Sarah Sowinski and her brand: Who is ‘The Groggy Owl?’

She dreamed. She kept working on it. And now she is slowly making it happen.

They say dreams are boundless, and so Sarah Dizon Sowinski pictured herself being all she hoped she could be. While she has many aspirations, there was one thing that Sarah had always set her eyes on: pursue a creative career.

That was the beginning of “The Groggy Owl,” a jewelry brand born from her love for arts and crafts.

Creative path begins

The Groggy Owl would not be possible without the immense support Sarah had received, especially from the person who has been there with her since day one of her creative journey, her mom, Marife. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree for the two of them as both are artistic; Sarah actually attributed her creative side to her mom. 

Part of their quality time was to let their creativity flow by doing arts and crafts at home out of recycled materials. This went back as far as Marife’s life in the Philippines. 

In Arayat, Pampanga, Marife grew up using biodegradable and recyclable materials not only for her artsy-craftsy projects but also in her daily living. During her childhood days, Marife did not have to worry about bringing back home tupperware because banana leaves became her alternative to wrap her baon (lunch) for school and then put it on a paper bag as a lunch bag.

Marife has always been interested in creative hobbies such as gardening, crocheting, arts and crafts, and interior decorating. Some of the home decorations and accessories she made were paper turned into Christmas lanterns and old stuffed toys transformed into a new pillow.

Being creative with whatever materials she has was a practice Marife brought into adulthood and passed onto her offspring, whom she had given birth to in Canada.

In 1985, Marife left the Philippines to seek more opportunities overseas and help her family as the eldest sibling. She was only 21 years old when she flew to Singapore and transferred to Canada two years later.

The day she came to Canada remained vivid in her mind. It was the 22nd of November 1987 and much to her surprise, she was given a freezing welcome by the snow she saw for the first time that day.

“From Singapore to here [Canada], I was just wearing a jean jacket and t-shirt. Nobody told me how cold it was, I had no idea at all. I came as a nanny actually and my boss picked me up and brought me a jacket.”

Marife has been living most of her life in Canada, being there for over 30 years now. It has become her second home and her two children’s home country.

Despite raising them in Toronto, she assured that they would embrace their Filipino identity by always talking about the Philippine culture to them, even to her husband, and how proud she is to be a Filipina.

Whenever she and her daughter talked, Marife spoke in Kapampangan, and although not fluent in speaking it, Sarah understands the language.

As a young girl, Sarah admitted that she was not that thrilled about having to learn Kapampangan instead of Tagalog, especially when she met other Filipino-Canadian kids who all knew how to speak and understood Tagalog. She later realized how fortunate she was to learn Kapampangan growing up because there are not a lot of sources in Canada where one can learn Kapampangan compared to Tagalog.

It became a huge help for her whenever she visited the Philippines.

“I think the time that I was most grateful that I could understand Kapampangan, even if I can’t fully speak it, was a few years back when my Ingkong passed away, my lolo (grandfather). The funeral was in Kapampangan and I was thankful I could at least understand.”

“I was always grateful but I’m especially grateful in that moment that at least I had that understanding there ’cause it’s the language my whole family in the Philippines speak. And then, of course, Tagalog, I grew up watching teleseryes with my mom. I know a little bit of Tagalog just from watching those.”

When not watching teleseryes, Sarah and Marife could be seen doing arts and crafts together. Like her mom, she learned to recreate something new, like toys, using only the materials available at their home.

“I think, with my mom, at least from hearing the stories growing up, she always says, ‘We didn’t have the toys that you have here so we had to get creative and we had to kind of make our own toys.'”

Marife looked back on the days she was teaching her children different paper crafts, including making a boat to float in a bucket of water, an airplane to throw in the air, and a kite to hold while it danced midair — all of these were made out of old newspapers. 

“I remember on weekends, we would have a paper and just paint with different projects just for fun and none of them were expensive. She taught me to use stuff that we have at home and be creative with it like we get whatever supplies we have and we make things.”

Jewelry making is part of their arts and crafts activities, which has been one of Sarah’s means to unleash her creativity since kindergarten. From owning a little box of colorful kiddie beads, Sarah recalled making her own beads which she rolled using old newspapers and sold for fundraisers back in high school.

