Abyssal’s Story
How Life Shapes Our Direction
One of my earliest memories was exploring the beach and rock pools for what I loved to call my treasures. (Pretty rocks, shells, and sea glass). Now I choose to find these ‘treasures’ and shape them into jewellery for people to enjoy and appreciate.
When I was 10 years old, my parents decided to take myself and my two brothers out of school to explore our beautiful country, all living together in a caravan. This was an experience that taught me more than any amount of time in school ever could.
We spent six months on the road, learning to live in each others pockets. When you leave school and are moving towns every few days, you quickly become each other’s best friends. We spent our days along the coastline exploring new beaches and I loved collecting treasures from all the different places we explored!
My dad spent this time attempting to teach my brother, Banjo, and I to surf. My older brother, Fletch, was already all over it and helped to teach us. Although, for me, the experience was mainly spent being terrified of one foot waves and swallowing enough salt water to build an aquarium. I loved learning to surf with my brothers, however it wasn’t until a bit later on in life that I started to really enjoy surfing for myself.
We spent our time in the outback playing in the dirt, exploring to find non croc infested waterholes we could swim in and attempting to create fire using rocks and sticks. We spoke to many Aboriginal elders from different tribes in many of the areas we went to. We learnt so many memorable lessons about their traditional way of living. As young kids in the outback, the bush and red dirt became our new playground. Instead of lego, we carved spears out of sticks and rocks. We’d mix up ochre and use it to paint. In Darwin we even invented our own sport called “Extreme Flower Picking” where during their wet season we’d tackle the pouring rain and afternoon lightning storms to run around picking native flowers for our dad who was very sick at the time. Then pack them into our handmade vases which were crafted from ripped up paper from our homeschooling books. Unfortunately due to dads sickness we had to end our trip in Darwin and head back home. Travelling around Australia with my family, I believe created the foundation of who I am today. It has given me an addiction to be adventurous, travel and explore.
Tragically two years later my younger brother Banjo passed away in a skateboarding accident at the age of 10. I lost not only my brother, but my best mate, my partner in crime.
Banj was an extremely funny, adventurous and mischievous character. He was always up to something and I was his sidekick. Whether it was taking Fletch’s busking money to buy lollies, wagging school or abseiling off our balcony. Banj always lived life to the fullest, having as much fun as he possibly could. I have always tried to adopt his way of living, especially after he passed, to carry on that part of him in me. To say I’m proud of how my family went through losing Banj is an understatement. It was never swept under the rug because it was too painful and I’m so grateful for that. Instead, we constantly spoke about when we felt close to him. Through nature or new experiences that reminded us of old memories. His memory and story still lives on to this day. There is now a beautiful skatepark in our local area called Banjo’s Skatepark and it represents who he was so perfectly.
Banjo was only 10 years old when he passed away, however his life was so well lived. He experienced more in those 10 years than what some people who live to 100 do. He has been the biggest inspiration to continue to pursue the things in life that fill me up the most. One of those things for me is the ocean. I feel completely content whenever I’m in the water surfing, watching the sun rise or exploring looking for treasures. I feel so grateful to know that I will always have my connection to Banj through the ocean.
I’ve always loved being creative, making things and gifting them to the people I love. For as long as I can remember I would make things to give to people as gifts or a way to express my gratitude and love for that person. Mum and Dad received a lot of little useless nic-nacs when I was younger and trust me they weren’t all something you’d want hanging on a wall. As I got older, finding my place in the world and what I wanted to do in life, felt like weighted questions I could never answer. My brother has known from the age of eight years old that he wanted to and would become a musician. However, I’ve wanted to be an actor, painter, writer, musician, photographer, videographer, fashion designer, ceramicist and the list goes on. Some of the hobbies / career obsessions wouldn’t even last a month. One thing that has stayed consistent throughout the years was my desire to create. To be unique and artistic with what I create.
I have a memory of sitting at my old purple and white desk and piecing together different things that I’d found at the beach and from mums jewellery collection and taking pictures as “prototypes” for my jewellery collection. I wanted to create unique ocean inspired jewellery. I just didn’t have the equipment and, let's be honest, skill to do so. Then about two years ago I was looking at creating my own jewellery line and doing mens rings. I had a name, multiple different designs, a rough business plan, contacted multiple manufacturers but it was never quite right. The business idea didn’t feel unique or creative enough, until I created Abyssal!
That is what I love about Abyssal. Every piece of jewellery is unique and different to the next. I knew I wanted to create a product that I could wear in the ocean. One thing I’ve always hated was going down to the beach for a surf and forgetting to take off jewellery that couldn’t go in the water. Or even worse, wearing water safe jewellery surfing and then breaking or falling off in the water. So I made a product and wore it every day testing its durability. After 5 months of everyday living and getting smashed in the surf, I am so happy with the product I’ve created and so excited to share Abyssal Jewellery with the world.
I didn’t want to just represent my business… I wanted to create a business that represented me.
Abyssal Jewellery was designed to allow the adventurous spirits to wear beautifully unique pieces that connect you back to the ocean.
Inspired by the ocean's natural ability to turn litter into elegant sea glass, we take that one step further and turn those natural treasures into handcrafted jewellery.