressed, I fell in love with it. When I was younger, my parents made me watch National Geographic every Saturday morning while morning cartoons were showing. It was something that I resented at the time but I am ever so grateful for now. My love for nature, the environment, and its preservation has been a driving force in my education journey. I am now an aspiring Marine Biologist studying in my final year, pursuing a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Marine Biology at the University of Guyana,” she said.
Samaroo always had a love for the arts. Her love for the beach plays a large part in her artistic journey and she would often collect washed up shells, wood and glass while on her beach clean up missions. After she would have collected quite a substantial amount of the beach glass, she realized that it was just a waste to have them sitting in a jar so she began researching how she could have utilized it.
She discovered wire wrapping and began experimenting.
“I started making my sea glass jewelry somewhere around 2 years ago. It really started out as a fun way for me to create my own little personalized pieces for my friends as gifts for birthdays and holidays and I actually made my very first jewelry set using sea glass for a family friend who later encouraged me to invest in my skill. It was then that the idea of turning my past time hobby into a profitable business was fueled. From there, people started asking me to make custom pieces for them to give to their family and friends as gifts and I found great joy in coming up with new techniques and products. I felt quite happy being able to craft pieces that sparked joy and excitement, similar to the way professional jewelers would.
“As a child, my mother and I frequented the Hibiscus Plaza often which is always filled with the most beautiful and unique little trinkets. One store in particular always stood out to me, Natural Touches, and I always found myself wanting to purchase or recreate pieces. The owner of said store, Carolyn Nichols was a driving force in me starting my own jewelry business. She taught me vital tips and tricks all the while encouraging and supporting me throughout my endeavour, something which am extremely grateful for. I have since honed my skills and begun sharing my crafts with the world,” she said.
From there she started to putting the pieces she collected into personalized pieces for other to gift their loved ones. Now her business entails hand crafted jewelry and accessories, ranging from a variety of necklaces, earrings and bracelets to key chains, picture frames and wind chimes.
She utilises utilize sea glass and drift wood collected from beaches to create unique, wire wrapped or drilled trinkets. She stumbled upon the inspiration to create unique jewelry using washed up sea glass from broken bottles littered on the beach and have since developed her skills in designing pieces that will promote a sustainable earth while leaving customers with a feeling of satisfaction in contributing to a cleaner, greener environment.
Samaroo takes great pride in using little to no plastic in any of her products, packaging or purchases, in an effort to make her business as eco-friendly as possible. Through this she hopes to encourage customers to do the same by reusing their packaging or in their daily lives.
“For me, the best part of my jewelry is that most of it is made from material often considered as trash. Sea glass originates from broken bottles littered on the beach which are smoothed over by the erosive action of sand and waves. With every piece that I make or sell, I try my best to remind customers of this; I’m up-cycling and cleaning the beach throughout this process. This allows me to shine light on the littering of our beautiful beaches and I can through this encourage persons to partake beach cleanups, or raise awareness. My goal at the end of the day is to ultimately make persons more conscientious of their actions, and how the little things that they and others do can create large ripples in our environment,” the young activist said.
Apart from jewelry, Samaroo is also very much into art – painting and drawing to be specific. Her background in visual arts has aided in her ability to express herself through the use of colors and strokes.
She is very much a devout environmentalist and animal lover and would sometimes volunteer at the Guyana Society for the Prevention Against Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA), the Center for Study of Biological Diversity (CSBD) and partake in beach or mangrove cleanups.
The greatest challenge for the young entrepreneur is the effective management of her time. As a full time, university student, it is easy to get carried away or distracted when you have something else to put your focus on and she finds it hard at times to manage academia, crafting and her other endeavours.
However, that does not daunt her spirit and she is also encouraging other young people to get involved and unleash their inner creative potentials. She is willing to teach them as well.
“As someone new to the creative world and small business community myself, I would definitely encourage someone now entering to be as open as possible to suggestions. You may have an idea in mind and know exactly what you want to do but it also important to take advice from those who are more experienced or know better. The most important advice, however, would be to stay true to whatever it is that you are passionate about and make sure that you are always having fun; don’t look at it as one more thing to get done but rather an extension of yourself and your way to leave a mark on your customers lives.”
