Ribs & Dust

From a small studio nestled in the Currumbin Valley, Simon and Jade Goodburn have grown his hobby into a boutique jewellery manufacturing business.

Simon said it started out as “a bit of a grand love gesture” ten years ago, when he dived into the art of goldsmithing in order to create an engagement ring for Jade.

That turned into a hobby, which eventually launched a full-time jewellery business, Ribs & Dust.

“We do predominantly custom pieces, but we also make small collections with one-offs and limited runs,” Simon said.

Word of mouth and the sharing the work on Instagram has seen demand for their engagement and wedding rings “grow exponentially”, including overseas.

Simon has been joined at the work bench by two other jewellers, Polly Lundie and Kaitlyn Harris. Jade, who handles the legal aspects of the business while also working as a solicitor, is on maternity leave with their first child, who was born in March. They are excited to “get his tiny hands working on the jewels”.

He said the company has quietly run its own race and built the business incrementally with some mentoring from other jewellers.

Ribs & Dust produce gorgeous custom jewellery from their studio in the Currumbin Valley

“Eventually, it’d be nice to have some pieces displayed on various red carpets [but] our commitment is to building heirlooms that can be treasured and enjoyed for generations to come,” he said.

The company’s origin story resonates with a lot of clients, something Simon said has been influential in helping them build a strong following.

“We find that a lot of our clients have graduated with us as our skill and taste developed and as our aesthetic transformed over the years,” he said.

“They might have come along once upon a time for a gift for a boyfriend or girlfriend.

“Then it turns into wedding rings and engagement rings and then anniversary gifts and commemorative jewellery pieces for family.”

He said people introduce him at parties as “my jeweller” and make him feel like part of their family.

“It’s an extension of that love story that birthed the business,” he said.

Ribs & Dust

In his 35 year career as a jeweller, Ben Tracy has worked on exquisite jewellery for the British Royal Family and celebrities

Finelines Jewellers

Jeweller Ben Tracy worked on pieces for the British Royal Family and celebrities during his ten years at Garrard & Co in London at the turn of the millennium.

A decade ago, the world-class jeweller returned to the Gold Coast, where he grew up, to take over the long-established Finelines Jewellers.

“[Gold Coast] is a growing city with great opportunities,” he said. “I love it here and I think there’s really a lot of opportunities for business.”

He leads a team of five other jewellers at the workshop in Robina and “has always worked on the bench”.

‘DNA’ took out the Diamond category in the 2019 JAA Australasian Jewellery Awards

Commissions for custom pieces come, not only from Queenslanders who have heard of Ben and Finelines through word of mouth or social media, but also from New York, Amsterdam, the United Kingdom and France, where he also worked for five years.

One of his more recent commissions was a handcrafted platinum and diamond rivière bracelet with over one hundred diamonds. Ben’s expertise was evident in the enhanced motion and flow within the bracelet, the style of which was named for the French word for river.

“It has beautiful movement running through it,” he said.

Ben won the diamond category in 2021 and 2019 of the biennial JAA Australasian Jewellery Awards, which recognise design, innovation, craftsmanship and marketability in the jewellery industry. This year’s winners will be announced in August.

Finelines only uses ethically sourced diamonds for its jewellery, including its custom engagement and wedding rings.

Another key area of the business is remodelling, which is driven by women.

“They’ve had their family and are starting a new sort of ‘second life’ – so they want to zhuzh up their old engagement or wedding rings, or create something for themselves,” Ben said.

Finelines Jewellers

Love Lara won the Australian Small Business Champion Award, Jeweller in 2022

Love Lara Jewellery

The floor area of Love Lara’s jewellery store is just 14.5 square metres – hardly enough to contain the overflowing passion and energy that Lara Yaremko has for her industry and local community.

She is a second-generation jeweller and learned from her self-taught father before completing her fine arts degree in gold, silversmithing and design.

“I see people that my parents dealt with 30 years ago [in their jewellery store] that are great-grandparents or grandparents,” Lara said.

“And I’m dealing with the next generations. So, I learn a lot about people in my own community – and that’s where I get my joy.”

Her team of nine, all women, range in age from 15 to 69 and she mentors a couple of young women working elsewhere in the industry. She is keen to see more women jewellers because “jewellery has such a feminine aspect to it”.

Lara said being based in the Gold Coast was an advantage and, in recent years, has developed good relationships with precious stone suppliers in Queensland’s Gemfields.

“When Covid hit, I was looking for a rather large party sapphire – one where its colour changes – so, it’s blue and yellow or blue and green,” she said.

Lara Yaremko in her workshop

Rather than buy an Australian sapphire that had been mined here, cut overseas and shipped back, Lara sourced her own from a small venture in The Gemfields that did their own cutting.

She now buys gemstones for her handmade bespoke jewellery from several suppliers in the area, each with their own “little plot of land” to mine.

As a manufacturing jeweller who does stone setting and traditional hand engraving, she is somewhat of a rarity. Both tasks take skill and a steady hand.

She also goes against the norm by having never advertised, instead building a following through word of mouth and her support of local charities.

The strategy seems to be working – for the last four years running, Love Lara has won the Brides Choice Awards in the region.

Love Lara Jewellery

Brett Low moved to the Gold Coast for the sun-kissed lifestyle and built several businesses

Deer Honey Jewellery

Brett Low of Deer Honey has been a jeweller for almost two decades. Seven years ago, he and his wife Briony moved from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, ostensibly to enjoy the beach lifestyle for a year.

The now-permanent relocation worked well for Deer Honey – which he founded in 2013 – and for him personally.

While decidedly small, Deer Honey has built an enviable reputation for its bespoke, custom-made jewellery. Qualified jeweller Maria Cristofidelis works alongside Brett, with them having first met as apprentices.

Together they do all the design and manufacturing inhouse, combining the tradition of high-quality handcrafting with the latest technologies, such as lasers.

Brett said the Gold Coast offers plenty of business networking opportunities.

“[Having met] other business people, you can all help each other and it cross pollinates,” he said.

“Even though you’re in different industries, it’s amazing where the work can come from.”

As an apprentice, Brett found the jewellery sector to be very insular.

“Nobody spoke to each other, everyone had their trade secrets, it was very competitive,” he said.

So, around 12 years ago, he and Ewen Ryley of Ryley Creations in Toowoomba established an industry group to foster more camaraderie and collaboration within the Australian industry. It has now evolved into the Jewellery Industry Network.

“Now [the industry has] dramatically changed. We have a lot more education and openness in the industry, people sharing ideas … we have social nights, there are trade fairs and I do podcasts.”

Ewen and Brett now have two Adelaide-based partners. During Covid, they ran online trade fairs with wholesalers selling loose diamonds, local manufacturers selling gold chains, and the like.

Meanwhile, Deer Honey’s sales increased during the pandemic.

One of Deer Honey’s captivating pieces of jewellery handcrafted on the Gold Coast

“Our industry flourished through COVID – [although] a lot of jewellers had to hurry up and create websites and start social media,” he said.

“But I was already online and had traction there. So that really spurred me on.”

More recently, the Jewellery Industry Network has held in-person networking events, jewellery fairs and competitions across Australia.

For now, Brett said he is “really focusing” on Deer Honey, which he is looking to grow with the addition of more highly skilled and qualified jewellers.

With his businesses booming on all fronts, making a move to the Gold Coast was clearly the right thing to do.

Deer Honey