A Glittering Achievement

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday March 29, 2008

Kristie Kellahan

Quiet time in the library helped a creative type dream up a thriving jewellery business, writes Kristie Kellahan.

There is at least one person who is happy with Tovia Blusztein's decision to change careers from school librarian to jewellery designer: her teenage son.

"He thought it was so daggy when I was a librarian: I think he was worried I might get a job at his school," Blusztein says. "Now it sounds much cooler for him to tell his friends I'm a jewellery designer."

Cool indeed. Since starting her costume jewellery business, dj&lane, Blusztein's designs have been worn by celebrities including Missy Higgins, Delta Goodrem and Gretel Killeen. The jewellery is sold in more than 100 stores across Australia as well as in outlets in Hong Kong, Ireland, Denmark and the United States.

Blusztein, 48, started the business in 2004 after her handmade charm jewellery proved popular with friends and colleagues. Before that she had worked as a high-school librarian for 10 years, a role that followed on from primary school teaching. "People don't realise what wonderful places libraries are; it was really a fabulous job," she says.

Duties included lending books to the students, cataloguing and working on displays, a task Blusztein enjoyed for its creativity. Working at a wealthy private school meant a large budget for purchasing books, materials and technology for the students' use. "It was all pretty 'wow'," she says.

This self-confessed people person said she also enjoyed the interaction with the teenage students. "I had a better relationship with the students than many of the other librarians because I'm not very conservative," she says. "The kids showed me their tattoos and I can assure you they didn't show them to many of the other librarians."

Blusztein says the only downside to this laidback job was other people's preconceived notions of librarians. "So many people think we're all stuffy, uptight, boring cardigan-wearers but I wasn't like that at all," she says. "I'm proud to say I was really able to lighten things up."

The career change from librarian to jewellery designer had as much to do with fate as determination. "I bought a necklace in a shop one day and added a few charms because it looked a bit bare," she says. "Everybody who saw me wearing it wanted one. I had to go back to the shop and arrange to buy all of the necklace stock they had nationwide, something like 200 units."

Continuing to work as a librarian, Blusztein added her charm embellishment to the chains in her spare time and sold them to small boutiques around Melbourne. "It took off so quickly that within four months I had to leave my librarian job to keep up with demand," she says. "By that time I was buying the necklaces direct from China but adding all the charms with my own hands."

There was no start-up capital to begin with, other than a small investment in the first batch of necklaces from China. Blusztein started attending gift fairs, where she met Australian and international buyers who purchased her wares. A stall at Mercedes Fashion Week in 2004 took the brand to new heights.

"I like to say it's when I became famous," Blusztein laughs. "A buyer from Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong loved my stuff and soon I was on their list of Australian designers alongside Alannah Hill and Collette Dinnigan."

Fashion Week also provided introductions to stylists and magazine fashion editors, taking the dj&lane product to celebrities and readers. A trip to China this year with five other designers, sponsored by the Australian Government, is expected to open the door to a lucrative customer base in Shanghai and Beijing.

Blusztein, who has no training or specialised knowledge of jewellery making, believes her success is due to a creative eye for appealing design. She also says she is relentless in pursuit of her goals.

She enjoys a much more "decadent" lifestyle now, with the flexibility to arrange her working hours to suit her lifestyle. "It's really beautiful not to have to be somewhere at 9am," she says.

The pay is better as a designer than a librarian, though dj&lane encounters the usual financial highs and lows of most small business. "My business now is like a roller-coaster: I can do really well and get heaps of orders and then for two weeks it's a morgue," she says.

The success of the brand has been unexpected, as Blusztein never considered herself a jewellery designer.

"I've always been creative and crafty ... I just happened to make that first necklace and it's taken off from there."

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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