Her mom was very encouraging when it came to things her children would learn from, like arts and crafts, that can be useful to them in the future. Today, jewelry making is not just a pastime for Sarah; it is a hobby she turned into passion, and then turned into the founding of The Groggy Owl.

Pursuit of dream

Sarah was a young girl who had so many dreams. To mention some, she wanted to be an artist with her own studio, a teacher, and also a writer. She was not fixated on one profession but she knew all along that she wanted to pursue a creative career. It did not have to specifically be a jewelry maker that she is now, not to mention have her own brand — just anything creative where she can make things with her hands. 

But even though a person is firm about something, there could be moments where they get off track and so was Sarah. This happened when she was working full-time in the insurance industry and her creative juices ran dry.

“I wasn’t doing anything creative at all. It’s kind of draining, I feel like I lost a part of myself when I wasn’t doing anything creative for those years.”

Not wanting this to continue, Sarah stoked her artistic fire by picking up her childhood hobby again. Sarah continued working full-time in the financial sector but with her creative juices flowing anew through jewelry making.

Yes, she was clear about what she wanted to strive for, however, it was not on her initial plans to monetize her outlet which she was doing just for fun. It was her family and friends, who believe in her works and skills, that motivated her to do so.

After much thought and encouragement, Sarah introduced The Groggy Owl on Etsy in October 2017, with her passion for handmade crafts as foundation.

She manages the shop after office hours, usually on the weekends. A lot of her accessories are being made either at night when most are hitting the sack or early in the morning when some are still asleep. That was how Sarah came up with the shop’s name (plus she likes owls and she always feels tired).

“It was really cool,” Sarah said, looking at how she has managed to pursue her dream career. “I was actually able to achieve that or I’m still achieving that.”

A proud smile, meanwhile, formed on Marife’s lips as she witnessed how her daughter kept on dreaming and not giving up.

Being a startup, Sarah recalled having only three pieces of jewelry displayed on her Etsy shop, but The Groggy Owl slowly grew when she opened its page on Instagram. There, she shared photos and videos of her apparent seamless jewelry making, all being the result of a lot of trial and error.

As much as she wanted to avoid it, committing mistakes is always part of the learning process and that does not mean she has failed. Because of it, Sarah has been improving as a self-taught artist and metalsmith. 

She acquired every jewelry making technique she knew by searching on the internet, going on forums, asking questions, messing up, and constantly practicing until she figured things out.

Also, for her, a mistake does not only serve as a guide to refine a craft; sometimes, it is what completes the art. 

“There’s actually some pieces of jewelry that I made that weren’t at all that I had wanted but it was a mistake that I turned into something nice and new.”

Sarah just kept trying, though making mistakes and feeling discouraged still happen to her at times; adding the challenge of balancing her full-time job and business. With the overflowing support from her family, friends, and even her community, it would probably take long before she runs out of fuel to go on.

Hitting many birds with one stone

Through The Groggy Owl alone, Sarah had the chance to do more besides achieving the career she dreamed of.

As a business owner, who would not want their clients to receive quality service and product? That has been the vision when she opened The Groggy Owl.

“I always wanted to make sure that [with] what I was making, I wanted people to feel good about what they’re buying from me.”

The fundraiser initiatives she attended in high school opened her eyes to issues facing the world today such as climate change, pollution, and injustices. She became aware of how some products were unethically produced, from how those were sourced to how those were processed. 

Sarah believes everyone has a role in taking care of their surroundings and people around them and so for her part, she keeps the value of making sure that her jewelry brand won’t cause harm by being careful about where she would resource her materials from.

“I use recycled metals. I work directly with the small-scale miners to get my rock stones. Every part of the process, it’s kind of, you know, [as] ethical as possible.”

She found and got connected with her suppliers either through the internet or by a chance meeting.

Her amethyst supplier is someone that Sarah bumped into a market in Ontario where she was a vendor. Sarah saw the amethyst that her supplier was selling and became curious about where she got those from. After knowing that the supplier was actually the one who found, dug, and processed the amethyst, Sarah immediately asked her if she could resource amethyst from her. 

Before that, Sarah found a small shop on Instagram owned by a couple who sold rocks, crystals, and crystal products. They were hands-on on their items, being the ones doing the rock hunting and digging, just like her amethyst supplier.

“It’s exciting seeing more and more companies, more and more people choosing to shop ethically level goods, more companies choosing to use ethically sourced materials but one day, I think it should just be the norm because there should never ever be harm caused along the way when you’re making the product.”

