I never thought I would say this, but I am so thankful to be born for such a time as this, to be able to use technology to document my journey and vision through blogs and video posts. Fears and feelings of inadequacy confound me in terms of being in front of the camera, but it is a fear I do wish to overcome - God is too good to keep silent about.

So here I go! And now that I'm here... what do I write about for a first post

I suppose it would make sense to tell you about my journey, to begin at the beginning so to speak, so I will. Condense the last 11 years into one blog... it could be a little long, but bear with me, it's going to be good.

It all began quite a by accident... I was getting married in 2001 and the traditional diamonte style available for wedding accessories in those days was “so not me”, so I ended up making my own. I was pretty crafty growing up, so a visit to the local bead store became a new hobby. Soon enough my colleagues were buying my wares off my neck (or out of a biscuit tin - that's how it started out) and all of a sudden I had a little side business!

As time went on I started taking on custom orders through word of mouth, including accessorizing the whole bridal party, and I began to see a supernatural element to my design process that surprised me. I had no proper design background and wasn't particularly encouraged to be creative as a child, but I was seeing visions of completed designs that were so clear that I could zoom in and out and 'copy' them– designs that were so unusual that later on when I attended bridal fairs, seasoned bridal-wear designers wanted to work with me because they had 'never seen anything like it before'. Soon I began to think that maybe there was more to this hobby than I first thought – perhaps there was a greater purpose to this accidental discovery.

 

In 2003 I was at a women's conference where the key speaker challenged the delegates to ask God if there was a dream for their life. So I took my questioning to the Lord and pretty much said:

 

“God, I know you've given me a gift and I know there is a purpose to all this. Is there a dream you have for me regarding this? How can I serve you with it, even if it remained just a hobby?”

 

I really didn't expect to hear back, but suddenly His whisper floated through my heart:

 

“Design jewellery for women you will never meet and people you will never know and tell them that there is a God who loves them.”

 

This one phrase has girded every business decision I've made, from little events to bigger evangelistic outreaches within our Sydney community.

Not long after this I received a vision of a piece of jewellery which was then commissioned as a conference piece the next year. That resulted in my leaving my day job and stepping out in a jewellery business where I began dreaming about Christian jewellery as well as continuing with bridal jewellery clients.

During this period I was dealing with past hurts and identity issues as well as about 2 years worth of depression and suicidal thoughts. I was pursuing a dream but I did not know who I was. A couple of older women came along side me at this time to speak into my identity, and their love as well as my realisation that what I was learning could become jewellery reminders of who God was to me was frankly what saved me.

 

Back then my ‘mantra’ was:

 

“If I could wear it and be reminded of who I am in Christ, then I would be without excuse not to live the full life for which He died for”.

 

It wasn't exactly as simple as that in my journey of overcoming depression, but I began to see that the very area the enemy was trying to attack me in, I could actually fight back with the gifting that God has given me.

In 2007, nine months after the birth of my first child, I received a dream from God that gave me a strategy to gain funding for the business. I must say that in that period of preparing for motherhood and then becoming a young mother I had actually prepared myself to relinquish my desire to keep designing jewellery, believing that perhaps that jewellery design period of my life was over and that I would be 'just be a mum' from then on.

 

I now know that it was actually symbolic that my little baby was 9 month old when I received the dream. The dream led to two pitches, the second of which was successful and I gained an angel investor who seeded greatly into the beginnings of my dream that otherwise would never have got off the ground.

 

Everything I learned in those years I now carry into the new brand which are lessons – mostly learning from mistakes - that money can't buy!

I have run my jewellery design business to the best of my capacity in this time, having had 3 kids, now 13, 10 and 7 but it wasn't until my youngest turned 2, that I received a dream, the day after his second birthday, that it was time to start preparing to run.

 

In late 2015 my heart began to stir again about the Armour of God series that I had begun in 2008 but did not feel peace nor the inspiration as it never got past Roman centurion style pieces at that time.

 

In 2016 that stirring became a tornado of ideas and visions (think stillness in spirit but absolute chaos on my design/dining table), and in a very short time I had the prototype and in late August we launched the Kickstarter campaign which we funded very successfully and this is probably how you came to hear about us.

 

In early 2016 I also felt God lead me to re-brand - the last brand from my previous season was one carried out in my own strength and I'm not the least bit afraid to recognise and repent from that. This was a new season and I was determined to start rightly and to have God name the company and lead me directly in my designs and that is what He has done so far.

 

In waiting for a business name I prayed for a number of weeks which culminated in that small still voice one morning of “Realm Design” as I woke - and then a dream encounter exactly one week later – God really does answer when you wait on Him!

 

In the dream 'a young man' whom I felt knew me and loved me came to lead me into a space where there were pieces of jewelry on a board. He pointed to one piece and said “This one, this is the one I want” and my focus then centred on the logo that was in the middle of the board, a plain R inside a plain D.

 

This was so significant as, in the week in between getting the business name and the dream, I had pretty much started drawing a logo – one that had no less than a lion, an eagle, a shield and a sword! It was all getting VERY complicated... luckily God stepped in!

 

And now we have the current logo which I absolutely love, and with the logo has come direction to be as simple, streamlined and effortless in my brand as possible which hopefully comes through in my website as well as our packaging. God is effortlessly simple.

 

So what does the future hold? Lots of fun learning about what it means to do marketing on social media, and lots more visionary designs to put to production, both I'm hoping to achieve this year with your help! I certainly need an ARMY of Warriors around me to get this brand recognised in the marketplace as an anointed jewellery design company, and I hope you can help just by telling your friends and sharing the Facebook posts and blogs, I seriously cannot do it without you.

 

So I hope you have enjoyed reading this quick snapshot of what Realm Design is about!

 

If you have any suggestions or thoughts please comment below, we would love to hear from you! And by we, I mean my husband and I, plus our small and growing team of jewellery consultants.

 

Blessings,

Ros, Realm Design.