Forget Marilyn Monroe’s tease about diamonds being a girl’s best friend and meet one of the Gold Coast’s most talented fine jewellers whose meticulous design and crafts(wo)manship sets the perfect staging for precious stones that tell a story to last a lifetime.
The second you step inside the Jodi Phillips Fine Jewellery studio showroom in Mermaid Beach, you are instantly graced with soft and delicate lines, curves, textures, and design elements that reflect an incredibly creative power within its white walls.
Contemporary minimalist décor, sparkling polished concrete floors and lustrous brass furniture frames are all part of the luxe atmosphere.
But the source of the magic comes from the designer herself, whose warmth and welcoming nature are apparent when you enter her world, a quality rarer than any black diamond in the luxury fine jewellery industry.
With a combined 20 years of design experience, Jodi is an Australian award-winning jeweller and designer, rapidly becoming one of Gold Coast’s most sought-after fine jewellery designers whose bespoke, hand-crafted pieces are designed with only three things in mind: the client, their story, and the purpose of the piece.
“My father was a jack-of-all-trades, and when I was a little girl, we’d spend hours making trinket boxes with hinges or sculptures out of old surfboard foam and other materials in his workshop,” Jodi says.
While growing up, Jodi was introduced to arts, design, crafting and building by her parents and fondly recalls all the fine arts fundamentals passed on to her by her mother, who is an artist.
Following a creative childhood, Jodi became a degree-qualified 3D product designer, specialising in furniture design, but her passion was stifled earlier on in her chosen career due to two factors; being one of the only female designers in a primarily male dominated industry and having to bid farewell to her creations when to handing over to manufacturers.
For Jodi, she wanted to be the one to make her pieces come to life.
“Imagine a young female and recent graduate going into a workshop and telling a bunch of older male designers how to make something,” she says.
“I was totally outnumbered by men when I graduated and often felt inferior for my design ideas or was told my designs wouldn’t work.
I began to lose confidence in an industry that is now lucky to have many successful women designers.
The indifference around her male peers led Jodi to apply for a designer apprenticeship position advertised by a prominent Gold Coast jewellery brand, which allowed her to continue her passion for custom designing and the production of unique pieces by hand.
The four-year apprenticeship was Jodi’s epiphany and she quickly learned and fell in love with fine-jewellery design, especially as she could be a part of the entire process, from the concept stage to creation.
Fast forward to 2023, Jodi is helping others tell their stories through a meticulous process that involves connecting with clients, curating precious stones and metals, and crafting unique pieces that capture her client’s narratives.
“I feel connected to every piece I create, and even though I’m a business owner, I am still learning something new and always looking and testing new ways of creating incredible pieces for my clients,” Jodi says.
Jodi’s client base boasts an incredible mix of ages, genders and in some cases, she gets to transform special family heirlooms into new designs.
“I adore being a part of the love stories, where I get to help in the engagement ring or wedding band stage, but many other bespoke pieces are just as beautiful in their story or purpose, and it’s wonderful to translate a story into a life-lasting design”.
But what truly sets Jodi apart from any other fine-jewellery designer is her brilliance in finding the perfect gemstone matched with her true alchemic talent of working delicately with precious metals to create distinctive pieces.
“The gems sing to me, sometimes they scream at me to buy them,” Jodi says.
“Australia is considered one of the richest countries in Sapphires, and there is a great gemstone selection here, but there are occasions I’ll venture abroad to source something for a special request.
“I work closely with all my clients, but the selection process is intimate, and the stone has to shout at me because if I love it, I know my client will too.”
Jodi’s exquisite world-class designs are the perfect blend of inspiration, contemporary style, and timeless elegance and her studio is the ideal place to start telling a love story through bespoke fine jewellery.