The Groggy Owl also uses sustainable packaging for its jewelry. In shipping the products, Sarah used cardboard boxes which she saved whenever they got mail at home, and old newspapers, magazines, or flyers to be put around the box as protection. Explaining this, Sarah said packaging does not have to be a fancy sustainable one because the cost of producing it sometimes “outweighs the actual impact that it has on the environment.”

“Although I commend the innovators that are working on those things, I think we can normalize this really simple, friendly [packaging].”

Besides advocating ethical fashion, her brand also raises awareness about mental health. Each piece of her jewelry had a story to tell; it could be about something that just comes every day, something comes from what she sees around her, or something that comes from her own experiences — that includes dealing with mental health disorders as she has both been diagnosed with anxiety and ADHD.

To prompt conversation on it, she made some pieces of jewelry that represent mental health and among those was a pair of earrings that symbolized the “scatteredness” in her head.

“I’m making things that I want to represent like mental health,” she said, continuing, “I think it’s important to talk about those things.”

Filipino culture, too. She aspires to share more about it with others by linking it to her crafts. 

It can be noticed that the names of The Groggy Owl’s collections were in Filipino; one was the recent Dyosa (goddess) collection. Stories of mythology have been part of a lot of Filipinos’ lives since childhood, perhaps, these accessories named after the deities in Philippine mythology would ring a bell to them.

Prior to this, The Groggy Owl had the Maarte, Bruha, & Maganda collection, in partnership with Pinay Collection, where Sarah hand-stamped those three Filipino words on bracelets and earrings in solid brass. 

“It’s nice being able to reconnect and celebrate that part of my culture and heritage through my work.”

Hoping her customers would be able to do the same, Sarah dedicates designs where they can feel they can relate with, celebrate their culture, or reconnect with their roots.

“It’s cool. I think that inspires me just seeing that reaction of excitement that someone else is making something that represents them.”

Along with Sarah in handling The Groggy Owl is her mom who draws inspiration from Filipino culture as well, specifically from the things from where she grew up and what she grew up on.

Her brand went from having only a few pieces of jewelry to shipping its products internationally, with most of her customers coming from Canada and the United States. 

“There’s something special about being compensated for your creative skills ‘cause it means other people are, you know, they like it so much they actually want to buy it. It still blows my mind knowing people in different parts of the world own something that I made with my own hands.”

With The Groggy Owl, Sarah hit many birds with one stone: it has been her outlet for creativity, it is her creative career, it has been her avenue to advocate, and it gave her the opportunity to give back to her community by helping other small businesses in any way possible.

“It’s been really cool like in the past three, almost four years now, you know, just collaborating with them and seeing them grow, them see[ing] me grow.”

Dreaming, achieving goals continue

“I think back, especially when I was younger, I loved art and I liked making things and if my younger self saw me now, she’d be so excited and so proud.”

Sarah has indeed come a long way for the past four years and will continue growing. As a jewelry maker and designer, she will definitely keep unlocking new skills and make improvements on those that she already acquired. Starting with basic beadwork and wirework, Sarah obtained metalsmithing skills, soldering, electroforming, and using an electrochemical deposition process, and just this past year, she learned about lost-wax casting that expanded her breadth of work. She said she would invest again in some classes for jewelry making since the ones she had enrolled in before were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the owner of The Groggy Owl, Sarah aims to have her own boutique, a storefront one that doubles as a workspace that can serve as a community space for other makers. At night, it would be her workstation for her jewelry making but, in the day, it could be used to hold events, markets, and workshops.

“I would love something like that where it’s a community space where people go and they can learn and be creative, it’s just like a very encouraging environment.”

Sarah wants to be further involved with the community, doing more collaborative work with other makers. Just as her community has been supporting her, Sarah hopes to be someone they could also rely on. 

She encouraged small business owners, particularly those who just launched their shop or are planning to start out, to lean on one another because to her, it has been “the most important thing for helping each other grow.” With that being said, she urged them to not be afraid of joining the community and to not hesitate to reach out to her in case they need help or if they need someone to talk to about small business struggles.

“I’m always happy to kind of support other people and other makers that are trying to do this too.”

“It’s a really cool opportunity to collaborate and to support one another. That’s where I’ve been able to see the most success.”