EXPRESS Yourself

Designing your own piece of jewellery is the most beautiful way to reflect your uniqueness. Carlie Wacker explores the intimacy of creating your own piece of forever jewellery.

Every little girl’s dream comes true when you walk through the cascade of floral arrangements and glistening gemstones and into the world of Freya Noosa.

The romance of this little Hastings Street jewellery boutique is both mesmerising and welcoming – a fairy tale come true.

The ready-to-wear creations by Lilli Frey and her team are irresistible and unique so it’s no surprise her clients continue to add more to their collection.

In my own personal experience, you will never own just one Freya piece –it’s a little bit addictive.

Adding an extra and even more personal layer to the Freya magic is the opportunity to design your own piece of jewellery.

Designer and Freya founder Lilli gets just as much joy out of her custom creations as her consumer.

“Clients usually start the custom design process after coming in store and being inspired by a piece on display, such as a vibrant colour or special stone arrangement or a particular gemstone,” she said. “This sparks a jewellery inspiration they’d like to explore.”

I can relate to this as Lilli’s designs are a celebration of femininity and colour supported by a price tag that is enticing to those dipping their toes into the fine jewellery world for the first time.

The hands-on experience of customising a ring with Lilli is such a fun part of the process; it’s inspire-ring!

“The custom design experience allows the client to experiment with different gemstone combinations,” she says.

Lilli lays out all the gems and alloows you to play around with different combinations and colours – it’s so immersive and the closest you will ever get to bathing in gemstones.

“Most clients often gravitate toward particular colours that are meaningful to them,” she says. “Deciding on the final gemstone layout is a bit like putting together a puzzle with no defined ‘right’ arrangement.

“Sometimes people want to reimagine an existing ring they have, such as a wedding band from decades earlier or a piece they inherited.

“Often clients are sentimentally attached to their existing jewellery but are no longer fond of the design or are seeking something more modern.”

When creating your perfect piece with Freya you can choose from an extensive collection of natural or lab-grown gemstones including sapphires, diamonds, tourmaline, rubies, opals, topaz, amethyst and more. Clients can choose from either platinum or 9ct or 18ct yellow, rose or white gold.

Every piece of Freya jewellery tells a special story and there’s even more to the story when you have designed it yourself.

“One of my recent projects was a 21st birthday ring for a young woman commissioned by her grandmother,” Lilli said. “The young woman, her mother and grandmother all came in store together to design a special cluster ring.

“The grandmother had two pink sapphires of her own she wished to incorporate into the design, and the young woman gravitated toward our collection of dusty green and pink natural tourmalines.

“The final colour palette and structure was reminiscent of a bouquet of flowers, and we added a few little diamonds for extra sparkle.”

It’s those beautiful, shared moments that make the experience of customising your own piece of jewellery so dreamy. I don’t think there is any better way to truly express your uniqueness than designing your own piece of jewellery. It’s so intimate and a most precious reflection of YOU.