When New Farm’s Lisa Sinclair-Robinson moves, she scintillates. With each shift, a new segment of silver or gold catches the light in an electric dance from her collarbones to her fingers.
Every layer of jewellery she wears is a symbol of memory and connection – this is the philosophy behind the newly-rebranded Lisa Sinclair Curatorium.
Around her neck hang Henri and Ana from her androgynous Liberté collection, robot pendants named for physicists Ana Hudomal and Henri Poincaré, who advanced our scientific knowledge of the still-unsolved, celestial three body problem.
The curved lines in her logo are inspired by this astronomical mystery, in a nod to her original jewellery collection, Constellate.
“We took a little bit of poetic license with [the word Curatorium] because it’s about being an advisory body,” Lisa said.
“And I felt like that does fit, because these collections are all different, and if you want to wear something that has deep meaning and connection, then this is an advisory body of collections that you can have a look at.”
Constellate emerged from a bedtime story Lisa’s sons loved, about a fisherman who would tell his wife: “If I could, I would give you the moon and the stars.”
The moon and the stars became the family’s way of expressing their love, and when the boys were young, explaining big concepts like birth and death in a way they could understand.
“Because they knew the night sky, and it was really big, they became fascinated with, how do you possibly give that to somebody?” she said.
“So then that became our way of explaining to them things about life.”
Some of first stores to stock Lisa’s designs were Camargue on James Street and Toscani in Noosa. She now has a number of boutique stockists throughout Australia’s east coast capitals.
“I feel very fortunate to have people who believe in the product… I think everyone’s got a moon and the stars story, you know?”
Since her first collection in 2020, Lisa’s range has expanded to include Libertè, ROAM, accoutrement, and Robe.
She takes endless inspiration from her overseas travels.
“When you’re on holiday, you’re always the best version of yourself; you’re not encumbered by the daily grind.”
“So I wanted to be able to touch [a piece of jewellery] – even if it’s just for a second – in those more challenging moments in life, and recall that it’s okay.”
ROAM was born from a bird’s eye view of Forte Stella on the Italian coastline. Lisa noticed its star-like shape and, walking onto the grounds, felt a “shift”– suddenly a profusion of ideas sprang to mind.
“…When you get that feeling, you just go with it,” she said.
So, she created a medallion series is inspired by overseas experiences: Stella celebrating the Italian fort built to protect the town’s families, Coeur for a grunge graffiti heart in glamorous Nice, and Melani to commemorate her Indonesian roots.
Ms Sinclair has also introduced accoutrement, an anthology of antique finds sparked by a desire to combine the old with the new.
Drawing on her background in fashion, she has accompanied this with ROBE, an assortment of overseas paraphernalia evocative of places she has travelled.
“It’s about me sharing an experience,” she said.
