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UPDATED: Feb. 22, 2021 at 3:42 p.m.

If someone spots a blond, blue-eyed girl whizzing around the Syracuse University campus delivering jewelry on a pink scooter and helmet to match, chances are it’s Amanda Kruman.

The sophomore, who is a political science major, has unexpectedly found success within the past two months through her viral jewelry company Fully Wyred. Her company’s Instagram page showcases pictures of rose quartz clocks, geode keychains and wire and stone rings in every color of the rainbow.

If it weren’t for Instagram, she wouldn’t have found a platform for her products. Amanda started posting her products with pictures taken on her iPhone, with her more recent photos being snapped on a professional camera. She also boosts her social media outreach by paying for her posts to be sponsored, which allows them to show up on different feeds.

Amanda has not taken this opportunity of success for granted either. She donates 15% of her sales to charitable causes, such as Planned Parenthood, Black Lives Matter protest bailout funds and The Audre Lorde Project, which helps LGBTQ youth of color.

“I really try to give back when I can,” Amanda said.

Amanda makes rings, earrings, keychains and more with pieces of stone, such as green quartz and clear quartz, attached to wound wire. Chenze Chen | Contributing Photographer

The idea behind the company came from Amanda having downtime during winter break. In her house, Amanda stumbled across boxes of discontinued stones that her parents had saved from the 90s for their jewelry businesses.

The stones were collecting dust and her parents practically begged her to put the leftover stock to good use, she said. Her original intention was to start a new hobby in the hopes of possibly making a few extra bucks for rent and tuition loans. But after being inspired by a TikTok tutorial, Amanda created the company.

“None of this existed two months ago,” Amanda said. ”I saw a TikTok, and I was like, ‘This is dope. I bet my mom has all the supplies. Let me see if I can do it.’”

At first, Amanda took orders only through her company’s Instagram direct messages, but her newly established Etsy page gives her a broader reach.

Her first clients were people from her high school and Cortland. Amanda attended two different high schools, which expanded her network even further, said Ally, Amanda’s sister.

However, once her roommate from Rochester and boyfriend from Pennsylvania started sharing her posts on their social media accounts, she started to get a flood of orders from Tennessee, California and even Germany.

Dakota Kleefeld, Amanda’s best friend from Cortland, said she’s always admired Amanda’s drive and passion for things that interest her.

“It fuels everything in her life, and she’s a really powerful and driven human being, which I think is what has helped her so much,” Kleefeld said.

Besides her parents’ guidance and providing of materials, Fully Wyred is an independent business, and Amanda prides herself on always “figuring it out,” she said.

As Fully Wyred grows its customer base, Amanda gets custom orders that challenge her skill set, yet the company’s products continue to expand to new heights. Chenze Chen | Contributing Photographer

Recently, Fully Wyred’s sales have dropped since the spring semester started because Amanda isn’t able to put in as much work as she could while at home. Amanda said that because she hasn’t been putting as much into it, she’s not getting as much out of it as she was before.
As for the future of Fully Wyred, Amanda wants to set up a company website and increase her engagement and sales on Etsy as well as Instagram.

“The success of Fully Wyred is completely attributed to her personality, focus, determination and her personal quality of self-sustainability,” Ally said. “Amanda has always been somebody that goes above and beyond when she sets her mind to something.”

But even with the decline of sales, Fully Wyred continues to be pushed by the loyalty of its customers. Frequently asked to make custom orders, the company’s products continue to expand to new heights.

On one occasion, a customer asked Amanda to make a red ring with the letter “C” on it in honor of her mother, who had recently died. She neither had the material to create the letter nor had experience bending wire to form the letter.

However, Amanda was determined to fulfill this customer’s wishes, and she learned to create the letter with a bonding agent tool to manipulate the wire into a half-circle.

“She was really, really happy with it. And so a lot of the things that people ask me for I’ve never done,” Amanda said. “It’s cool because people may be able to tell there’s something I could finesse that they’re interested in if they have something particular in mind.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the name of Amanda Kruman’s sister was misstated. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on February 21, 2021 at 10:31 pm