The Birth of Clink and The Creative Journey.


Starting Clink with a shop at the crystal store and learning how to tie knots to create the first necklaces. Then countless weekends at markets, creating...
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2011
The Birth of Clink and The Creative Journey.


Starting Clink with a shop at the crystal store and learning how to tie knots to create the first necklaces. Then countless weekends at markets, creating...
The Birth of Clink and The Creative Journey.
Starting Clink with a shop at the crystal store and learning how to tie knots to create the first necklaces. Then countless weekends at markets, creating weekly and seeing the natural progression, which was inspiring enough to keep going.
I was twenty-three, recovering from wrist surgery and painting offices around Auckland to pay the bills. I knew, in a vague but stubborn way, that I wanted to build something of my own.
One lunch break I walked past the crystal wholesaler next door and went in instead of going to the bakery. I've always loved crystals: the colours, the natural formations, the weight of them. I lost my whole break in there.
That night I made my first two necklaces and gave them to my girlfriend. We looked at each other like, we could actually do something with this.
Our first market wasn't great. We sold to my mum's friend and basically nobody else. Afterwards, over a cup of tea, our best mate raised his cup to cheers me and told me to pick mine up. "I want to hear the clink." Clink. The name has stuck ever since.
A lovely couple from the crystal shop taught me how to build a net from scratch, sized to fit the stone. That was the birth of my own creativity.
Then we figured out a girls' hair braider was the perfect tool for the chain. Game changer. Twenty necklaces a week, hundreds within a few months. Clink levelled up.
In 2013 a friend introduced me to the Guru, who taught me to design jewellery on the computer. My first three rings were pyramids with stairs running up them. Creativity and progression: the two feelings I live for.

2014
From Necklaces to Computer Designed Rings.


Moving to Perth for work and bringing Clink with me. Designing rings on the computer, turning them into real silver and gold, and meeting a whole...
From Necklaces to Computer Designed Rings.
Moving to Perth for work and bringing Clink with me. Designing rings on the computer, turning them into real silver and gold, and meeting a whole new wave of creative people along the way.
In 2014 I moved to Perth to work in oil and gas. I loved that I could just get on a plane, change cities and lift my whole career.
I brought Clink with me. I found a great crystal wholesaler, did markets around town and met a wave of new creative people. Creativity builds expression, and expression builds connection. That's another reason I love Clink: it keeps putting interesting people in front of me.
I took the computer with me on every swing and designed at night. For the first time, the money meant my designs could actually become real. I'd upload a file, and it would come back 3D printed and cast in silver, ready for the jeweller.
Over those three years I designed more than a hundred rings. Custom pieces, people's logos, a turntable ring, and a ring for two brothers where I designed the coin as well. The first Flower of Life pieces came to life too, with really epic crystals set in silver and gold.
Whenever I followed up, people would say, "Yeah man, they were stoked."
I also bought my first camera to shoot the rings, and ended up falling in love with the Perth sunrises.
Oil and gas was a hard life, and I was creative all the way through it. By the end of 2016 I felt like I had two real businesses I could be running, so I came home.

2017
Going All In and The Hidden Door.


Coming home to Auckland and going all in. The first website, teaching people to make necklaces in my kitchen, markets, festivals and a trade show that...
Going All In and The Hidden Door.
Coming home to Auckland and going all in. The first website, teaching people to make necklaces in my kitchen, markets, festivals and a trade show that took everything I had, and turned out to be a hidden door.
Back in Auckland I worked part-time as a land surveyor and put the rest of my hours into Clink. Custom work started to grow: festival dog tags, pieces for other brands, and my first engagement rings.
That New Year's I stayed home while everyone went away. I wanted my first proper website live. I'd been chasing this dream for years, and I was finally moving on it.
By 2018 I'd gone all in on jewellery. Not out of desperation, out of belief. I flew to Hong Kong for the jewellery fair and walked every single booth, sourcing crystals. I was in the zone, having the time of my life.
I taught four people in my kitchen how to make the necklaces so we could keep up. Markets, festivals, and six months with a cabinet in a vintage store on K Road, meeting so many amazing creators.
Then I committed to the Gift Fair, a major trade show. I built every display stand by hand and was up until 2am the night before. A lovely girl helped me on the stand, and she could say what I couldn't say about myself.
I walked out with two stores wanting five necklaces each. I was devastated. No money, no energy.
Looking back, it was a hidden door. I'm a maker, not a marketer, and everything that came next only happened because that plan blew up.

