Our story

Hi, I’m Urjaa. I started Zhianka on a quiet afternoon when I came home after five long years away.

Between unopened boxes and familiar shelves, I found pieces of myself I hadn’t seen in years: tiny trinkets, old teddies, faded photographs, delicate baby jewellery wrapped carefully and forgotten. I remember sitting there, holding them, and realising how much I had changed. Life had grown sharper, faster, more serious. Even my jewellery had followed - minimal, muted, responsible.

Somewhere along the way, the playful pieces had quietly disappeared.

Zhianka (pronounced jhiyankaa) was born in that quiet moment of recognition. The name is inspired by the Odia word ଝିଅଙ୍କର, meaning belonging to girls, rooted in ଝିଅ (jhia) — girl. In my culture, jhia is more than just a word for a child. It is a universal salutation of endearment, used for women of any age, spoken with warmth, familiarity, and affection. You can be thirty, fifty, even seventy, and still be called jhia with softness in the voice.

That is what Zhianka holds for me. A reminder that no matter how old we grow, some part of us still belongs to those girls, the curious, playful, tender versions of ourselves that never really leave.

Zhianka is nostalgia jewellery, colourful, playful, a little sentimental, but designed for who we are now. Jewellery that holds echoes of peak girlhood memories, yet feels refined enough for the lives we live today.

It’s for the little girl in us,
but made to be worn by the older us.

Coming from a consulting and market research background, I’ve always been someone who looks for depth beneath the surface. I spent months studying materials science, understanding base metals, coating thickness, and plating technologies, before choosing 18K gold PVD coated stainless steel. I wanted these pieces to be more than emotional; I wanted them to last. To be worn daily. To grow with you.