Hello Pretty was lucky enough to be invited to a studio experience tour by Stacy Beukes, the insanely talented jewelry designer behind A Ring To It. 

A Ring to It jewelry design is renowned for interactive pieces that tell a story. This studio tour was no different and we began our morning with a chat by Stacy explaining the rich socio-cultural history that informs her studio space as well as each design and final product.

Much like Stacy's unique laugh, the studio experience tour proved to be inspiringly special. The talk provided a rich contextual background with stories from Stacy's childhood and her parents childhoods - these form the foundation upon which Stacy creates her pieces.

I’m a book girl, through and through.  From old ones where the pages are so thin and brittle that you have to turn them with slow and deliberate delicacy, right through to crisp new ones which smell of bleachy chemicals and freshly printed ink, their razor sharp newly sliced pages carrying the promise of a paper cut if you dare not treat them right. Reading books and being able to immerse yourself into someone else’s world and escape your own is a pleasure second only to one thing – creating your own. Whether you’re journaling the most private of thoughts, or jotting down your day-to-day, or even just doodling, that book needs to be something special, and beautiful. Life is too short for ugly books.

This gorgeous nude leather journal from Flourish ticks all my boxes. The entire book is handmade – the pages are stitched into sections, which in turn are stitched to the spine. A riempie ties your book closed, which mean you’re not getting bent pages or handbag shmutz all up in your notes.  Also, every time you open it it’s like unwrapping a gift. And you can even tie your fancy pen up in the bow. Dayum! They’re available in a range of sizes and colours, which means you can take accessorizing to the next level. Notebook matching your shoes, matching your bag? Totes.