FAQ

Yes! I ship worldwide, given that your country is able to receive international mail.

I stumbled across silversmithing while travelling through India in 2016. I did a ‘workshop’ for silversmithing in a little blue room in Pushkar, India with a lady named Divya. There was no set learning curriculum or course. You would just tell her what you wanted to make and she would guide you. I went to her workshop for about 3 weeks total. I bought her starter kit and raced home to Australia to set up my studio at home. The rest I self taught through online resources and trial and error!

I recommend looking up silversmithing classes in your area, see if you can do a ‘once off’ workshop to see if its your thing. From there you can look up short courses in your area, or go to the workshop a couple more times. There are starter kits you can purchase online from places like AJS, Koodaks or Rio Grande.

There are lots of online resources that can help you learn, such as Andrew Berry on YouTube. However its imperative that you learn the basics of silversmithing (such as soldering) from someone in person.

I am completely self taught with wax ring carving. I had saved up to do a course for it, but that fell through. A jeweler friend of mine said she had been playing around with it and nudged me to just give it a crack. It clicked immediately for me, and I have slowly transitioned to working predominately with wax. The techniques I use to carve and shape wax is not traditional by any means, but the end product is solidly made, and that’s all that matters.

I use very gentle cleaning methods for my jewellery after the piece has finished due to the opals - therefore sometimes there can be a micro thin layer of polishing compound on the piece still which may transfer to your skin. This will go away after 1-2 days of full wear.

I have acquired my stones over the last 4 years from several different places. I sourced all of my stones that aren’t opal from the Gem capitol of the world - Jaipur, India. I went around the gem district sifting through many stones and suppliers to source my stock.

All of my opals are sourced either direct from miners across Australia, or from the suppliers they sell to directly. I am going to be leaning towards mostly working with Opal going forwards as its easier for me to actually find out where the gems come from and can support family owned mines.

I work predominately with sterling silver + solid gold. I have also worked with brass and bronze, but not as frequently as these metals react with the ph levels on the skin and can leave greenish marks. I steer away from doing plated pieces, as I want to create jewellery to stand the test of time.

I dont actually buy in metals anymore, so I just pay for the amount of silver/gold that my designs use when they are transformed from wax to metal. I use a technique called “lost wax casting” to create all of my pieces. This means I create my jewellery designs in wax, then I get a casting company to turn it into silver and gold for me. They are constantly recycling metals to produce these casts.

I create a wax version of a ring. I then take it to my casters. They attach this ring to a “wax tree” using wax sticks as the branches. They then make a mould around the wax tree from a plaster/ceramic like material. They use a kiln to burn out the wax, leaving a cavity, which molten metal is then poured into. Thus, bringing our wax versions to life in our chosen metal. Our pieces are then snipped off the wax tree and given back to us to clean up and finish.

The green jewellery is in fact Green Jewellers Wax. This is what I make all of my jewellery from! The jewellery then has a plaster mould made around the model and once set the wax is burnt out and the empty mould is filled with our chosen metal!

I have started to offer up the designs in wax so that you can choose your preferred metal and size! Since I make mostly one off pieces this gives you some level of customisation!