With gumption, Darcey decided to try her luck by offering her artistic abilities in exchange for the trinket. She created illustrations, design concepts, and out-of-the-box ideas, complete with examples of textures, models, and colour schemes. Like all good artists, she pushed back when I challenged certain choices, which for me was a very good sign. We agreed on most things but have been squabbling about the colour brown ever since.

And me, at the ripe old age of 39, I have lived and breathed this industry for over 20 years. I started in Ireland at the age of 19 and, since then, have travelled and worked in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. I have worked in every facet (forgive the pun), from sales and buying to gemstone identification, diamond grading, authentication, valuation, styling, merchandising, podcasting, refurbishment, international fairs, photography, and modelling. It is fair to say that my life's pursuit is to understand every aspect of jewellery adornment.