The local jewellery labels you need to know.
Jewellery is generally a bit of an investment. And whether you’re shelling out some serious coin on a bespoke ring or commissioning a custom locket, you want to be sure its the best possible quality.
This is because jewellery, perhaps more so than clothing, is imbued with particularly distinct memories and meaning. Maybe one day your child will own the gold chain you wear around your neck, or you’ll be reminded of a past lover each time you put on the hoops they gave you on your first anniversary.
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Whatever jewellery means to you, we’re privileged to have an abundance of talented independent jewellery makers in Australia and New Zealand to choose from. Below is an ever-growing list of our favourites.
Cleopatra’s Bling
Olivia Cummings’ love of travel and time spent in Paris and the heart of Turkey led her to create Cleopatra’s Bling. Inspired by her trips around the globe, she creates ethical jewellery with wax, metals and ethically sourced stones, all while respecting the ancient jewellery-making traditions she has learnt along the way.
Millie Savage
Since its creation seven years ago, Millie Savage has evolved into a brand that values high-level craftsmanship, creating designs that are iconic and stylish. With a studio and store set up in Brunswick, Melbourne, Millie works with a team to custom cut opals and precious gems sourced from Mintabie, South Australia.
Daphne Huguette
Of both Indonesian and Dutch heritage, Daphne Huguette crafts jewellery inspired by the interpretation of ancient traditions, music and tribes. Her designs have a beautifully organic, fluid feel to them, making each piece feel like it was made just for you.
Cameron Studio
Homegrown and handmade in Melbourne Australia, Cameron Studio takes a minimal approach to jewellery creating refined and uncomplicated pieces that are both directional and timeless. Cameron Studio offers a range of men’s and unisex jewellery, known best for its signature signet rings.
Camille Paloma Walton
Born to artist parents, designer Camille Paloma Watson grew up “immersed in a creative environment”. Her eponymous jewellery label is influenced by a variety of mediums, like painting, sculpture and drawing. Camille’s pieces are playful and expressive, a beautiful amalgamation of polished metals and colourful gemstones.
Pip Stent
Designed and handmade in Melbourne, jeweller Pip Stent prioritises sustainable jewellery-making practices by using recycled metals and ethically sourced gems and diamonds. Her work is designed to blend and evolve into the wearer’s story, creating pieces that are rich, intimate and layered.
Vermeer Studio
Vermeer Studio offers handcrafted jewellery made from a range of materials; including jade, freshwater pearl, lapis, quartz and tiger’s eye. Striking a careful balance between playful and feminine, Vermeer pieces are made for everyday wear.
Kto Jewellery
Designed and handcrafted from her studio in Castlemaine, Kaitlyn Weekes jewellery label, Kto, is both sculptural and fluid. Sustainable and slowly made, Kto creates modern heirlooms that can be customised and made-to-order.
Niicolé
Niicolé Pollard’s namesake jewellery label takes inspiration from Renaissance style and costume jewellery. From an extravagant choker adorned with 156 freshwater pearls, to her spike Ghost Rider earrings, each piece is made-to-order and handmade in New Zealand.
Shannen Young
Based in New Zealand, Shannen Young creates untraditional, experimental and unique jewellery designs. Her one-of-a-kind pieces vary from chunky textured necklaces to delicate pendant earrings, all handmade in her collaborative Auckland studio.
Kick in the Eye
Kick in the Eye jewellery is the best kind of sexy. Its distinctive deep red and purple gemstones are framed in sterling silver chains, claws and spikes. Made locally in Melbourne, each piece is crafted with high-quality materials, designed to stand the test of time.
Meadowlark
Meadowlark is a New Zealand-based jewellery brand that values art, creativity, and connection. Meadowlark is driven to create pieces that serve as reminders of the important chapters in our lives. The brand offers an extensive collection of jewellery, versatile in colours, textures, stones and designs.
Sacre Flux
Sacreflux is a Melbourne-based jewellery label founded by designer Georgia Sacre. Through her designs, Georgia pays homage to the people in her life that have inspired her, namely her Nana, who was an antique jewellery collector.
Matilda Foley
Til Foley jewellery is locally made on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula by Matilda Foley. Matilda’s collection is a combination of bespoke and ready to wear pieces, classically designed and made from materials like sterling silver, solid gold, gemstones, glass beads and pearls.
Nadia Ridiandries
Designer Nadia Ridiandries launched her eponymous jewellery label as the result of an experimental hobby. Each ring and necklace is formed from recycled metals and natural gemstones sourced from across the globe. The genderless brand embraces multifunctional pieces made to be worn anywhere, at any time.
Grædance
Grædance is a new genderless demi-fine jewellery brand based in Naarm. The label works with sterling silver jewellery, designing ear cuffs, rings and necklaces that have melting textures and delicate detailing. Inspired by the liminal space and the space in between, the label wants wearers to feel a sense of uniqueness when putting on its designs.
