Emily Burke has been involved in the Jewellery design and manufacturing industry for over 16 years, 6 years of this under her own label “e jewellery designs”, specialising in individual and unconventional pieces. Emily’s journey has been an arduous one. Fascinated by the endless artistic boundaries that precious metals could entail, Emily’s career has taken her various places including as a jewellery master maker in a tiny damp cellar in Hatton Garden, London, and an elevator shaft in Chatham, England which convinced her that working for herself was a much better proposition.

On returning to Australia became involved in leather design in which she could see great potential in the tourism industry, and late last year became a finalist in the 2007 Australian Tourism Memento awards, a personal highlight for her.

Based out of her Brisbane Studio, Emily has spent the past two years laboriously applying her skills as a jeweller and designer to an ancient 14th century process ‘Cuir Bouille’. Not confined to producing run of the mill work, Emily utilised the untapped natural resources of Kangaroo and Stingray leather to create a range of fashion accessories that are synonymous with Australia.

Emily’s catalogue of work has ranged from the creation of 9ct gold beer bottles for XXXX beer, a metal bikini costume for the video game ‘Fury’, and even the teeth of the 80’s icon of tough Mr. T, of A-Team fame. However it is her work with the Kangaroo bangles which has attracted the most attention, featuring in publications including FHM, Style and Map Magazines.

Emily’s creative foresight has since matured and her collection of Kangaroo and Stingray leather pieces have become a sought after commodity with interest in countries including Sweden, Germany, Canada and especially through Asia, due to its close proximity to Australia.