Welcome to the next instalment of 'Meet the Jeweller'! This time we had the pleasure of chatting to Kate of Moana Matron Designs, a jewellery maker from Scotland who creates stunning ocean inspired designs.
What first got you into jewellery making — was there a turning point or moment that sparked it?
Getting into making jewellery happened slowly for me, and always just felt like a natural progression of my artwork. I began with a very basic tool, shrink plastic, when I discovered its potential to turn artwork into wearable pieces. That was back in 2011, and though my materials and working styles have changed a lot since then, my core aim hasn't: Create wearable pieces of art that embody peoples' biggest passions and greatest loves.
Can you tell us about the first piece of sea glass you ever worked with?
Sea glass is something I've collected for so many years that I honestly don't know where it began. The first time it occurred to me that the material could be used in jewellery was on a tiny beach in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, where the sea glass had been so vigorously worn that the pieces were tiny, much less than a centimetre each. Still perfectly frosted and rounded on all sides. The day I finally took the plunge and taught myself how to solder silver, those were the pieces I first set.
What inspired you to start creating memorial jewellery, and how has that evolved?
I planned to create memorial jewellery for a few years before I ever did. It just made sense with my client base they come to me for pieces made with heart, often presenting stories that are deeply sentimental. By this time in my journey I'd begun to move away from working with resin, and knew that when I started working with ashes it would only be within the longevity of glass. Ashes though, such a precious item; I was hesitant to start, fearful that any mistake would mean more than it ever had before. The first ashes piece I ever made was in remembrance of my own Nana, and with the blessing and support of my family. It took the pressure off and allowed me to try out everything I'd learned without hesitation. Thankfully, they all turned out brilliantly and the family members who have those pieces still wear them every day.
What’s your process like when working with ashes — how do you help clients feel supported through that?
Most clients who go on to order a memorial piece from me have found me through my social media videos. I think this overcomes the first hurdle, and arguably the most important one; trust. They've already seen that I've done this before, successfully, and hopefully they can also see in my videos that I work with care and respect throughout. The fact that you can't just outright order an ashes piece on my website, you have to contact me to discuss, opens up that dialogue where the client can get to know me better, and I can work to understand their vision. I also never take on more than one memorial piece at a time, so there's no crossover in my studio, no opportunity for error and nothing to take my focus from the important task at hand.
How do you balance creativity with care when working on such emotionally meaningful commissions?
The creative brief is already in place by the time they even send the ashes to me, but when working with ashes and sea glass, sometimes the piece wants something a little different. I don't know how it comes about, and it's really only ever with those two materials, but something will start to happen in the kiln, or maybe when I'm shaping it, and it'll prompt an idea that I'll send (usually along with a picture) to the client like "hey, just wanted to send you a little progress update! I just noticed that the way the ashes are swirled here might look great if we swirled the setting towards it, I've attached a little sketch, let me know if you'd like to amend the design to include it". With pieces so precious, I'm always in contact with the customer throughout for any questions either of us has, it relaxes them to feel fully involved.
Do you have a favourite type of sea glass or colour to work with — or a dream find you’re still hunting for?
My favourite colour in everything, in life, is the colour of the sea. Which of course, isn't one colour! I love the rich blue of deep water, the turquoise blue of a shallow sandy bay, the stormy blues of a windswept coast. Blue sea glasses are definitely my favourite to find, but like the ocean, the hues are endless. Cobalt blues are probably the easiest to find, along with really pale white-blues. But turquoise shades, those are my favourites to find, and they're a bit rarer so it feels extra special to come across them. The texture is also a real treat, finding a piece that has been well and truly battered by the ocean for a long time is more satisfying than finding a piece that's younger and still silky smooth.
How do your conservation values shape the way you work or run your business?
My conservation values run through my entire business and working ethos. This unexpected vocation had its inception during my years at University completing a marine zoology degree. Even there I would sometimes find myself walking an adjacent path to my peers in order to do less harm. I still try to run a careful balance between living realistically, and living with minimal impact. Which I think is really difficult, and creates disproportionate guilt for those individuals who actually care, in contrast with large quick-buck corporations who probably don't. But you only know what you know, and can only do what you can do. So I recycle, I say no to fast fashion, I pick up trash when I'm at the beach, I rescue bugs... and I've worked hard to evolve my business to produce less waste, and create pieces that will last a lifetime and more.
We love the “Do Some Good” page — how did your connection with research and rescue projects come about?
The research and rescue projects actually preceded the making, it's the foundation that I built my life on and that unexpectedly sprouted Moana Matron Designs. I was 4 when I discovered the job title "marine biologist' and from that day I knew: do well in school, go to college, go to University. Only problem was, I didn't actually know what to do once I had the degree. So I followed my heart (and family) to New Zealand and contacted anybody out there who worked with cetaceans, and anybody involved in rescue efforts at whale strandings. I was very lucky to have the experiences I did, despite never earning from it (and often having to pay travel, accommodation, training etc.) and those experiences impacted me so profoundly that they soon began to bleed into creative works.
What’s one piece you’ve made that really stuck with you, either emotionally or technically?
