Xanthe Ficarra
Xanthe Ficarra
Xanthe Ficarra is a slow jewellery business that repurposes necklaces and charms and gives them a new life through creating eye-catching statement necklaces. Beginning and growing through a “natural progression,” Xanthe’s business continues to rapidly gain popularity, showing just how many people love her unique style. The brand’s core ethos surrounds utilising and revitalising the pre-existing creativity of second hand jewellery pieces and transforming them into new creations to be adorned for a lifetime. Her aim through her work is to represent originality and keep sustainable practices at the centre of her craft.
Hi Xanthe! Would you be able to tell me a bit about yourself?
I’m 24 from Melbourne, and fashion has practically been the only thing that I have ever wanted to do. This began when I was super young. I would find or think of clothes that I wanted, but maybe I couldn’t find them in the shops, and my mum would make them for me. She eventually got sick of making them and started saying “you can make them yourself now,” so I started sewing.
You get asked so young, it’s like year 9 I think, “What do you want to do?” They take you to a university, and then before you know it, you have to pick a course. I didn’t know what else to do, so I chose fashion, and then I kind of kept on going with that. They didn’t offer fashion in Year 12 at my school at all, I had to go to another school to do it. It didn’t really seem super important there and so I had to go outside to find that pathway.
I eventually ended up going to RMIT and I did my Honours there. That was super super stressful, but also the best thing I’ve ever done and I’m so glad that I did it. I finished in 2020, during COVID, which was really hard because we didn’t have access to the machinery or the technicians. I’m really happy with what I ended up doing and what I ended up making though. Despite it being so different to what I thought it was going to be.
I think that that experience did make me come out of it needing a break to process it all, because doing that through COVID was just very stressful. It was crazy and it was the first year of COVID as well, so we didn't have all the answers. The school was just doing the best that they could, they didn't really know the best way to go about it, especially teaching such a hands-on course. After I graduated I took the next year just working really casually in hospitality. I tried to make things here and there, but never really had the courage to really start something, and I always knew that if I did start something, I wanted it to be really natural.
How did your brand start out? Did it happen through the natural progression that you’d hoped?
When I look back now I always had an interest in jewellery. I actually used to make jewellery when I was really young, and then when I studied fashion, obviously jewellery is a part of collating an outfit too. In my final collection, I think my integration of jewellery came from the fact that I don't really like fastenings, like zips, buttons and hooks and eyes. I hated putting them on and always found them really annoying, they’re just that part that I don't like about a garment. So when I didn't have access to even a button hole machine or zips, I would just take big broaches or necklaces to use as fastenings. I loved the way that it looked. My collection was very bold anyway - lots of colours and big silhouettes - so big chunky jewellery looked really fun on it. I started sourcing from marketplace and getting people to send me their costume jewellery and from that I would just make brooches and pendants to put on the garments as a feature.
Maybe a year later after I finished my course someone approached me and said “let's start a brand together” so I did some drawing and I had this statement piece, a skirt, that I created. The brand never ended up happening, but I thought “oh I might try and make that skirt with a belt” so I made it for a night out, and the belt was just a bunch of brooches clipped together on a chain because that was all I could find. Then another day I was like, “oh I need something around my neck” for an outfit, so I put that belt around my neck and honestly it just went from there. Someone said to me that the belt looked really good as a necklace and I was like “oh yeah this wasn't my plan but it does look alright,” then I made another one, and one girl asked me to make her one as well.
I’m really happy it started this way because for me, and I’m sure a lot of other people, the thought of investing a lot of your time and money into something and it not working is scary and it really did put me off. So I didn't want to do that, I wanted it to happen naturally. I admire so many people that really just go for it and invest and believe in themselves because that's obviously what everyone wants to do, but I was just a bit unsure of what it was going to be or where I wanted to position myself. I didn't feel like I had a super strong niche to follow, and then this kind of just happened. Obviously I just always thought I’d make clothes, and I’m not ruling that out. I definitely still want to do that, but this was kind of just the space where I found myself.
What were your inspirations with beginning jewellery making?
I guess it was mainly my university collection, and using jewellery within that. I have always gone to op shops and always looked for brooches and I have an aunty who always sends me stuff, so I guess it has naturally progressed from there. I don't know if there was a major inspiration.
What are your inspirations when putting pieces together?
I don't necessarily get inspiration for my pieces from anywhere. I actually probably get more inspiration from the pieces that I find that week. A month ago I would've had a week where I made necklaces that were all very similar and now I'm making them all different ways because of what I've found that week. It's also about what I have, like what materials I have, how many small things, how many big things. When I’m making jewellery it's mainly working around a curve, so thinking about what's going to sit right on your trap, what's going to sit at the back, balancing weight, that kind of thing. I also have to consider how many things are dangling on the left and the right, where's the pendant sitting? Is it hanging? Is it sitting in the collar? Does it need another pendant to balance it out?
It just all happens through making, so I haven't fully got a system to it, and that's why it can sometimes take a while because I haven’t got a blueprint that I'm following, there's different things all the time.
What I find, sometimes really old vintage necklaces or pieces, can really dictate that because there's already so much creativity out there. I like to use that as well, so it's not like I bought that necklace and I'm going to take it apart. I'm definitely using the process that the original artists thought about. I feel like it's an important question to ask, where creatives get their inspiration, but sometimes it's just from themselves and that's what makes it different. Obviously everyone gets inspiration from somewhere, but some people can get inspiration from someone else's work or some people can get inspiration from something super abstract.
I was wondering if you have a certain creative process that you follow and if you do, could you please walk me through it?
