Katie Mancilla runs her new fine jewelry company, Eleuthera Zo, through her decades of marketing and corporate-finance experience with the goal of slowly building a brand with intention and a client-focused, open communication.

She started Eleuthera Zo in 2025 after a lifetime of jewelry collecting. She operates as a one-person show—developing its designs, setting up the supply chain, and doing the marketing strategy.

That may sound like a lot of effort, but it is a pleasure in its own way, Mancilla says. That’s also where the company’s unique name comes from—it represents the liberty she desires at this time in her career and her personal life.

“I was brainstorming names when I found myself in the Eleuthera Islands in the Bahamas on a family member’s boat. I fell in love with the endless blue sea and staring into it gave me the clarity I needed for my own path,” Mancilla says. “When I looked into what Eleuthera meant, I found out it comes from the Greek word for freedom. Zo means life. I knew that was it.”

Mancilla grew up in Kissimmee, Fla., as the fourth of five children. She remembers a childhood of playing dress-up games, making up stories, and wearing her mother’s costume jewelry.

“My clearest memories are from raiding my mother’s jewelry box. None of it was real; we didn’t have much growing up. But she had these chunky, three-strand tubogas bracelets I’d stack up on my arm,” Mancilla says.

“I’d put on her nightgowns and pretend I was a princess. My favorite thing was draping her necklaces across my head like a delicate crown, straight out of The NeverEnding Story,” she says. “The second I did that, I was gone—transported somewhere else entirely, somewhere I could be anything.”

Mancilla admits she was “a terrible student” but learned to work hard through a job as a lifeguard. Her daily look was hemp clothing and puka shell necklaces.

“It was my first taste of responsibility, showing up, being accountable for people’s safety,” she says. “I liked earning my own money too much to ever stop working after that.”

Mancilla ended up skipping college entirely to become an administrative assistant at an automotive company age 19. She worked her way up through its finance department, moving on to become a director of financial operations for the entire auto group. When the 2008 housing crash happened, Mancilla decided to shift into marketing.

She was offered a position at a digital marketing agency, but soon found she didn’t like how the industry operated. She started her own agency, KC Group, built on transparency with clients instead of the usual smoke and mirrors.

“For 15 years, I helped clients build brands from the ground up into multimillion-dollar businesses. The same instincts that let me see the housing crash coming helped me foresee a lot of what was going to transpire in e-commerce and DTC before it happened,” Mancilla says.

She also had worked alongside jewelry brands, and those experiences moved her to eventually started developing her first pieces with a friend in the industry.

“At the time, I was in a place in my marketing career where I felt completely detached and I knew I needed to focus on my passion for jewelry and make the leap into building my own brand,” she says. “After years of building other people’s dreams, I wanted to build my own, focused on my passion for jewelry. I had so many designs and ideas for what I wanted my brand to be and this is just the start of bringing them to life.”

Two of the brand’s initial collections are among its finest: Rumours and Zodiac. The Rumours collection is handcrafted in Naples, Italy, by a fifth-generation master goldsmith specializing in the intricate tubogas technique, transforming metal into fluid forms without visible soldering. The Zodiac Collection offers Mancilla’s interpretation of celestial icons, celebrating individuality and everyday fine jewelry.

Gold jewelry is one of Eleuthera Zo’s main components because it represents the kind of permanance and beauty Mancilla seeks. She also says she is in the process of opening a boutique in Tuscany, Italy, as that location felt like the natural extension of the brand’s supply chain and global presence.

“Now I’m at a stage where I wear mainly solid gold, and I want pieces that live the life I live—in the ocean, on my morning walks, workouts, and come out the other side perfectly. I’d rather buy one piece a year that lasts me a lifetime than ten that won’t last one year,” Mancilla says.

(Photos courtesy of Eleuthera Zo)

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