Bromley x Sonya Kelly

"In 1979 I was living in a caravan park at the end of Hastings Street in Noosa heads.

There were a couple of shops in Hastings Street that had the feel of real old school American handmade and soulful grungy artisan mood.

My favourite one was often closed and I went into the other to find a very charismatic wild almost fictional character called Jim.

I spoke to him about how much I loved the shop up the road and wondered why it was hardly ever open. He leaned over, grabbed a bunch of keys and threw them to me. In other words - it was his shop.

Most days off I used to ride my old dirt bike up a one lane road from Noosa to Eumundi. In his old Queenslander, Jim taught me to make jewellery. And in this beautiful shop a short walk from the caravan I lived in we set up a jewellery bench. 
When I was at work in between customers I would work on jewellery, cleaning up the works that we had cast at Jim's place.
One of the most exciting days was when a bike gang came into town and bought every piece, threw down an American Express card and we sold out!

I'd say since 1979 Sonya Kelly is one of my favourite jewellers - not just because of the beautiful things she makes, but because she's the type of person I love to collaborate with. We don't say a lot. We just get each other. It's almost telepathic. I know what she does. She knows what I do and we just get to work."

David Bromley