My Story – Rose Dakin Beads and Jewellery

 

My work is influenced and inspired by many cultures ...

My first memory of beads was my mother showing me how to sew tiny seed beads onto moccasin uppers.

My mother was still sewing at the ripe old age of 89, (but not the beading part) and was an absolute perfectionist in everything she did in particular construction of her moose-hide moccasins - they had to be exactly right; I like to think that I have inherited some of those qualities too. 

I come from a tiny village in northern Canada called Fort Good Hope, where beading was a must for those long winter nights. My people have been beading on moccasins and parkas since the last century. 

Since my husband and I opened our first bead shop in Broome 23 years ago I have had the pleasure of meeting a wide variety of people from all walks of life with different tastes and styles in jewellery. I listened to them – trying to understand what stimulated them and what types of jewellery they were drawn to. 

I was also influenced and inspired by the many different cultures of Broome, where I met people from all over the world with tastes ranging from the gaudy to the bizarre and simple to the extremely up-market. 

One of my husband’s passion was sourcing the beads from all over the world.

Marius had a keen eye for picking out rare and collectable beads and stones – and the more unusual and unique – the better – because this allowed me to have an incredible selection at my disposal to work with. 

I used to get overwhelmed at the choice available to me because I got to work with them before they went out on the shop floor.

While I showcased my work in a number of locations in Western Australia – including our shop galleries at Margaret River Beads, the Fremantle Emporium and Mandurah Beads – it also gave me the opportunity to work towards a new era in marketing my hand-made jewellery creations with the creation of my first online jewellery shop. 

It’s a real joy and gives me such pleasure to make an original piece of jewellery knowing someone out there will be wearing it – loving it and enjoying it. I take great pride in making each piece as unique as I could - paying great attention to detail. 

The challenge of creating one-of-a-kind pieces was always at the back of my mind and sometimes, I’d go crazy with inspirational ideas! 

And when I felt creative, I’d often wake up in the middle of the night with incredible ideas for my jewellery. 

As with all my work, I spend a considerable length of time contemplating and planning first how a piece will look - the colour selection and balance being especially important. 

I love to mix colours, especially when I work with the tiny Myuki Delica beads from Japan. 

My jewellery contains a potpourri of components - from the simple to the more extreme. I work with stone, wood, bone, metal, shells, glass and semi-precious. I also work with ancient tribal beads from the Middle East and old Venetian trade beads from Africa and the Himalayas. I also incorporate sterling silver from the Hill Tribe of Northern Thailand or Indian silver into most of my pieces.

                                                                                                         - Rose Dakin