A little bit about us.
Our small jewellery business works out of a spare room turned workshop and is run by myself who you can see collecting all the lovely little bits of sea glass in the picture below and my partner who works behind the scenes helping my with my poor photography skills. We decided to set up Honu kai after digging through some old childhood craft projects and finding my huge stash of glass that I had collected as a kid, along with some necklaces I had made out of some old wire I got out of my dads fishing box.
so I started by trading in fishing wire for silver and after a lot of questionable pieces made I eventually launched my website and I have been making ever since learning about all the different techniques in silver smithing.
If you want to learn a little bit about our small business, have a look at some of our lovely pictures and take a look through theprocesses behind your jewellery
Our choice of metals
We use both 100% recycled 925 sterling silver and 9 carat gold, we made this choice as we love that when using these metals if mistakes are made, instead of creating waste, we can simply melt them down and create a new item, using these metals also means that they can be re polished and worn your years and years. I cant wait to be able to give pieces made in my 20’s to children and grandchildren, i think the longevity of jewellery is crucial when setting stones and sea glass that where perhaps collected on precious days spend with loved ones, and perhaps hold beautiful memories that by incasing each one in these metals you can treasure those memories and stories for generations.
Our packaging
Another way in which we try to be as sustainable as possible is by packaging all of our pieces in plastic-free and 100% recyclable. Each item is thoughtfully placed in a small cotton pouch, not only to keep them safe during travel but also to minimise waste and promote reusability.
Our Sea glass
After years and years of collecting glass I am very slowly making my way through the pile, every pieces is hand picked by me or my family from across the English coast, each pieces has been tumbling around the ocean for upwards of a decade some even up to 10 decades.
Our pottery
After working in a few charity shops I saw a surplus of beautiful vintage floral pottery sat collecting dust. people came in everyday donating old crockery that had lots of imperfections but still had lovely intricate designs, Each Piece of jewellery tin our blossom collection starts as an old plate or bowl and is shaped into a little stone to be set into a pendant, ring o a sweet pair of earrings.
Recycling waste
On of my favourite parts of using metals like silver and gold, is that every little scrap is put to one side in this little pot and once it starts to fill up these pieces can be melted down and forged into another pieces of jewellery, this is a wonderful way of ensure there is as little waste as possible during the making process.