One Year of Orla & Co: How a Christmas Gift Became a Real Jewellery Brand

Christmas 2023. Southern California. A Bambu 3D printer, unwrapped — and immediately, a decision: not toys, not gadgets. Jewellery.

That girl was Orla. And one year later, Orla & Co has shipped over 500 orders, partnered with YouTube Gaming, designed custom pieces for schools and sports teams across the US, and built a small but fiercely loyal community of customers who keep coming back.

This is how it happened.

The First Pair of Earrings

By Valentine's Day 2024, Orla had designed and printed a pair of heart-shaped sugar cookie earrings — one for every girl in her class. They put them on immediately. The response was instant: people loved them, wanted to buy them, wanted to know where they came from.

That moment — watching her classmates light up over something she had made — was when Orla & Co was born.

The idea was hers. Bringing it to life as a real brand took a team. That's the "Co." — and it's exactly why every piece we ship meets a standard Orla couldn't achieve alone.

What Makes Orla & Co Different

There are a lot of jewellery brands out there. Most of them start the same way: import, label, sell.

Orla & Co is different from day one. Every design is original — sketched, modelled, and printed by Orla. Every piece is hand-assembled in Los Angeles. And because we use 3D printing instead of traditional manufacturing, we can do something most jewellery brands can't: make almost anything custom.

Custom name necklaces, personalised earrings, bulk orders for schools and sports teams. We've made pieces for birthday parties, graduation gifts, YouTube creator merchandise, and cheerleading squads. If you can describe it, Orla can probably print it.

The Pieces That Started It All

Our bestsellers in year one tell the story of what our customers love:

• Custom Name Necklace — Daisy Beads & Bubble Letters. The piece that put us on the map. Fully personalised, endlessly giftable, and under $40.
• Sur La Mer Necklace. Orla's take on coastal jewellery — sculpted pearls and a design that looks like it belongs in a boutique in the South of France.
• 3D Printed Daisy Earrings. The original. The one that started everything on Valentine's Day. Still one of our most popular pieces at $10.

Custom & Bulk Orders: Our Hidden Superpower

One of the things we're most proud of in year one is our custom order capability. We've worked with:

• Elementary school spirit weeks (200+ matching pieces)
• Sports teams who wanted personalised name tags and charms
• Content creators who needed branded jewellery for their audiences
• Parents making birthday gifts that couldn't be found anywhere else

The minimum order is just 10 pieces, and we can scale to 1,000+. Every single one is custom-designed and 3D printed, not mass-produced overseas.

Year Two Starts Now

We've learned a lot in year one. We've learned that the pieces people love most are the ones with a personal touch — a name, an inside joke, a favourite shape. We've learned that customers who buy once almost always come back. And we've learned that building a brand around genuine creativity — not copying trends — is slower, but it builds something real.

In year two, we're expanding our seasonal collections, growing our custom order programme, and continuing to design pieces that Orla herself would actually wear.

Thank you to everyone who has supported Orla & Co in its first year. Every order matters more than you know.

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