Sustainably Elegant Handcrafted Designer Jewellery by Suzie Horne
It's A Kind of Magic!
Last year (2021), I was contacted in regards to making a customised ‘Ring Holder’ necklace. I have to admit I had no idea what that was - and had to look it up!
What I found was something magical! 🤩 It involved a chain with a shaped pendant - that was open at the top, enabling a ring to be passed around the whole pendant, so that it would then ‘sit’ on top of the pendant - without having to take the necklace off.
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Be Uplifted
A few years ago, as part of an art exhibition at the Upstairs Art Gallery in Titirangi, I created a new collection along the theme of “Uplifting” - it was called the “Rainbow Smiles” collection.
The Rainbow Smiles collection comprises dangly earrings, a necklace, a bracelet and a brooch that all feature recycled Sterling Silver wire in the shape of a shallow u (or a smile 😊) with 9 different types of coloured semi-precious stones on each piece. For some reason, I never added the ...
Many years ago...
When I first started making my Christmas Tree Earrings, they were made from one long length of gold plated copper wire (per earring), with a tiny white Mother of Pearl star attached.
Becoming Eco Friendly
However I later decided to no longer create these ‘gold’ ones, as my focus moved to sustainability and the use of 100% recycled Sterling Silver wires. I also acquired some slightly larger Mother of Pearl stars - an ivory one, and a red one.
Now, my Christmas Tre...
Creating Jewellery for Men
When I started out making jewellery, I mostly made it just for women - and kids - as at the time, I had a young daughter keen on sparkly things!However, after a few years I started thinking more about creating jewellery for men. Unfortunately though, I don’t really know many men who wear jewellery! Do you?The only jewellery my husband wears is his wedding ring - which is made from Titanium, as we knew it would need to withstand some heavy wear and tear over the yea...
Curlicue NZ's current packaging:
Back at the end of 2017, after quite a lot of thinking and research, I started using a new gift box to package and protect my Curlicue NZ jewellery.
It was made from a cardboard base and a food-grade PVC clear lid. I had believed all parts of the box and packaging were fully recyclable (even the re-purposed bubble wrap insert which could be recycled in soft plastics), so I called it my Eco Gift Box.
The idea behind these gift boxes was that you could...
The Peas in a Pod Collection
Background Story:
A couple of years ago, a good friend had another baby. I wanted to make something special for her, and to celebrate the new addition to their family. I found out the birth months of all her kids - and found that I had the birthstones for each of them! So I decided to make something that represented them all, especially for my friend. Previously, I have made jewellery pieces using a particular method of wire wrapping - called the “herrin...
What do you do...
When you lose one of your favourite earrings?
Or your best beaded bracelet snags on a zip and rips it apart?
What about when your beloved child grabs the necklace your best friend gave you and breaks the clasp?
Or, the wire snaps on your treasured necklace and all the beads fall to the floor?
Well, you scoop up all those beads, contact me and I’ll see what I can do to fix it for you! 😁
Fixing Jewellery
Over time I have repaired a huge variety of costume jewellery...
The Romantic Rose Collection - which is one of my favourites, and contains several pieces that are customer favourites - has now been around for nearly five years.
It ultimately represents timeless luxury and sustainable elegance, and despite often being promoted as a perfect gift for Valentine's Day, it definitely doesn’t relate to just one day!
The Inspirational Rose:
The Romantic Rose collection was inspired by my first rose bush - given to me by my mum, that was called “Love Me Do”.
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"Don't judge a book by it's cover"
How do you know if someone has an invisible illness? I often think about the quote above - and try to use it when on the outside looking in to other people’s lives, in the hope that they can also use it with me.
Looks can be so deceiving!
What you see on the outside, is completely different from what I’m dealing with on the inside.
I have several different medical issues, or syndromes, most of which are a topic society deems as unmentionable - despite...
Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose
My "R3 Collection" is the second of two collections launching next Tuesday (8th September).
For some time, I had been thinking about how I could produce some jewellery by recycling or repurposing some sort of material. The material had to be one that I had easy access to, and also one that I had the tools to create something new from. But I don’t have the tools (or know-how) for woodwork, nor glass (yet!)
What could I use?
What can I do that is different, disti...