If I were asked to present a piece that best embodied my brand, I think it would have to be one of my whale cast pieces. Maybe the pilot whale? The orca and humpback whale are hands down my most popular, but the pilot whale is almost exactly why Moana Matron Designs exists. One of the very first pieces I ever made, in shrink plastic back in 2012, was a Southern Right Whale. Whale jewellery wasn't the least bit rare, but to want something so specific? You'd really struggle. That was the niche I wanted to fill. I wanted to make accurate but beautiful, species-specific pieces for people like me. Nerds! Whale nerds, bird nerds, bug nerds, that didn't really matter. If you were passionate enough about something in the natural world that you wanted to wear it around your neck? You were my people and I wanted to make jewellery for you. Orca and humpback whales are the celebs or the whale world, you'll find a hundred pages of jewellery featuring them if you look, I'm sure. But you're not gonna find a lot of pilot whales, and there's plenty more lesser-loved species on my list for the future!
How do you approach collaboration with customers — do you find it sparks new ideas for you too?
That actually leads really nicely into collaboration! If a customer has contacted me and asked, "hey, have you ever thought about creating xyz", chances are good that a) yes, I probably have thought about it and b) if they're asking, other customers are probably interested in that design too. This presents a perfect opportunity for us both, in that they get to order something they can't find anywhere else, and I get my first order for it before it even exists. I'm not sure customers realise that a lot of jewellery making requires a financial outlay without any promise of return. Ignoring the cost of tools and daily expendables, if you want to create a custom whale charm for example, you first gotta carve it. So you need the wax, carving tools for that, and a chunk of time where no one is paying you, while you sit hunched like a prawn and carve out those insane tiny details.
Then you have to mould it, either in-house or at a casting house, neither of which is free. Then you've gotta have an initial cast run done, and pay for those. At this point you haven't even seen one of them, let alone had it in your hand to polish and finish, photograph and list, and then finally, hopefully, sell some. A custom order like this takes off a couple of ounces of pressure. You only charge the customer what the final piece would cost, so you probably won't earn anything on that first sale, but you've created a new piece for your range and you know that at least one person liked it enough to put money on the table, which is great.
Has your design style changed much since you first started?
If you put an early picture of my work next to a recent piece, I think you'd say my style has changed a whole bunch. And I'd certainly hope you'd think my skill level has improved *cringe*! But the fact that you could put a 2012 orca next to a 2025 orca, I think highlights the fact that my core style, or at least maybe my niche, hasn't changed much at all. My development has focused solely on materials, increasing longevity and reducing waste. Everything else has just been time and experience.
What’s the most rewarding feedback or story you've received from a customer?
I don't have a single piece of treasured feedback because honestly, every happy reaction is such a relief. I think I have imposter syndrome because this wasn't "meant" to be my career path, so every time I design and make something new I'm holding my breath until it's received and I can find out whether the customer likes it. The reality is thankfully that most people don't buy from you unless they're pretty sure they're gonna like what you do, so mostly my inbox is a pleasant and rewarding place. Of course, it feels extra special when you've completed a custom piece or brand new design and it's well received, let's you know you're still on the right path.
What role does Instagram/social media play in your work — love it, tolerate it, both?
Unfortunately, social media plays a massive role in every aspect of my work. I don't do in-person sales/markets etc. and never have, so I absolutely have to put myself out there on the socials. It's changed so much in the years I've been using it, including moving from static images to video media, and it's a constant learning curve. It really is an integral part of my job and I think you either have to commit to learning it or hiring someone to do it for you, or I simply can't see how you'd succeed in this digital age. I'm a control freak by nature, hence why I work for myself, so I can't hand the reigns over to anyone in any aspect of my work. I don't pay for ads, no hired social media marketer, it's just me and what I've learned over the years and the knowledge and experience I continue to acquire. I also do my taxes and accounting, all the admin, the purchasing department is just me, so it's a very expansive role!
Is there a technique, material, or tool you’re keen to explore next?
My dream skills list is almost as long as my dream tools list, and any jeweller will tell you they're basically infinite lol. I've wanted to learn enamel probably for the longest time, as that seems to be the best way to bring my old, highly detailed colourful designs into this modern era of me working with precious metals. Along a similar vein, I'd really like to learn hand-engraving. The detail I could "draw" onto pieces with that skillset is really attractive to me. They both feel like big, new things though, so it's something I plan to learn in a course setting rather than piecing together chunks of information from all around the web. Probably a more immediate to-do task would be to get more out of my relatively new rolling mill.
What’s on the horizon for Moana Matron Designs — or what would you love to make space for?
I think my journey so far has taught me that the changes happen slowly, so slowly that sometimes you probably don't even notice them. So you're not suddenly going to see a huge change in anything I do, whether that be via my work or my social media presence. If I do start to learn enamelling or hand-engraving, that journey is going to be shared with my audience from the outset as well, so they can start to see what might be possible next in my designs. The only thing I'd like to make more space for is the other side of my personality, the gothic designs. It might seem a stark contrast to the sunny beach aesthetic of my ocean designs, but if you could hear what I'm listening to in the studio when I'm creating your tiny pretty treasures, it wouldn't be in any way surprising haha!
Visit Kate's website here to see all her beautiful creations and find her on Instagram too.
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