How I Got Here: Karla Witukiewicz Gets Personal Through Her Jewelry

Karla Witukiewicz was a country kid, growing up on a Clydesdale horse farm in western Michigan with a German-Polish dad and a Sicilian mom—and that upbringing provided a recipe for creativity and resourcefulness she would use throughout her life, including in her jewelry career.

Add in an architect grandfather, and Witukiewicz had the basis for kWIT, her fine jewelry brand that emphasizes fun and freedom of expression alongside impeccable craftsmanship and engineering.

“My love for complicated mechanisms comes from that childhood,” the designer says. “I was my grandfather’s mini-me, and I lived outside on the farm with my dad. He was a woodshop teacher, so we were always building something.”

Want a barn? Build a foundation and put one up. Livestock getting out? Install a new fence and create your own handles. Horses need new shoes? Fashion them yourself.

It wasn’t all toil and sweat, Witukiewicz would have you know. She balanced home chores with school artwork. For college, Witukiewicz tried to talk her parents into letting her major in art, but they pushed for business school instead. So, in 1993, she began studied marketing at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

“I used to cut through the art department on my way to the business school,” Witukiewicz says. “I took a metal sculpture class, and the professor taught us everything from the ground up. That’s where I learned all of my jewelry technical skills.”

During college, she earned a scholarship from and an internship at the Michigan-based advertising agency Stap, and she became a senior account executive there after graduating in 1997. In her Stap role, she served as managing director for Kellogg JumpStart News, a food service trade publication for the cereal company.

Her artistic side came out on the weekends with jewelry. Witukiewicz started a line she called V’ta Jewelry, selling to salons, advertising clients, and boutiques in Michigan. That side gig turned into a full-time job in 1999 after Stap let Witukiewicz go and she set up a jewelry studio in her parents’ garage.

Soon, Witukiewicz moved out onto her own, taking her jewelry company to Chicago. There, she collaborated with two friends—one a bridal gown designer, the other a graphic designer—to form a wedding-supplier dream team that created custom gowns, jewelry, and invitations.

“Bridal was a real education,” Witukiewicz says. “With a bride, you have to focus on a look, bringing their inner beauty out. Every piece they wear has to complement the bride.”

In 2002, on a visit to New York City, Witukiewicz met East Village bridal gown designer Angelo Lambrou and decided to shift again. She packed up her car and moved to New York City, where she worked on V’ta jewelry and bridal hair accessories in the Garment District.

Witukiewicz spent time in Manhattan’s Diamond District, and her jewelry knowledge grew. By 2008, she was learning CAD and diamond cutting and setting, and had an operations management role with jewelry brand David Alan.

In her spare time, she pursued two of her passion projects: ReJeweled, her brand that redesigned clients’ existing jewelry, and Karleigh Frank, her goth-deco fine jewelry line.

A 2012 cancer diagnosis turned Witukiewicz’s world upside down. She had been dedicated to custom work, but now she needed time to heal. In 2016, she began designing jewelry under a new brand, kWIT. The company offers clients many styles that can be personalized, including nameplate necklaces, letter rings, and even a pet-centric pendant named Fetch.

Seeing her customers go wild with the foundation she’s created for their jewelry has been its own adventure, says Witukiewicz, and she continues to innovate, like with her Mood Orb rings that Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) wore on And Just Like That….

“I created a palette with kWIT that let customers design for themselves,” Witukiewicz says.