I would say that the process is pretty slow, it’s not a slow process for making the necklaces, people will probably get their necklaces in a week, maybe less, but it's slow in the sense that I want it to stay this way. I don’t want it to get to the point where I have to get it manufactured somewhere else and I don't want 100 orders a week, I want to be able to keep it slow and have me make them using this process.
I will honestly go op shopping a lot. Maybe I will have one day when I go far, and if I’m in a certain area I always check out those op shops throughout the week, and I just grab whatever I think people will like or whatever I like. I do sometimes feel like I am running the op shops dry but I still am finding stuff. Then I have a board with all of the pendants I have sourced and when someone messages me I show them what I have at that time and they pick their favourite piece/s and then I make their necklace. A lot of people, because of the nature of this, they see a custom piece that I post and they say “can i buy this?” and I have to say that I can try and recreate it for them. They will often say “I really like that particular type of flower” and I think ‘I don't know how I’m going to be able to find that again.’ I know that this is going to hinder me in terms of making a lot of pieces because obviously people are going to see something they like and they’re going to want that same style and I understand that.
I try to get back to everyone pretty quickly, I don’t want to overdo it so I can't fulfil my orders. I want to be able to keep it that I make them all in the way that I like, I don’t want to rush through it or anything like that. So it's a slow process in the sense that I won’t be able to mass produce. I like it being the way that it is, and I think a lot of people are starting to value that slow making process a lot more and that means they’ll be a bit more understanding about the fact that they might not be able to get exactly what they want, because they’re happy that they are supporting the slow fashion industry. I do plan on getting a website but I’m just trying to figure out if I will be making pieces and then selling them or if I’ll keep the customs going.
Do you have a favourite piece that you’ve created so far?
I definitely will sometimes. Throughout the week, I will have pieces where I think “‘oh, I just really love this,” or “I love the way that this is sitting and the way that it's balanced with this.”
I like when my pieces have dangly bits and are a mixture of whimsical yet very chunky. I especially like some necklaces in particular that get put together, but I will never send anything out that I'm not obsessed with in its own way. Most of my favourites are the ones with a big chunky flower, and ones that use chains as a part of it as well.
Every week I have a different trend that I start focusing on, and it's just like a new idea that comes from that each time, so I just go with it.
Is there any piece that you've made that you'd say was your hardest or your most difficult to make?
Sometimes if someone does pick a tricky pendant, or sometimes I've bought a pendant that doesn't really have a good linking hole or linking space, I have a bit of work to do in finding a way to make it work, but that’s all part of the process. Sometimes certain pendants are also a little bit darker than the rest of the necklace, and that makes it hard too. But at the end of the day, that's why I have people pick their pendants, and if you pick your pendant, that's what you like, that's what you were drawn to. So therefore I think you're going to like the necklace, even if I may have found it hard.
I think that's the good thing about customs, if I was just to buy all these pendants that I liked and made necklaces that I liked and put them online, maybe I'm not appealing to a whole other group of people. So I like to give people that choice because I'm not just adhering to my personal style and it is unique to you.
Could you go into a bit more detail about your sourcing processes? How tedious do you find it to be?
It's sometimes hard to source what you'd consider high quality jewellery secondhand. So I mostly go to op shops, sometimes markets and like little vintage fairs. I have looked online but I’ve found that it is quite hard to find exactly what I'm after. Sometimes I'll go far away and I don't just go to one suburb and shop there, and sometimes I'll have days where I really don't find anything anywhere and that can be really disheartening and scary. It's almost like, ‘what am I gonna do?’ In those times it does get stressful, and I just have to push through it and go back the next day.
It does get hard and I'm getting to a point where I'm like, maybe I'll have to start figuring out something else. I do want to get into metal melting and I want to start melting metals and making my own pendants. I have the tools and everything for it, but I'm just doing my research at the moment and seeing if I have the ability to do it. Even in that sense, I don't want to buy metal, I want to recycle it and I want to keep that element going. I still won't be able to mass produce the pendants this way because I am going to be doing it myself at home. So I still will have unique pendants or I will recreate ones that I've sourced and haven't been able to find again. This means that what I've sourced is going to really enrich that process as well, so I would probably do a lot of flowers and love hearts and that kind of thing.
I love op shopping, and when you have a great day and you find so much stuff, it is exhilarating. It is so good, but on the flip side I can't let a bad day here and there determine my process. There have been so many bad days where I can't find anything, but then the next day or the next week, I'll go to that same shop and find heaps of stuff, it’s very touch and go. That’s why metal melting is a step forward whilst keeping it sustainable.
How would you like to see your business grow in the future? Is there anything else on the horizon?
I guess I don't make too many plans or goals, kind of like at the start what I was saying, I want things to flow naturally. I guess for me, I’ve just started making these pieces but I don't know if it’s like a trend or not, or how long it's going to be able to stick around, but it still is super small either way. I only have around 800 followers on Instagram, and I haven't got into the TikTok side of things, so I know that there is room to grow with what I'm doing. I know that I have to kind of make that step and really commit to it, but, I guess I’m conflicted with how I can go and put my business out there and keep up with that increased demand, so I've almost got to keep it at this pace for now.
I do want to start with making some more clothing. I will use recycled materials, as I've always kind of done with my clothes, and just use what's already out there. I just want to start playing with that a bit more, and then hopefully slowly introducing that and seeing if anyone is interested. I think that's what I see for my near future, and just keeping my business slow.
As nice as it would be to get to the point where you need things manufactured somewhere else, I love this craft and the skills I learnt through my childhood and university and because of that I want to keep it at a level that allows me to continue to use those skills and my creativity. I don’t want to have to take myself out of the process. I think more people nowadays want fashion to stay slow and people to be more involved in or to be more conscious of the process and holding themselves accountable with what they make.