Celebrating Women Through Story and Craft

What International Women’s Day Means to Daniella

When I think about what has shaped me both as a woman and as a creative, it always comes back to storytelling.

I have always been drawn to romance, adventure and travel. As a child I devoured adventure novels about brave heroes, distant landscapes and lives lived boldly. I loved history, and I still do. I’ve always been fascinated by old things, antiques, worn textures, objects that feel as though they’ve been discovered rather than made.

That love is woven into my jewellery. The slightly rustic finish. The feeling that a piece could have been dug up from the earth. I think I’m drawn to that because it suggests it has lived before, it carries a story, and it has endured.

I’ve also been incredibly lucky to grow up surrounded by strong women, my mother, my aunties, my grandmothers, and now the brilliant women I work alongside every day. They showed me what resilience looks like and they encouraged me to follow my instincts. They taught me that strength can be quiet, that determination can be graceful, and that you don’t have to shout to be powerful.

A dear friend once gave me the book Wild Women: 40 Women Who Paved the Way, and I remember being completely captivated. The courage of those women including explorers like Elspeth Beard genuinely gave me goosebumps. Their bravery wasn’t performative, it was instinctive. They simply went and did what had not been done before.

Another book that has stayed with me is Women Who Run With the Wolves. It’s such a powerful, poetic celebration of the feminine spirit, instinctive, wild, intuitive and strong. It always leaves me feeling proud to be a woman.

All of these things, adventure, history, old objects, brave women are deeply connected for me. They are about legacy, courage, and instinct. About carving your own path while honouring what came before you.

That is what inspires me.

That is what I try to capture in my work.

On International Women’s Day, I celebrate the women who came before me, the women beside me, and the women who will go further still.