Toward Silver Horizons
It’s a typical weekday afternoon in Kayla Goldsmid’s studio — sunlight streaming through open windows, the city swirling far below. A knock on the door, the swish and click of a ballpoint pen, a scrawled signature on a delivery receipt. The chime of emails landing in an inbox, sketches splayed on a workbench, silver shimmering in its display case.
She takes me back to the beginning, to the couple who first met in a college art class. He became an architect. She, an interior designer. They had three kids together; Kayla in the middle. She illustrates her youth spent watching her parents sketch and paint in their designated art shed, and I imagine her as their little protégée, churning out masterpieces from an early age.
“I hated art,” Kayla reveals, cutting through my reverie. Despite being the product of two artists, she convinced herself that the gene for creativity somehow skipped her. “I have a hard time with things that are so unorganized or abstract or there’s no bounds,” she explains. Kayla recognized at an early age that her mind operates in the clean, crisp lines of logic as opposed to a dreamer’s loose brushstrokes. She drifted away from the ambiguity of the arts towards the straightforward formulas of math and science until, at ten years old, she found the place where these two seemingly disparate worlds collided.
Kayla set her mind on taking a silversmithing class, and chuckles as she remembers her mom calling up all of the local studios only to find that none accepted children. Jewelry workshops pose numerous dangers even to the most practiced artisans: sharp saws and blades, open torch flames, toxic dust and fumes. It’s something of a miracle that there was one studio that finally enrolled her in one of their classes. Despite not being allowed to partake in some of the more hazardous activities, Kayla was hooked. “I had the best time ever,” she gushes.
She emerged from that first visit to the studio with a thick sterling silver ring branded with her first initial. She wore that ring to the bead shop in Bird Rock, where she became a regular throughout middle and high school; she continued to wear it when she went off to college, and was able to fit a couple metalsmithing classes into her schedule as she worked towards earning her psychology degree. It never crossed her mind, though, that she could alchemize her creative outlet into a viable career. “I don’t think of myself as very entrepreneurial,” Kayla confesses. “I always thought I’m going to have a nine-to-five, I’m going to work for somebody else.” She was comfortable playing it safe, leaning into convention, following a predetermined path that would lead her straight to success.
By early 2020, Kayla had graduated college and was on her way to earning her PhD. She was living in Indiana, where she worked as a psychology lab manager. And although she wasn’t exactly enjoying herself, she was on track, heading into the version of the future she’d always envisioned for herself. That March, however, Kayla’s trajectory completely changed when she was forced to return home to California during the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the coming months as businesses began opening back up, after enduring a period of what she describes as “mad quarantining,” Kayla’s local jewelry studio was one of the only places she felt comfortable visiting. Only a few people were allowed inside at a time, and everyone was diligent about wearing their masks. This spirit of community, of mutual care and consideration, would ultimately shape the essence of Kayla’s brand.
During those first few sessions back in the studio, Kayla produced what would soon evolve into her own fine jewelry line. At the time, though, she had no intention of running her own business. She was simply biding her time as the world around her struggled to stabilize, waiting for her life to regain its equilibrium. “It honestly grew so naturally,” Kayla recalls, reflecting on her brand’s trajectory. Her friends were drawn to her designs and wanted pieces of their own. And then their friends wanted them, too. And then her family was urging her to pursue jewelry design, to take herself seriously as an artist, to plunge headfirst into the unknown, to set out boldly toward silver horizons. For someone who relied so heavily on the security of the career path she’d been following for so long, veering off into a completely new direction was absolutely terrifying. Kayla was plagued by doubts, intimidated by the uncertainty of it all, looming at the edge of a sharp precipice.
What ultimately urged Kayla forth was the unyielding support from her community, who encouraged her to take that initial leap of faith. Now, four years later, Kayla remains deeply connected to her inner circle, bouncing ideas off of her friends and turning to them when she needs reassurance. Even the name of her brand, Kayge Studio, originated during a brainstorming session with her roommate. The word represents the designer, mashing the syllables of her first and last names while its pronunciation evokes the strength and structure of metal.
Since outgrowing her parents’ art shed, Kayge Studio has ascended to the top story of the historic San Diego Jewelers Exchange, where Kayla works alongside some of the city’s finest talent in her field. The building’s name reflects its function not just as a marketplace, but also as a creative hub. The space houses emerging and established artists alike, cultivating an intricate network of mentor-mentee relationships that span its eight floors. It’s the ideal environment for Kayla: as someone grounded in logic, she learns best through the immediacy of conversation, and makes sure nothing passes her by. She remembers, for example, one of her very first instructors, whose words still reverberate in her practice: “We don’t copy people here,” he declared. If Kayla came into the studio with a reference photo, he’d challenge her to alter something about the original design to make it her own, ensuring she developed the artist’s most valuable asset: a distinct personal style.
While contemporary jewelers tend toward the eccentric, Kayla’s visual language is more understated. Oddly enough, it’s often the simplest pieces that are the most elusive, and Kayla fulfills that niche in the jewelry market with her deliberately minimalistic designs. Kayge’s sartorial counterpart is the classic white t-shirt: basic yet essential, a staple in everybody’s wardrobe. While it exists in overwhelming surplus, it’s been perfected only by a select few. But when it’s right, it’s right — reliable and versatile, elevating an eclectic look just as easily as it can stand alone on its own merit.
Kayge is sleek, simultaneously subtle and striking. It’s edgy elegance; sharp angles and sinuous curves; the liquid luster of silver under light. Despite its streamlined aesthetic, Kayge is anything but predictable. One of Kayla’s signature pieces is her custom metal chain, which first came about during a spontaneous experiment with leftover materials. Each iteration is one of a kind, handmade from a unique assortment of metal links in various shapes, resulting in a style that maintains the delicate balance between originality and simplicity. Kayla’s latest collection, X STONE, demonstrates how she utilizes elements that typically represent ornamentation and excess in a way that reflects her more refined taste. Instead of using a large rock as a ring’s focal point, she’ll set a tiny diamond into its open point or embed it along its upper edge.
When Kayla slips a bangle onto her arm or clasps a chain around her neck, she’s doing more than simply accessorizing. Jewelry is an intimate extension of herself, a meaningful expression of her identity. Kayla shows me the necklace she’s wearing: it’s a souvenir her stepmom brought home from Israel, she tells me, with two small inverted triangles threaded along a delicate silver cord. It’s an unconventional version of the Magen David, the defining emblem of Judaism, created by the two overlapping charms as opposed to its traditional interlocking design. Like so many of Kayla’s works, it’s an initially unassuming piece that reveals itself to be incredibly unique, loaded with significance on so many levels — personal, religious, and familial.
As Kayla reflects on her journey, it’s clear that her path is not just a personal evolution but also part of an ongoing narrative, the extension of a legacy that precedes her existence. Creativity is coded into her very being, a biological imperative spun into her DNA and inscribed in her name. Goldsmid — “goldsmith,” or someone who works with precious metals. I consider the weight of her name, the artistry running through her veins, an impulse passed down through generations like a cherished heirloom.
Was this her destiny all along?
Kayla, ever the pragmatist, is skeptical — “I don’t know how that plays into everything,” she admits — but I like to imagine fate’s fingers guiding her course, deftly shaping her passage like skilled hands bending molten metal.
