Stephanie Howatt shares how she crafts her jewellery pieces
At Turquoise Trixie, Stephanie creates magic with electricity and sometimes honeycomb too.
Hello, who are you? Tell us about yourself.
Hi! My name is Stephanie, and I live in a little century home that my husband and I renovated in the downtown capital of tiny Prince Edward Island, Canada. We have two rescue dogs and two rescue cats and love to spend tonnes of time outside exploring and camping. I draw a lot of creativity from nature.
Photography: Goddess | @jenna.rachelle
Tell us about your creative journey. How long have you been making jewellery?
I first started dreaming up TT (Turquoise Trixie) six years ago, and there was a two-year period where I taught myself the medium.
I remember seeing a photo of a piece of art that was copper plated and I was so obsessed. I showed the photo to my dad, who had been good at chemistry and knew a bit about how the process worked. I was so bad at math in high school that I had never even taken a chemistry class! A lot of blood sweat and tears went into that first year or two of learning.
At first the pieces I made weren’t even wearable – I had never ever planned on being a jewellery maker, but have loved to create my whole life.
I still hesitate to call myself a jewellery maker to be honest!
I was lucky enough that once I did start making wearable pieces I had inquiries for wholesale and consignment right away. Things really took off online shortly after that.
Photography: Goddess | @jenna.rachelle
What inspires your designs?
I draw my inspiration from everyday life; art, fashion, travel, nature, etc.
I definitely draw heavy inspiration from nature (ie: my honeycomb line) but also feel so inspired by things like our collaborative Goddess shoots.
I work with a talented group of local women who specialise in hair, makeup, photography etc, and we work together to create what we’ve coined ‘Goddess shoots’.
I find that when I’m in the thick of creating items for sale sometimes I can lose a bit of my creativity; these shoots are so amazing for bringing it back!
I understand your honeycomb pendants are made with real honeycomb. This sounds fascinating! Can you tell me a bit about how this came about and how you use honeycomb for your jewellery pieces?
Yes, my honeycomb collection is definitely one of the most popular and also one I hold so close to my heart.
My grammie actually sources the honeycomb for me from one of her beekeeper friends – last Christmas she gifted me a big chunk of comb!
I carefully cut the honeycomb out into whatever shape I need (I say carefully because it is so fragile before I plate it), seal it, and then plate it with a thick layer of copper before plating that in gold or silver.
The honeycomb is permanently encased within that shell, making it a little wearable piece of art!
What is your design process like? Do you always plan beforehand?
I have to admit I am all over the place. Sometimes I’ll sketch designs out before I start them, sometimes I will literally dream of a new design, wake up and create it with no sketch other than what’s in my mind.
I am also very guilty of spending hours in my studio playing around with new stones and end up with new designs I hadn’t even planned on!
How do you get to a finished piece? What’s involved with using electricity to create your pieces?
It’s a long process from start to finish sometimes, as I’m sure all makers can relate!
Each piece has to be designed, sealed (if it’s an organic), and painted in conductive paint before it even goes into my conductive bath – where it can spend upwards of 24 hours depending on the piece. I then polish and seal each piece, or if it’s being plated in silver or gold that needs to happen before the pieces can have a final polish!
Tell us about your creative space. Where does all the making happen?
I have a little home studio that I absolutely love. It’s where I create, package all of my orders, literally where all of the magic happens!
For my medium it’s necessary to check on my solution many times per day while my pieces are playing, so having a studio away from home wouldn’t really work for me.
I also love being able to wake up on weekends and get work done from home – it makes juggling my full-time job/home life/TT much easier.
Photography: Goddess
Prince Edward Island, Canada
