Claire Hammon and Greg Fromont are the husband and wife team behind New Zealand jewellery brand Meadowlark. The pair's designs have quietly gained a cult celebrity following with Rihanna, Florence Welch and Jamie King all seen wearing their pieces. We got to know the duo ahead of the release of their new collection Stratus, which launches globally today.
Please tell us about your backgrounds and why you decided to launch Meadowlark.
Claire: My background is in fashion, I left school really young and started my own clothing brand. During that time, I learnt graphic design which was mostly self-taught. I sold my clothing brand after 10 years and worked as a freelance graphic designer, designing magazines and anything that came my way. I met Greg during this time. One night at dinner it suddenly occurred to us that we should combine our skills and make a little brand. We had never imagined it would become a full time thing or that we would end up employing staff and growing into a real brand.
Greg: I have been a skateboarder for 25 years. I studied Visual Arts, and majored in jewellery. My degree covered mostly fine arts, with a focus on experimentation rather than traditional techniques. When Claire and I met, it was obvious to us that we should make things together, although it was initially just for the fun of it.
What inspires your designs?
Claire: We are inspired by everything we see and while we have completely different viewpoints, we are both often inspired by architecture, art, nature, science & history.
Greg: Many things go into our designs. In fact for me, the more visually well fed I am, the better. Some examples of things are: flowers and nature, architecture, archaeology, traditional adornment, machinery, science fiction, mundane objects and fashion.
How does your creative process work, do you work together on each concept and design?
Claire: We don’t actually have a specific process; we tend to work differently every season. As two creatives we are a bit dreamy and mostly work intuitively. A collection we have just completed was inspired by the diamonds we sourced. We kind of jam with each other on different ideas and then we add our own touches. Sometimes we design our own mini story in a collection, sometimes it’s mostly one of us and other times every piece is a total collaboration.
Greg: We work slightly differently each time. Generally speaking, we come together initially and discuss direction, theme, and look at visual inspiration together. Then we go away and independently work on ideas and concepts as well as samples. Then we come back together and discuss and refine. We may do that a few times, then the push is on to have the finished pieces done by deadline.
What is it like working together as husband and wife?
Claire: I think it’s really good, although there isn’t a lot of escaping work when we are at home. We do work well together and we don’t fight. Because we share the common goal of having a good life and being creatively fulfilled I think we are super lucky.
Greg: It’s a lot of fun. There are very few people I could work so closely with, but the key to it is having fun. It is difficult to stop ourselves from taking work home though and to keep a work/life balance, particularly considering how hard we work.
Who are you designing for?
We are trying to design things that don’t exist or are the best version of a classic idea – we don’t follow trends so we feel we are designing the future, hopefully something our customers don’t even know they want yet. I do always look at a collection and think about our customers and whether they will like each piece or not. Our customers are intelligent and know what works for them and they have unique style; so we hope we have something for everyone.
Being based in New Zealand, what challenges have you faced breaking into the international market and how have you overcome them?
Claire: Being so far away is the biggest challenge, travelling internationally for us is a minimum of 14 hours flying which is also very expensive. Luckily couriers are super-fast these days so that is helpful for getting our pieces to market. Just not being on the ground in front of the right people is hard, we really are isolated at the bottom of the world, but New Zealand has a super high standard when it comes to quality so it’s a good place to be based.
Greg: New Zealand is a comparatively small market, so while we are successful here, it is difficult to compete against other international brands with more of a marketing spend.
What sets you apart as a jewellery brand?
The fact that we still make in our workshop and don’t send our entire line offshore enables us to customise and offer many different variations of our styles, this means that there isn’t a huge amount of the exact same styles out in the market.
What makes your high jewellery pieces so special?
Our fine line is only available in the most precious of metals and only in diamonds. Also, having made many commission engagement rings over the years, there is a very definite art to creating the perfect composition in an engagement ring. The proportions are very important, even at a very tiny scale. The trick of Meadowlark's pieces is to work within and around these proportions, to create the most visually satisfying, new form we can. We are extremely intense about every piece looking perfect from every angle.
Where are your pieces made?
90% of our pieces are made in our own workshop, 10% are made in China.
How many people are in the Meadowlark team?
Including us we have 14 people in the office & workshop. We also work with three diamond setters and two more jewellers that work from their own workshops.
What has been your favourite collection or item so far?
Claire: My favourite would be the Taboo hoops and Pave star endless hoop earrings from our new collection Stratus. We have already made another collection which will come out in 2017 which has probably my all-time favourite style – we are always looking forward to the next thing!
Greg: The Bolt Ring from Stratus is my favourite, and before that, the collaboration with Andrew McCleod, a well know New Zealand artist.
Which piece/item is your most popular?
Because we have a huge selection, there is no one piece that is the most popular, but we are known for our Protea styles which have been going strong for close to 9 years now.
Aside from New Zealand, the brand is available in Australia and the United States and is also carried through e-tailers such as Luisa Via Roma. Where is your largest market?
Our largest market after New Zealand is the United States for retail, online it is Australia.
For more information visit www.meadowlarkjewellery.com
