Patty's Island Jewellery

My friend Patty makes jewellery in her spare time. She lives on a beautiful island that is a popular tourist destination.

“I started making jewellery about 10 years ago. It started in Fiji when Robin and I went there for his work. Making necklaces and earrings gave me something to do during the day. I also make bracelets, bookmarks, watchbands, and anklets. For the children, I make little sets of matching necklaces, bracelets, and pendants.

“Robin, who is very clever with his hands, built a bead loom and we made several bead pictures and bands with it, but it takes a long time, so these days I stick to the jewellery. I use a mixture of beads, Swarovski crystals, shells, and stones. The beads are all different shapes and sizes: terracotta and glass, pewter, tiny glass seed beads that we got for the bead loom. I love aqua beads and natural stone beads like turquoise.

“I buy beads and other bits from a number of places – wholesalers in Sydney and Brisbane, eBay, beads from China on the web, old jewellery from junk shops. My friend Leanne and I started selling once a month at the local market six or seven years ago. She makes children’s clothes. It’s really a hobby for both of us. I love being creative, and it gives you a little pocket money.

“It’s great to get compliments when people like your colour schemes, or the unique arrangement of beads, or one-off ideas. Young girls come looking for glitz, while backpackers are looking for tropical beachwear, and more mature women are looking for pieces they can wear night and day. Women are addicted to earrings that colour-coordinate with their clothes, you know. I sell a lot to wedding parties, and I make a lot of stuff to give as presents at Christmas.

“For the necklaces, the thread is mostly Tigertail. It comes in lots of colours. For the beading, we use Anefil Nylon thread, which is very strong – I think they use it when they sew lifejackets. I use silver-plated clasps and hooks because that’s not so expensive, so it doesn’t push the price of the piece up too much. It costs me five to seven dollars for all the bits, and I try to sell for three times the cost. A necklace takes anything up to half-an hour to put together once I get the idea, but I spend hours and hours sourcing beads, and working out which ones will look good together. Sometimes it just doesn’t work and I take it all apart again. I might start a necklace three of four times before I get a pattern that works. If they don’t sell they get recycled into something completely different, like a bookmark. Bookmarks are quite easy to make and they are fun because they use up leftovers. They sell well.

“Sometimes I help people with broken jewellery, or who have things that need mending or some adjustment. I recently helped a friend break up a pretty, antique necklace into a shorter necklace and two sets of earrings. If someone has a focal pendant, I can put it on a different base.

“I always have music on when I work, I always find music inspiring and relaxing, and it helps me concentrate and work for longer hours. I only sell at the local markets. I had some in a shop but the shop closed. The margin is quite thin and once you start putting them into shops you have to put the price up. I wouldn’t have my own shop because it wouldn’t suit my lifestyle, it would be too much hassle. In a small place like this I don’t think it would be the go. There are lots of jewellery shops in town.

“People buy stuff to match their outfits and their personalities. When someone comes to my table they often the hone in on a particular colour, otherwise they look over the whole table and I hope for something to catch their eye. Red, aqua, pink, and black other colours that are in right now.

“Sometimes a customer just can’t make up their mind and they try on six of seven different pieces. One woman ended up buying three sets, and a fourth set for her mother. All of the sets – necklace and earrings – were in aqua howlite stone, but each one was different. Everything I make is unique, although sometimes I do duplicate basic patterns with different beads.

“When I make something really beautiful I get it on my table as quickly as possible, and when someone buys it I feel great satisfaction. I’m not attached to the pieces at all, and although I often think I must make something like this for myself, I never get around to it. I don’t get sentimental, I don’t think ‘I’m going to miss that’, I’m thinking I should be buying more of those beads.

“Most of the jewellery you see in the gift shops is mass-produced. But a lot of it is nice, cheap, and good value, and it’s hard to compete against that, so I try to keep my prices down to a reasonable level. The real pleasure for me is in creating something. Selling it is just a necessity – otherwise I would be left with boxes and boxes of jewellery and nowhere to sleep!

“I think my jewellery reflects the place I live in, colour is important to me, and the ocean...sometimes I deliberately buy pendants that are like fish or butterflies and then build a necklace around them. It’s good for the tourists because it’s like a memento of their holiday. I see people wearing my jewellery and its a lovely compliment to have people coming back wearing a piece they bought last year, looking for more.

“I have made dreamcatchers, too. They are rings crisscrossed by a spider-web thread, with beads and feathers threaded through. You are supposed to hang them in bedroom windows to catch your dreams as you sleep. I would like to think they work. I hope they’ve caught my dreams.”