Something of the artist is revealed immediately when visiting Michelle’s beautiful rural property nestled in the hills of the Hunter Valley, where she lives with her partner Bruce and her beloved horses. The dogs greet you with a friendly nudge as Michelle invites you into her house. Once inside, your gaze is drawn outdoors through the living room’s tall windows that frame breathtaking views of Australian bushland.
A short set of stairs in the middle of the house leads to an open art studio overlooking the rest of the house. Michelle gravitates towards the huge workbench in there, which is surrounded by multiple drawers full of trinkets, loose earrings, gems, and odd pieces. She likes to chat on the go – sharing her thoughts while rummaging through drawers, pulling out jewellery, showing drawings on her iPad, running downstairs to make coffee – while intermittently stopping to look at something that catches her eye out the window.
Michelle created the via SMiTH jewellery label in her home last year – off the back of her first jewellery, artwork and accessories business, Rancho. But it really started to form in Michelle’s heart after her first visit to Bali twenty-seven years ago.
“Some people just associate Bali with the holiday destination where there’s people on the beach hassling you and happy hour by the pool. But for me, Bali is a melting pot of design and creativity,” says Michelle. It also has a rich tradition of silverwork, dating back over 2,500 years, with silversmiths – known in Bali simply as “smiths” – honing their craft and often passing their skills down the family line from one generation to the next.
The classic shapes and simple geometric patterns in an array of colours and textures evoke a whimsical, playful feel.
Searching high and low in Bali to find the right silversmiths to bring her jewellery designs to life, Michelle found the perfect brother and sister duo to partner with. And so via SMiTH was born! Its name represents a combination of Michelle Smith’s creative passion and the Balinese smiths’ incredible skills to interpret and create each piece.
Back at the ranch, Michelle opens the nearest drawer and pulls out pieces from the via SMiTH collection. Some of the design clues are obvious. Her Danish father left when Michelle was a child but the Scandinavian influence is strongly evident in her striking designs. Yet there is also a freedom in the pieces themselves. The classic shapes and simple geometric patterns in an array of colours and textures evoke a whimsical, playful feel.
While Michelle’s passion for creating began when she was a small child watching Play School, her decision to resign from high school art teaching was a leap of faith that led to an overflow of creativity where she was free to focus on her jewellery-design business.
Resigning from teaching – a stable profession that many choose to remain in even after the original passion has worn off – was scary for Michelle. And while admitting that the label of ‘Art Teacher’ might be with her for life, she readily declares that ‘Designer’ doesn’t sit quite right either. “My training was as an art teacher, but what am I now?” Michelle ponders with a depth of feeling, hinting at the forging of a new identity.
Michelle’s decision to resign from high school art teaching was a leap of faith that led to an overflow of creativity where she was free to focus on her jewellery-design business.
Michelle’s choice of materials provides more clues. Her rings are her bestsellers and she’s happy to say that none of them cost more than one-hundred dollars. “All via SMiTH rings are made from brass and sterling silver, but I have trouble telling people it’s brass…they say, ‘Oh it’s not gold?’”
Michelle is careful to wear real gold rings beside the via SMiTH brass rings to show people that they look the same. It’s a process of education that Michelle enjoys delving into when talking to customers one-on-one at markets. “Brass isn’t a precious metal and some people see it as a primitive battered metal,” she says.
Affordability is one of via SMiTH’s main values, stemming from Michelle’s belief that if she wouldn’t buy it herself, then she won’t sell it. “I want the jewellery to be everlasting and robust, but not precious. A well-designed piece doesn’t have to cost the earth.”
“I want the jewellery to be everlasting and robust, but not precious. A well-designed piece doesn’t have to cost the earth.”
What the pieces themselves don’t show is the arduous work that Michelle has put in to run the business. She learnt business skills slowly and organically building up her first business, alongside the teaching. “I always said, ‘The day that I think I can walk away from teaching and support myself with my design business, I’ll do it.’”
After undertaking its first stand-alone tradeshows in Sydney and Melbourne last year, plus three Finders Keepers markets, what is next for via SMiTH? “Everyone who starts a brand wants it to become as big as possible,” says Michelle. This label is looking set to expand with around twenty stockists, including Zebra Finch in Newcastle West and The Magpie in Dungog, and more tradeshows and markets on the horizon.
Yet Michelle feels there’s truth to the old saying, ‘The artist is only as good as their last work,’ so we may see new lines of work from her too. “You know how people can just have one line of things and they will just hammer it and promote that? Well, I tend to think ‘That’s been done, now we have to improve that a little bit,’” she says.
Looking at individually designed pieces of jewellery while chatting with Michelle inside her studio surrounded by trees, you can picture her in various settings: sketching out designs or sharing her passion at Newcastle’s Olive Tree Markets or even perusing the bustling streets of Bali.
You can see there is a drive there, but there is also a woman content with life’s simple pleasures and motivated by the beauty of the world around her. “I’m inspired by the horses, even the patterns on the spotted gums…birds, rocks, landscapes…I’m on my rural block, with my horses and my dogs, doing what I love.”
Words: Emma Lalic | Photography: Edwina Richards
As seen in Swell Issue 17.
