Our Story
Our Resident Artist
Our resident artist Jay has always had her unique view on the world. From a young age, she loved taking the so-called ‘rules’ of creativity and saying, ‘Sure, but what if we try this?’
When she was young, a perfect day out was a tour of her local art gallery, a trip through the second-hand store and as much time getting messy in the bush, park or backyard as she could get. As she grew, so did her appreciation of art in all of its forms.
After leaving school early to pursue styling and fashion and getting the opportunity to work backstage at various runways, she was diagnosed with a rare type of pain disorder.
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Although this took her away from her work in fashion, it led to a lengthy stay with her Nan, who reignited her love and confidence in art. Art became her escape, her relaxation, her passion; it was everything. She began taking visual arts courses to stay occupied, and it was during creating a final art piece for one of these courses that she decided to take her love of both art and the environment and create beauty.
Her first feather was a massive hit, and when it sold, The Painted Feather was created. Since then she has taken her love of art, and her love of both the environment and the history of a preloved item to grow her small business into a beautiful mix of art and function as well as share the freedom of art with others.
Kombucha Leather?
There's no missing, as your browse our website, how proud we are to be up-cycling jewellery using this amazing ecoconcious material, but what exactly is it?
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Kombucha Leather is made from scoby, a flexible biomaterial comprised of a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. This scoby culture feeds on the dissolved sugar, polyphenols and other nutrients in the brewing sweetened Kombucha Tea. Scoby's grow quickly and efficiently, using no animal products during production and, as they duplicate themselves during growth are often considered a byproduct of creating Kombucha Tea.
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Once the Scoby reaches its desired size, it is harvested, coloured using natural dyes and undergoes a drying process as it becomes very similar to a traditional textile leather.
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Kombucha Leather, unlike regular leather, causes no harm to animals, requires no chemical based tanning (which is often harsh and incredibly polluting), has a much lower cost of production, both financially and ecologically, and is 100% biodegradable.
Kombucha is also very versatile, it can be created in any shape or size, as pieces don't require sewing together and multiple scoby's can be dried as one larger seamless piece.
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In today constantly changing fashion scape, it is currently being used for wallets, shoes and clothes (although many of these items do undergo chemical sealing).
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While unsealed Kombucha leather does not currently compare to traditional animal leather in the fields of durability, longevity and waterproofing, it far surpasses it in eco-sustainability and biodegradability and is quickly becoming the cutting edge of fashion.