Hello
My name is Bernadette, I am the creator and designer of my jewellery brand - ILLUMI JEWEL.
I specialised in 14K gold and rose gold (both gold-plated and gold-filled metal) accompanies by semi-precious gemstones, minerals and crystals. In some circumstances, I also make custom pieces in sterling silver upon request.
In my shop, I hope you will find many choices of practical but dazzling pieces for yourself or as a gift to someone special.
THE BEGINNING
Pre-pandemic, I have worked as a product photographer since 2008. Like many others, business took a hit when the pandemic hit. With the new profound free time, I uncovered my first ever jewellery-making kit I bought by chance a long time ago. The rest, as they say, it's history.
Jewellery and design have always been in my blood, so there is no surprise that I turned back to designing at any given opportunity.
Just a few years before I began to create my jewellery, Illumi was originally planned to be a place where I would curate other people’s work and sell it through an online platform. But the pandemic changed all that. Looking back, how funny life is, despite what you originally planned.
I began my jewellery-making journey starting with selling to friends and within my local community. It is not until recently in September 2020, that I finally feel I am ready to start selling my designs to a wider audience, and began to provide my service to the general public.
For this, I am especially thankful for my friends and community who keep encouraging me and giving me the confidence to take on this journey.
DESIGN ETHOS
My designs are greatly inspired by ancient history, particularly Greek and Roman. I am known to be a bit of a history buff. I am particularly interested in ancient history and mythologies.
Why? You may ask. I think it is because there were so many stories and ideas that our age-old foremothers used to pass it down for generations and generations, which very much shaped the base of our belief system and thinking. Also, probably because I am a hopeless romantic.
My take on these designs was to modernise them into practical pieces. Being a mother of two young children, I need jewellery that does not get in the way of my daily routines, and it is also important to me that they are timeless pieces and easy to match many outfits. To me, jewellery is a token that expresses your personality and sometimes what is meaningful to you.
The carefree attitude is very much the driving direction for many of my designs and I'm greatly inspired by women who have busy and fulfilling lifestyles.
THE STORY WITHIN
My hope through the pieces is to inspire, encourage and empower ourselves in our quests with the help of the metaphysics properties of the gemstones.
Each piece of jewellery uses a keystone as the main “star”, and each type of stone is inspired by and dedicated to a specific female Greek deity.
The deities chosen are the archetypes of all-female personas that represent the psyche of all the colourful, amazing, and unique women’s minds, that perhaps, are often being misinterpreted by male authors. My perspective is to re-investigate these ancient female figures, revitalise them by looking into their thinking and beings, and use them to tell a story of our own.
THE ART OF GIFTING
As an online shop, ILLUMI JEWEL is determined to be the gifting solution; therefore all of our jewellery comes with complimentary gift wrapping. We chose a sleeve style for the wrapping, where you can easily slip the jewellery gift box in and out of the wrapping, so all our buyers can check the jewellery before gifting.
All of our customers can also add a handmade card with a note free of charge. If you would like to receive a gift bag along with your purchase, please make sure you let us know by mentioning it in the handwritten note option.
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Last but not least, Illumi Jewel is still young on her journey, but I am so excited to be sharing and growing with our supporters together.
Nonetheless, I am especially grateful to all the women pioneers and entrepreneurs before me, to enable such an amazing women-support-women environment, and live in a world where many potentials and possibilities are so easy to reach with the help of technology.
PS:
To all those who are interested to read about re-investigated female deities in Greek mythology, I highly recommended the following two books, sold by independent sellers. I appreciate everyone who continues to support local businesses to booze the local economy.
