So this is my third collection!
To be honest I never would have imagined myself in this position… designing jewellery collections, selling retail and wholesale, running a business and of course writing blogs. LOL.
But here I am, and I am loving it and I am learning so much about myself and how far you need to stretch when you are a one man band.
Me in my one man band.
My collections have all come in sequence and story and I believe they will continue to surface this way. I could try to work with the seasons and trends, but if I am honest with myself it’s not me. Each collection is from our world, my world - a reflection of external and internal, and how they blend together. One thing for sure though, nature always plays her part in being an enormous influence. I have no idea how each one will pan out, I can already see such changes and progressions. I do plan to keep delving deeper and further into my creative pot, being as innovative as possible and staying as excited as I am now releasing Thrive.
Nature's inspiration.
Savour is Solart’s first collection.
It came about in 2020 very soon after my son Bodhi was born. The three of us, (Bodhi, my husband Wayne and I) were in our beautiful bubble at home, discovering, loving, hibernating, nurturing and of course savouring every moment possible. This story is a beauty, and will come in detail in another blog.
Family photo of us three in our superb newborn bubble April 2020.
Hope is the second collection and it actually came quite quickly after Savour. It was still 2020 and we had been in lockdown for 112 days through winter. We all felt it, no matter who or what our situation. It was a long winter with such a foreign element of restriction. Winter normally is the time for going in, but this was a whole new ballgame. So when we came out and restrictions were lifted my biggest feeling of all was of Hope. This is the space where the designs and paintings arose from.
Hope collection in Spring painting.
I had plenty of ideas, and was doing lots of painting to apply to the wooden earrings, but at the same time I was learning how to run my business and really start to work wholesale. Once I put the first collection out there the stockists started to roll in. I had so much to learn and apply on the back end of Solart which I had never really thought about before. The creative side took a back seat for a little while whilst the business started to grow and succeed, but my ideas and designs never stopped coming. So when the parcel arrived in the post with the first batch of the collection I was so excited, nervous and thrilled to open it.
Thrive Collection arrival in post.
I had 2 main ideas which I had swirling around for so long that I wanted to apply were:
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Double Sided Reversible Jewellery.
Being able to print onto beautiful sustainably sourced hoop pine wood was a luxury and it felt a waste to have one side blank. With most of the earrings hanging on hoops made it very easy to take off and turn around for a new look and some fun. With colour and vibrancy as my flavour I wanted to offer a contrast on the other side, something to ground you and connect you into mother earth.
So here the burnt effect of the dot painting was born. A pattern drawn to spread 1000mm x 600mm in size - it was huge and took so much time. I loved doing it, as if it felt like meditation. I made sure I was present in the process, and each dot took me deeper within and grounded me more and more.
Double sided, reversible 'Disco Wash' earrings.
2. Gold hoops. Solart’s focus is to help you shine. Sol means sun in Spanish, and it is the sun which is a golden fire star that shines each day and keeps us alive. So basically golden hoops make total sense.
3. No Waste Having a focus on mother earth and wanting to make as little an impact as possible I knew I was going to somehow incorporate this into the design. With a puzzle inspiration, I was able to create the inside effect of an earring inside an earring inside an earring = NO WASTE woohoo!!
The designs are cut within each other to create no wastage.
With the growth of Solart and the wooden jewellery collections, I started really going in deep and building the foundations. Looking at core values and what I wanted to create, with short and long term goals in focus. This is where the feeling to Thrive came through. It feels so positive, vibrant and uplifting. It holds strong to a wonderful new era and space to create, share, shine and connect.