Having grown up within the jewellery industry, I started building the foundations for my business early, but I really reached a career milestone last year in designing my own collection. Straight out of university I concentrated all my energy into jewellery and have since been enthralled in this beautiful world. Travelling the globe to source gemstones, meet with like minded artisans who share my passions.
My ethos for bybriannayvonne was to provide consumers with an Australian brand, using Australian gems and materials where possible - bringing natural colours to jewels - slow Fashion, ethically sourced, handmade jewellery made to last a lifetime. bybriannayvonne embodies my personal core values and goals with sustainability.
I am centrally focused on maintaining a sustainable business. One of the initiatives I started was partnering with the Wildlife Warriors. Marine conservation is something I hold close to my heart. My longing to contribute to our oceans inspired me to design a collection specifically for the Wildlife Warriors Grey Nurse Shark Project. This is helping raise awareness for our oceans and the proceeds from each piece sold goes directly to the Project! This way everyone can make a difference and show their support with one of my handmade rings, earrings or necklace.
Some of the biggest challenges are quality, ethical sourcing, natural stones and being handmade does make my product hold a certain value and competing with online company's that mass produce product has proved challenging. Online it is very hard for a consumer to see the difference between a fast fashion mass produced piece of jewellery and a handmade quality piece just from a picture. I believe my biggest challenge is reaching a wider audience that does appreciate local, handmade, eco products and more focused on slow fashion.As my client base grows, and my brand has become stocked in some local stores - this has helped me gain brand awareness. The most rewarding part of my work is custom makes for clients and sourcing special gemstones that hold such sentimental value for the wearer. Knowing my pieces are being enjoyed and treasured is a wonderful reward and is why I love my job!
In every way I can. I use recycled gold when I can or Australian gold. I can use clients gemstones to remake, redesign or remodel for custom makes. I use recycled packaging materials and I am a proud supporter of WWAZ, Unbuntu.But the main way I support sustainability is creating jewellery that is made to last a lifetime, be worn, enjoyed and hold value.
Like my Eco bag giveaway to promote the elimination of single use plastic. I also look forward to further developing the custom make side of my business next year as I have developed an amazing team of jewellers in house in order to obtain the highest standards around ethical and sustainable practice. I am also keen to grow my relationship with environmental sustainability and will be collaborating with some more organisations next year to expand my Marine Collection.
When you decide to buy a piece of jewellery some things to think about would be to ask a few questions. How was this piece of jewellery made? How many hands have touched this piece? Where did the materials come from? How long will it last?
Fast fashion will generally be inexpensive in comparison, poorly-made but on trend. Slow fashion, you aren't just buying a thing, you are buying a piece. The passion that went into the design, the hard work that went into crafting and supporting an artist.