Jewel of the seas

Sporting a pink and white Gretchen Scott tunic, skinny white pants and leather flip-flops, the tall blonde standing in the middle of the C.Orrico boutique in Palm Beach looks like a mannequin.

Staring at the jewelry-display case, she suddenly starts moving, 
quickly rearranging the bracelets, earrings and necklaces hanging from their stands.

“I was trying to make this look a little nicer,” says Sasha Lickle, owner of Sasha Lickle Designs, a colorfully chic line of alluring adornments that reflect the sand, sea and surf.

For years, Lickle has lovingly labored over every personalized piece, taking into consideration not only its appearance and quality but also its length, weight and what kind of statement it makes.

“It all ties into some sort of sea-life theme, for the most part,” she says.

Her creatively crafted, semi-precious stone and seashell jewelry retails in the famed South County Road shop, as well as 41 other locations on the East Coast, from Islamorada in the Florida Keys to Delray Beach to Nantucket, Mass.

“That sand dollar is dipped in 24-karat gold,” Lickle says of the one-inch charm carried by an 18-inch cable chain. “Those earrings are carved out of the lip of a conch shell,” she says of the clover-shaped, three-quarter-inch studs.

The sand dollars, conch shells and other beach-bred baubles have come from her abundant travels throughout the Caribbean.

“I spent my life, and still do, going to the Bahamas,” Lickle says. “The color of the water and the sky down there are just my greatest inspiration.”

Her father, Garrison, would take her and her brother Cameron on regular boating trips to Exuma and the Abacos. Her passion for collecting what washes ashore started as a toddler traipsing through the golden strand off Palm Beach with her mother Dragana.

“It’s definitely a family affair,” Lickle, 31, says.

She never aspired to run her own company, and she never intended to make jewelry. She wanted to become a psychologist. After earning a master’s degree from Nova Southeastern University and working on her doctorate, she suffered a debilitating back injury that laid her up for 11 months.

“I was stuck in bed, and after watching every horrible TV show, movie, book, whatever, I started to get a little crazy,” Lickle says.

Sasha Lickle Designs soon emerged. At her first trunk show, she sold everything she brought.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, really?’” Lickle remembers. “But people did like it and wanted to buy it.”

Her successful venture experienced a spike in sales one and a half years ago, and she now admits to working 16 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week – except when pursuing her other passion of deep-sea fishing.

“Each piece, I do put a lot of time, energy and care into,” Lickle says. “My goal is to be different from everybody else.”

Her creations range from $22 to $265 and now include handbags.

Customers at C.Orrico purchase Sasha Lickle Designs pieces daily, Colleen Orrico, one of the owners, says.

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