Beautiful Plants For Your Interior
VIRAGO STEEL VALUES:
… bold, rebellious alt-style statement pieces
that make the wearer feel confident, strong & badass. Not
holding back, not following out-dated jewellery rules.
… making raw, human, hand-made pieces &
being hands-on, real, genuine & transparent as a business.
… all sizes / custom sizing. Comfortable &
accommodating pieces for sensory sensitivities.
… if you love it, it’s for you, no rules.
.. always incorporating thrifted /
repurposed items, prioritising upcycling & slow fashion.
… keeping prices as affordable as possible. Only
increasing if I absolutely have to if it is not sustainable.
… built to last wherever possible, some bags have
(and will) wear & tear but I will do everything in my power
to make long-lasting pieces.
… there is no limit to what I can make, I’m constantly
flooded with new ideas, Temu couldn’t catch me if it tried.
… celebrating the flaws in a vintage
piece of cutlery or bag & embracing the character it adds.
… always open to custom orders & resizing
or altering current pieces. Whatever it takes! It’s more
important to me that you love it & want to wear it.
My Journey:
My journey began early 2025 while I was off work with an injury & bored as hell. I came across a video of someone making a ring from a spoon & I was like damn, this is a thing?? I always found it so tricky to find rings to fit my chunky fingers and thought it was a no brainer to try & make my own.
I am obsessed with op-shopping/thrifting & went out immediately to hunt down some stainless steel cutlery (while hobbling on crutches). Little did I know at this point how f**king cool & alternative style the vintage designs could be, but how DIFFICULT bending stainless steel (S/S) was.
I was determined to use S/S because I already wore it almost exclusively. I am a super lazy jewellery wearer, I like stuff I never have to take off and materials that don’t irritate my sensitive skin.
Trust me when I tell you the beginning was rough. I started in my tiny garage with a small hobby vice, a rubber mallet, and a couple of steel long sockets. There was a LOT of frustration, tears, cuts & bruises I honestly almost gave up more than once.
Usually my ADHD brain would convince me to give it up forever & add it to the grave with my many other failed hobbies. But this time I could not get the nagging feeling out of my head to keep trying. Thank god that voice didn’t shut up.
I banged up quite a few rings at the beginning that were wonky as hell but I still loved them & still have them! I semi considered making more and selling them but I just didn’t have the method, or tools, or finances to buy an industrial ring bender (the cheaper ones, still like $800, break almost instantly after bending S/S).
Fast forward a month or two, I did endless research into tools & machines or contraptions that I could use. I discovered the hydraulic shop press, of which I knew nothing about or how to use it, but I thought it could work as like a vertical ring bender, if I got the right pieces to sit at the bottom and bend onto. I found one on sale at Supercheap for $169 and grabbed it almost immediately without much further thought.
I was considering using a vice at the bottom still, but was uncertain it would withstand the pole pressure. So I researched some more and discovered the V block…. GAME CHANGER.
There was still a ton of trial and error from this point on but the shop press was the catalyst for the trajectory I went next, it is so precious to me!
I was bending rings long before Virago Steel itself came into existence & just had a few friends wearing pieces to test them out. I didn’t plan to start attending markets at all or to even start a business until I started drilling pendants. I thought, okayyyy NOW here is some potential, I couldn’t imagine going to a market with just a table of rings! Not long after this I started making the half-cuff bracelets. I started with cuffs but felt the chain is a lot more secure.
It was around June/July that I begun designing Virago Steel, even choosing the name took ages but I am still in love with it. I designed the logo myself & took some product photographs (again, thank you to all my various ADHD hobbies which gave me a whole lot of random skills).
July I booked my first ever market, Rolleston Market – August 16th. I added jean chains to the line up at the last minute & they’re now one of my FAVE things. I ended up getting super ill the night before which resulted in being SO late in the morning (plz learn from my mistakes & do NOT paint metal banner grommets with nail polish in an unventilated space). We had about 15-20 minutes to fully set up, it was absolute carnage.
It has been a wild ride since, which I’ve tried to document on my socials if you want to check em out.
I never expected to get here but I’m so glad I did. I am still constantly blown away & speechless at the incredible feedback and love you guys have for my stuff. I never expected Virago to be as popular as it has become & I am still pinching myself daily, I absolutely love everything I make but I wasn’t super sure who else would due to my often crippling self-doubt!
I am privileged to be in this position where I can sell stuff I love to people I adore & admire, and in a way which is so me & encompasses my values – inclusive, non-conforming, un-gendered, queer, accessible, alternative, unlimited, genuine, human-made and perfectly imperfect. I can run a business how I believe it should be – values before profit. Not to become a billionaire, just enough to enjoy my life and help bring joy to others.
This is why I try my best to keep prices affordable and accessible, only charging what I need to, without exploitation, manipulation tactics, or increasing prices just because I can. If I ever need to increase prices, it is because I don’t have a choice, I need to make sure I don’t burn out so I can keep doing this for life!
If you made it to the end, thank you so much for being here & learning about my story, I tried to keep it brief I promise! I am beyond grateful for all my magical customers that make this all SO worth it.
Now more than ever I feel we need to focus on real people, real human connections and community. Thank you for supporting & shopping local. It really makes a difference.