Lanamara is my sister and me, woven together. I started the brand with my younger sister, Ilana — we're very close — and the name is a blend of ours: Ilana and Marika. So before it's anything else, it's family. It's the two of us, and the trust and shared eye that only sisters have. That's why the name is so precious to me.

But I also love that it sounds like somewhere. To me, Lanamara has always felt like a place you'd want to go — warm, coastal, a little bohemian, sun-soaked. The kind of Mediterranean afternoon where markets spill onto the street and everything beautiful seems to have been discovered. That's exactly the world I wanted the brand to live in: transportive, unhurried, golden. So the name holds both things at once — the story of sisters and the sunlit, faraway place it invites you into every time you put a piece on.

IS LANAMARA COSTUME JEWELLERY?

I've always been frustrated that jewellery gets sorted into boxes: fine or costume, precious or throwaway. We work with natural stones and richly gold-plated brass — real, considered materials, handcrafted — but at a price that doesn't ask you to wait for a special occasion. I call them modern heirlooms: pieces good enough to keep and pass down, but made to be worn every day, layered and lived in. Beautiful — just not precious about it.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR JEWELLERY?

Modern heirlooms — talismans, really. I don't design accessories; I design pieces that carry something. Every one begins with a feeling: a place, a memory, a texture I can't stop thinking about. There's a bohemian, gypset spirit running through all of it — a love of travel, ritual and sunlight — and a belief that jewellery holds energy: of the hands that make it, the places it's travelled, and the woman who wears it. I want a Lanamara piece to feel found rather than bought — like something you discovered in a tucked-away gallery or Paris flea market, and will one day be treasured by someone you love.

IS YOUR JEWELLERY ETHICAL?

"Ethical" is a big word, and I'd rather be honest about it than print it on a label. So, plainly: we make in small batches, never mass quantities; we work with artisan partners we actually know, who are paid fairly and use traditional hand techniques; we choose natural stones and gold-plated brass because they last; and we keep our packaging minimal and reusable. We often pre-order pieces so we're not producing things no one wanted. Are we perfect? No — no small brand entirely is, and I'd rather say so than pretend. But every choice we make leans the same way: fewer, better, made with respect for the hands behind the piece and the woman who'll keep it. Slow is a choice — and it's the one we make, again and again.

My name is Marika Gazzard, and I founded Lanamara in 2021. I'm a designer, stylist and creative director — and a dressmaker's daughter, which is really where all of this begins. The brand started in leather goods, but it found its true voice when I moved into handcrafted jewellery in late 2023. Today I design, source, curate and hand-assemble our pieces from my studio in regional South Australia, alongside a little team and our artisan partners overseas.

WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND IN JEWELLERY?

Honestly, my background is in aesthetics more than jewellery. I grew up in a house full of fabric and thread — my mother was a dressmaker — so from a young age I understood that beautiful things are made slowly, by hand, with patience. I worked for years as a designer, stylist and creative director, always drawn to how a woman puts herself together and understanding the power of what we adorn ourselves with. Jewellery came later, and it felt like coming home: the same instinct for layering, texture and meaning, just in gold and stone instead of fabrics. I started Lanamara in my mid-40s — which I think is my advantage. I began with a curated eye, a life's worth of learnings.

DID YOU STUDY JEWELLERY?

Not formally, no. I have a Bachelor of Arts and years of training in design, styling and creative direction — my real education was in composition, colour and storytelling. Everything I know about jewellery I learned by doing it: drawing pieces, choosing stones, sitting with our artisan partners, assembling by hand at my studio bench, and paying close attention. I believe craft is learned through the hands as much as the classroom — and that coming to it later, with all that life behind me, is its own kind of study.