2020
Learning the Trade and Finding a Mentor.


One phone call to the jeweller I wanted most, working for free to prove myself, and years learning engagement rings and diamonds from one of the...
Learning the Trade and Finding a Mentor.
One phone call to the jeweller I wanted most, working for free to prove myself, and years learning engagement rings and diamonds from one of the best. Clink went quiet, until a camera brought the creativity flooding back.
I needed a job. I didn't want to go back to surveying, so I made a list of jewellers and started calling, asking if anyone needed a CAD designer. Nobody did. I'd saved the one I really wanted for last.
When I finally made that call, he told me he didn't need any help, "but maybe I can help you with your brands." He's one of the kindest people you will ever meet.
I went into his store, one of the most respected high-end jewellers in New Zealand. He was completely open about how he ran his business and genuinely wanted me to win.
One day he showed me all the leads he was too busy to chase. I asked, what if I worked those for you? He sat back in his chair and said, "yeah, maybe you could." I worked for free for a while to prove it, and then he put me on four days a week.
Before long I was designing engagement rings, and he taught me how to buy diamonds. Guiding people through the most important purchase of their lives, and helping them propose in a way they'd remember forever. I loved it.
To give it everything, I quietly paused Clink and only made pieces when someone asked.
Then over New Year's in 2022 I spent two weeks up north just shooting nature, and that's where the photography obsession started. Practice makes perfect, and feeling creative inspires action.
2023
The Camera, The Coast and Tigers Eye.


Photography became an obsession, a move to the Gold Coast for warmer winters, and late nights making the Tiger's Eye collection. Then a leap to Sydney...
The Camera, The Coast and Tigers Eye.
Photography became an obsession, a move to the Gold Coast for warmer winters, and late nights making the Tiger's Eye collection. Then a leap to Sydney to learn how a collection goes from a sketch to production.
Photography became an obsession. I used the same principle I'd used with jewellery: practice makes perfect, and feeling creative inspires action.
I started with nature, because nature doesn't move. Then black and white in the city, then baristas, then models and skaters for a mate's store. One thing kept leading to another, and eventually it landed exactly where I wanted it to: shooting my own jewellery.
Auckland winters knock me down. In summer I'm lit up, creative and alive. In winter I shut down. So I made the call, did a trial run on the Gold Coast, and in May 2024 I moved to Palm Beach.
In my first month there the jewellery work dried up. New country, no income, four weeks in. Then a job came up at a resort golf course, and my golf and my work ethic carried me through.
I worked hard at the course and even harder on Clink in every other hour. Plenty of nights I was up until 1:30am making necklaces for the Tiger's Eye collection. Tiger's eye is my favourite stone. I love making these necklaces, I love shooting them, and I love sharing them.
In early 2025 I put myself out there again and landed a design role in Sydney, learning how a collection goes from a sketch all the way to production.
Nobody handed me a formal jewellery education. I just kept meeting the right people, who taught me enough that I could teach myself the rest.
2026
Return of the Clink.


Finishing up in Sydney and going all in on Clink again. The Frequency collection opens the new chapter, fine jewellery is next, and it's all built...
Return of the Clink.
Finishing up in Sydney and going all in on Clink again. The Frequency collection opens the new chapter, fine jewellery is next, and it's all built on one idea: connect with yourself, your people and nature.
In August 2026 I finished up my design role and went all in on Clink again. Fifteen years after a cup of tea, and this time I'm not guessing.
Mixing fine metals with crystals has always been a dream of mine, coming from the Clink background with fine jewellery design experience, the future is looking bright!
The first collection of this new chapter is Frequency: amethyst, clear quartz and smokey quartz. Every stone is picked in the hand, wrapped or netted to fit it, and numbered, because no two are ever the same.
Here's what fifteen years taught me. Connect with yourself, your people and nature, and you get inspired. Being inspired makes you create. Creating connects you deeper. That's where the joy is, and Clink is the symbol of that life.
So when you find your people, and you will, raise whatever's in your hand.
So we can all hear the clink.
Aaron (Mets)
Insights
Three short reads on the stones in the collection.
Crystal Meaning
Clear quartz lets light move through its transparent surfaces, revealing natural details within the stone.
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Crystal Meaning
Smokey quartz has a brown to grey appearance that can feel understated and grounded.
Read the article
Crystal Meaning
Amethyst brings purple colour and natural character to a piece of jewellery.
Read the article