Amy Louise Jewellery

Look into any one of Amy Kennedy’s pieces and it’s a reflection of something she’s seen in nature. Even as a creative three-year-old, Amy already had a keen eye for what was beautiful in the world around her.
“My mum told me that when I was three I wanted to be an artist. We’d often go for walks – because we lived down in the bush – and she’d get a piece of masking tape and put it sticky side out around my wrist like a bracelet,” she says.
“Then as we’d go for walks I’d pick up pretty things from nature and make a bracelet. It’d just be full of pretty leaves and flowers, so that’s probably where my love for nature comes from.
“I actually think that most patterns, if you look at them further, are inspired by nature anyway, because we came from only nature anyway so everything goes back to nature if you really trace it.”
In the pendant necklace that sits around Amy’s neck as we speak, its surface is filled with geometric flowers, and in the bracelet around her wrist a delicate leaf pattern stretches its way across the pale metal surface.
Both are part of Amy’s collection, but each are from a different brand; one from her pattern printing jewellery called Leif, in which she presses leafs and lace patterns onto metal and the other from her fine jewellery brand Amy Louise where she makes detailed works and engagement/wedding rings.

“If you look really closely it’s not perfect,” Amy says holding the pendant in her hands.
“But I made this one probably five or six years ago now. I always rush my own pieces because I’m too excited to wear them. It’s really hard to not keep everything.”
Though these imperfections are ones that only Amy can see, as on looking at the pendant all I see is a detailed and geometrically accurate pattern. If Amy’s childhood is anything to go by, she’s always paid attention to detail.
“As a two-year-old mum told me that everyday I would empty my drawers and refold everything and put it back,” she says laughing.
“I think I just liked having it neat and I can’t work in a messy space so I have to clean it before I do anything. I’m that weird sort of person who would actually enjoy getting a bowl of M&Ms and sorting them into colours – I don’t know why.”
That perfectionist streak in her has enabled Amy to come second nationally in the WorldSkills Australia competition, and soon after with the desire to further her skills, Amy set off for Italy on a three week study tour after raising the funds through a Pozible campaign.

For the three weeks Amy worked with master jewellery makers in engraving and jewel setting, with neither of them speaking much English – if any at all. The experience taught her an abundance of new skills and the experience still affects her today.
“I had numb fingers, I still have numb fingers now from the way you hold the engraving tools. I’d hold it and put my head down for four hours and engrave and then I’d look up and be like, ‘Oh, it’s been four hours’, and I’d actually have to peel my hand open because it was so clamped,” she says.
While the trip to Italy was a mere three weeks, Amy has spent five years all up perfecting her trade to become a jeweller and gemmologist, and it looks that learning new skills is something she’ll continuously pursue during her career.
“I think jewellery is the kind of thing that you never stop learning, even if you’ve perfected all the skills there’s always new skills and new techniques to learn. Especially at tafe you’re just like, try this, try this, try this – it’s very exciting,” Amy says.
It’s clear that anything Amy puts her mind to soon becomes a firm reality, and sticking around for a little while longer is most definitely on her list.
Website: amylouise.com.au
Facebook: facebook.com/AmyLouiseJewellery
Instagram: @helloamylouise