Bella Clark
With a background in fine arts, Bella Clark uses jewellery as a medium for her artistic expression. Guided by slow, mindful jewellery-making practices, Bella’s unique, heirloom-worthy designs are sustainably made in Melbourne.
Tyra Paydon
Located in Brunswick, the namesake label Tyra Paydon Jewellery pays homage to Tyra’s creative upbringing, experimenting with rainbow stones set into timeless designs. From feminine, pastel gems in fine ear threads to chunky silver signet rings, Paydon captures the different aspects of her personality in her work while celebrating the beauty of raw materials.
Eloise Falkiner
After completing a jewellery design course in 2007, Eloise studied the medicinal qualities of botany and botanicals. Falling in love with the structures of plants, she began to draw them, which became the inspiration of her first jewellery collection, Ossicle, in 2019. Designed and created in Melbourne, the beauty of nature continues to underpin her work and her pieces utilise hand-cut stones and local, recycled materials for a minimalist but alluring finish.
Mgn
Mgn is the otherworldly jewellery label centred around the magic glow of gemstones. Created by designer Megan in 2018, the brand is bringing fantasy back to wearable, everyday pieces; a beautiful contrast of glistening colour and ultra-polished molten silver and gold. Each piece is made-to-order in Megan’s Melbourne studio from 100 per cent recycled metal.
Bonus Prize
With each piece made-to-order in Brunswick, Melbourne, Bonus Prize remains faithful to its ethos: that every object we place on our body is sacred. The brand’s jewellery is made with traditional gold and silversmithing and gem-setting techniques, creating pieces that are unique for each individual.
EF Studios
EF Studios is a bespoke jewellery house specialising in future heirlooms with distinctive flair. Crafted by hand in Melbourne, most pieces repurpose old jewels or recycled materials and incorporate ethically sourced stones. Experimental, eccentric and memorable, EF Studio’s designs are enduring odes to the people and moments that define our lives. From the first consultation to the final reveal, every piece made is one of complete idiosyncrasy via wax casting. Once a wax mould has been cast into metal, it cannot ever be reproduced, allowing for the most poetic process of tailor-made manufacturing.
Garage Bands
Using the unique ‘lost-wax’ casting process, Melbourne designer Kurt crafts stunning one-off jewellery designs. Fluid, thoughtful and dynamic, each piece feels as if it was made just for you.
Agovia
Melbourne-based jewellery label Agovia makes opulent pieces designed for everyday wear. Agovia work directly with merchants in countries across Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Nigeria (and more) to ensure traceability in its materials. Find a colourful and lush offering of rings, necklaces and chains.
Love Isabelle
Minimal, feminine jewellery that’s both gentle and fierce is how Love Isabelle likes to describe itself. Drawing inspiration from the art in everyday life, its pieces are sleek and elegant and made for everyday wear.
Saint Valentine
Established in 2016 in Sydney, Saint Valentine is known for its modern, refined and elegant jewellery offering. Eliciting a sense of romanticism, the jewellery house offers a range of rings, necklaces and bracelets made from gold, silver and more. Saint Valentine releases six to eight small capsule collections annually, made to be worn every day.
Underground Sundae
Underground Sundae is a jewellery brand made in Melbourne and founded on strong DIY values. The brand creates playful, unique designs that unite pop culture and high-quality materials to give your everyday jewellery a distinctive edge.
Jake Cheeseman
Handmade in Melbourne, Jake Cheeseman is the super-sweet jewellery brand combining smiley faces and playful pendants. Aptly named after Jake himself, the brand is known for its 19-carat gold flower pendants, custom signet rings and – of course – cheesy grins.
Seb Brown
Since being established in 2009, Melbourne jewellery designer Seb Brown has become a mainstay both in the Australian fashion scene and abroad, loved for his classic yet distinctive signet rings and unexpected pops of colour. When crafting his bespoke pieces he ensures his studio generates as little waste as possible, with each piece being made from recycled or reclaimed silver and gold and the highest quality gemstones available.
Jean Riley
Crafted between her Sydney and Brisbane studios, Jean Riley’s thoughtful pieces are inspired by the bubbly outlook of her late mother and muse. Specialising in glass jewellery, you can either customise an existing piece or create your own entirely through the bespoke service. Part of profits also contributes to dementia research, adding more meaning behind every purchase.
Black Finch
Black Finch is a jewellery house founded by jeweller Raymond de Zwart. Designed and crafted by hand in Melbourne, it’s known for its sustainable practices, including using recycled gold, ethically sourced gemstones and conflict-free diamonds. Choose between classic or colourful ready-to-wear jewellery, or opt for a custom, bespoke piece.
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Want to know more about ethical and sustainable jewellery? This handy guide should do the trick.