Friday Friends - Dusty Divas Part 15 River Gum Jewellery

Welcome my lovely readers to another edition of Friday Friends - edition 15 (my goodness that many already ?) This week it is my great pleasure to introduce another relatively new DUSTer Robyn from River Gum Jewellery



This wonderful lady is such a supportive soul and I do adore her creations, in fact can I please add these to my wishlist .............

the loveliest Rich Red Coral, Snowflake Obsidian Focal Bead necklace.........


the most earthy of pendants in Autumn Jasper, Wood and Sterling Silver


and this stunning Turquoise and Sponge Coral Bracelet in Sterling Silver,


I must admit I already have in my collection these sweet hand blown glass beads earrings that are clear in colour and have lovely blue and mandarin swirls and Robyn custom made me this beautiful OOAK necklace to match !


Now I invite you to settle in with a cuppa, relax and revel in the River Gum Jewellery story.


The story of River Gum Jewellery
Hello. My name is Robyn and I am the face of RiverGum Jewellery.

I am very fortunate to be the wife of an incredibly supportive husband and mother of two gorgeous adult children. My daughter is living in London pursuing an acting career and my son will finish a Physiotherapy degree at the end of this year.
I have always loved creating. As a child I remember sitting in front of the TV on a Saturday night making clothes out of newspaper. Still to this day I always need something to work on when I watch TV.

At the age of 4, I started to learn to play the piano and this has been a consuming passion of mine ever since. I have been a piano teacher of some fabulous students, some of whom have become piano teachers also. Over the last few years I have cut down on the number of students as my passion for jewellery design and creation takes over my life and my house!

I have been bending and twisting wire for about 7 years. I am mainly self taught but last year did a CAE course and learnt the basics of silversmithing. I hope to do more courses in the future. I work with gold-filled, sterling silver, fine silver and copper wire, and love using natural gemstones and freshwater pearls.

I don’t have a particular design style although I think I have a particular look – clean, simple lines, allowing the stones to speak for themselves. I create what I love and what I would wear myself rather than create what I think others will like. I love the continual challenge of trying something new, hence the eclectic look of my range.

My inspiration comes from my surroundings – I am so fortunate to live on two and a half acres filled with gum trees, wattles, kangaroos, kookaburras and the odd echidna and snake! – and from listening to all kinds of music while I work. I also design around the style of clothes I love to wear.

I started selling at local markets around Melbourne early on and then supplied a gallery in Romsey and a shop in Daylesford. I have just started an Etsy and a Madeit store this year. This was a huge learning curve, getting my head around photographing my pieces, writing about them and then listing them.
Having the online shops is like having a very large photo album in cyberspace. It is so easy to point people to my work when they enquire about my pieces.
Of course, the other huge plus about belonging to something like Etsy and the Etsy DUST team is connecting with other fellow artists, like the wonderful Samara of Maddabling! In fact, Samara was my very first ‘unknown’ purchaser from my Etsy store. I was SO excited when I woke that morning to my first real sale!

So here I am at the age of 52! Who would have thought that this was what I would be doing in 2010!


To see more fabulous creations, visit Robyns online stores at :

www.etsy.com/shop/rivergum

www.madeit.com.au/RiverGumJewellery

connect with Rivergum Jewellery on Facebook :

www.facebook.com/RiverGumJewellery

or if you have enquiries or fancy a custom piece, email Robyn at : robyn@rivergumjewellery.com.au