In The Studio with Anita Crowther
In this conversation with Anita Crowther, we delve into the inspirations and techniques behind her new collection launching 13 March, Stardust, and how it was shaped by personal memories, new gemstone discoveries, and evolving design methods. From honouring family heirlooms to sourcing ethically mined opals, Anita shares how colour, texture, and composition guides her creative process and how finding unique stones often lead to unexpected and beautiful designs.
Have you incorporated any techniques or inspirations into this new collection that differs from your previous work?
My mother passed away last year so I have been wearing some of her jewellery and have been really looking closely at and investigating all of it. The boulder opal and diamond earrings were inspired by two of her pieces, incorporating a couple of design elements. Another relatively new design technique for me which I utilised in two of the rings is Computer Aided Design (CAD). I developed a flower profile band as a variation of the 2mm round profile band that I often use.
My partner is great with computers, so it was fun to collaborate together. These bands retain the texture from the printing process which I really like as it gives a matt finish that shows the beautiful gold colour.
I think curiosity is always a great instigator for creating.
Have there been any recent discoveries or acquisitions in your gemstone collection that have particularly excited you?
I met with a new opal dealer late last year and purchased a number of boulder opals from him. These were the starting inspiration for the collection and are featured in the two pairs of earrings. I had earrings in mind when I was looking through his opals and paired these ones up as I was choosing them. I thought the large boulder opal with the pink and green would be amazing for earrings. I selected the other one with pink and green but it was smaller so I chose the other really bright green one also. There was something about the direction of the shapes and colours that mirrored elements of the large one, balancing nicely as an asymmetrical design.
I have had the large white oval opal in my collection for a long time. I purchased that when I went on a road trip to Broken Hill, where there happened to be a gem fair on. It was one of three, cut from the same material. They have this gorgeous orange/ pink glow to them.
Sustainability is a key aspect of your work. How has the availability of ethically sourced gemstones influenced your work and material choices?
I began making jewellery as a progression on from my love of cutting and polishing stones which I started at twelve as a childhood hobby. The rough material that I used was whatever I felt drawn to at local lapidary club gem fairs. It was material that was accessible to me as a young person. A lot of that material was Australian minerals that had often been fossicked by the people selling it. So initially it was a coincidence. Early on my jewellery was mainly earrings using Australian agate that I would slice and polish. The stone directed the design as I would retain the natural formation shape of the stone. Opal was another stone that I learnt to cut and polish when I was young as in-expensive rough opal in jars was available at gem fairs.
“I only make jewellery because I get so excited by the stones and want to capture their beauty and wear them. I like the transparency of using Australian stones and knowing where they come from, and the connection to place,”
It’s always a nice experience to meet and purchase from the people mining the material. This is the case with sapphires and opal mining, it is usually small scale operations that are often family businesses, it’s not huge companies, it is individuals who work within small mining leases or claims which are operated according to different state mining regulations.
Opals have always been a passion of mine and I feel strongly connected to them. They are so captivating and unique, they are truly a wonder of nature. Australian opal was formed millions of years ago, research suggests that some deposits formed over 100 million years ago.
What is the experience of sourcing gemstones from places such as Lightning Ridge and Coober Pedy? What’s involved in this process.
I have suppliers in both places so I can contact them when I’m looking for something specific. Opal dealers from there also visit Melbourne. In terms of going to the opal fields myself, I traveled to Coober Pedy on a road trip up to Uluru for my 30th birthday. It is a pretty wild place. The landscape looks and feels like another planet. The pastel pink and peach colours of the sand was beautiful and the sunsets were incredible. I didn’t purchase many opals on that trip but it was great to see inside mines, explore and get a sense of the place and its history.
I visited Lightning Ridge a while ago during the annual Lightning Ridge opal festival. It was a great trip and I bought quite a bit at the time including rough opals that I have cut and polished. The festival is a perfect time to go as you can find such a range of material. There was a large outdoors market, then high end dealers in an inside area. Miners and dealers also set up in motel rooms to meet with industry buyers. I would love to go back soon. The mining and cutting and polishing feels very DIY. It reminds me of the gold rush in a way, people go out to these places to chase the dream of finding something incredible. To give it a go. It must be pretty addictive.
Your background in Fine Arts suggests a strong visual sensibility – how does this influence your approach to jewellery design, particularly in terms of colour and composition?
When I was studying Fine Arts I majored in painting and was doing electives in Jewellery so it was a part of a great time of creativity and exploration into different mediums; painting, drawing, gold and silversmithing, and even glassblowing. Studying fine arts has definitely fed into my approach to jewellery design today as many of the same design principles are utilised. It is the act of creating, mark making, drawing a line with gold. It is a process of building something up, a construction process which involves problem solving as the idea is refined and a visual balance is found. Colour has always been a primary element in my jewellery, whether combining colour by bringing different stones together or as with opals, choosing colours that appeal to me. 
Your designs often start with the stone itself – can you share an example of a time when a particular gemstone’s shape, colour, or texture led you in an unexpected direction?
I love making earrings. Opals are so unique that it can be hard to find pairs so I like to create asymmetrical pairings with multiple opals. I look in my collection and lay out a bunch of opals and see which ones come together, which ones speak to each other, then fit them together like a puzzle, a composition. I have made a few pairs where I set a couple opals together and it looks a little organic and strange especially with the free form shapes.
What role does texture play in your jewellery-making process? How do you experiment with different surface finishes to enhance the natural beauty of the stones and materials you work with?
The majority of my pieces are hand fabricated. I usually order the metal from the supplier in the form of round or square wire which I use as is, forming it with pliers into settings which frame the stone. The texture is usually clean and smooth. Or I use a rolling mill or a hammer to achieve different textures through the forming process for certain pieces. I favour a brushed, matt surface texture, sandblasted or a fine emery finish over a high polish as I feel this distracts less from the stone. It makes it less visually complicated, reducing the noise. This also lets the beautiful warm yellow colour of the gold really show itself. The two flower profile rings are also a good representation of that. With these I keep the texture from the printing process, a small grainy texture, almost like a rough sandblasted texture, it has a speckled, sparkly quality to it that suits the opals.
