How I Came to Make Jewellery

For a long time, I'd wanted to make jewellery. I didn't know exactly what that would look like, but I knew I wanted to create pieces that meant something—pieces that people could wear every day and feel connected to.

The idea really began with a painting.

Kasha from Toi Ora Creative creates beautiful artwork inspired by the landscapes and stories that connect us to place. I commissioned her to paint my maunga, Tangihua, and when it arrived, I hung it on the wall of my home.

Every time I looked at it, I felt a little more connected to my whenua. It wasn't just a painting—it was a reminder of where I come from, my whakapapa, and the places that have shaped me.

One day, while looking at the painting, I wondered:

“What if I could wear my maunga?”

That question became the beginning of Wairua Jewellery.

I started learning wax carving and set out to hand carve the shape of Tangihua into a ring. It turned out to be far more difficult than I'd imagined. Capturing the contours of a mountain at such a small scale required a level of precision that was hard to achieve by hand.

I'd previously experimented with 3D printing and knew that detailed topographic maps of New Zealand were available online. That sparked a new idea: instead of trying to carve the mountain by hand, what if I used its real landscape data to create the design?

I worked with the talented team at Regal in Auckland to transform that topographic data into a series of 3D models. We refined the designs through many iterations, adjusting the contours, proportions, and wearability until they felt just right.

Those early experiments became the foundation for the jewellery I create today.

What began as a simple idea—to feel a little closer to my maunga—grew into something much bigger. Wairua Jewellery is my way of creating pieces that carry stories, places, and connection. My hope is that when someone wears one of my designs, they feel a little of that same connection that inspired me to begin this journey.