Brent Sutcliffe On His Namesake Parnell Jewellery Store & 20 Years In Business

As Sutcliffe Jewellery store in Parnell celebrates 20 years in business, Brent Sutcliffe speaks to Bethany Haverland about the most memorable pieces he’s made, what’s changed in the industry, and keeping alive the craft of handmade jewellery.

If you’ve ever owned — or had the misfortune of misplacing — an heirloom piece of jewellery, you’ll know all too well just how much it means to wear something that’s been in your family for generations.

It’s that emotion Auckland jeweller Brent Sutcliffe of Sutcliffe Jewellery hopes to evoke, saying that he likes to design pieces that will hopefully be spent “generations, not just one person”.

Sutcliffe Jewellery itself is something of an heirloom - it was founded by his father, Lance, in 1968. Inspired by his dad, Brent did his apprenticeship as a jeweller in South Auckland, going on to hone his craft in London before returning to establish the Parnell store under the family name in 2004.

Twenty years since then, it’s still going strong. The milestone comes amid a challenging time for small businesses in New Zealand in general, never mind those specialising in luxury goods such as jewellery.

The local industry counts Sutcliffe among several long-standing jewellery businesses — such as Partridge Jewellers, marking 160 years in 2024, and Walker & Hall, established in New Zealand in 1899 — and newer entrants like Zoe & Morgan and Naveya & Sloane. Emerging creatives are also joining the trade, such as MothMade Jewels and Bebe Mae.

That’s not lost on Sutcliffe. “When you first start your own retail store, you kind of think, ‘I hope I get past the first five minutes’,” he says.

“The percentage of businesses that fail is massive, so to get this far down the track is pretty cool. We’re obviously doing something right. I’m stoked — [it’s] quite a milestone. When I first started, I thought, ‘20 years, I’ll be old as’. It’s raced by.”

Diamonds might be forever, but in the years since Sutcliffe Jewellery opened their doors in Parnell, what’s changed in the industry?

“When we first opened, there was no such thing as CAD [computer-aided design]. There were no lab-grown diamonds. The manufacturing process was still quite traditional, I suppose,” he muses.

“We specialised in handmade rings and pretty much doing everything by hand, we used very few castings or anything like that. And then all of a sudden technology has just really picked up and now you can call yourself a bespoke jeweller and never actually know how to pick up tools or anything like that, and everything’s done on a computer.”

There are some advantages to CAD, Sutcliffe notes. “It does allow for people to make all those little tweaks and changes way more easily.” But it can’t replicate the skill that goes into handmade jewellery.

“You get a better product, it’s cleaner, it’s long-lasting. It sure as hell takes about 1000 times as much skill. I guess it’s a bit like buying a print, if you’re buying a piece of artwork, or buying the original. And the original takes an artist a heap of skill and lots of time perfecting their craft, and you get a unique product.”

That doesn’t mean there’s no place for computer-aided design in his work; it’s allowed him to create collections that have helped grow the business as well as make the jewellery more accessible.

“But when it comes to the high-end stuff, we still do that by and large by hand. If it’s a really expensive stone, it warrants a beautiful piece of handmade jewellery rather than a CAD one,” he explains.

“It’s keeping the craft and the art alive rather than just letting technology take care of everything for us.”

To Sutcliffe, making jewellery is about relationships — both with his craft and with his customers.

“It’s more than pushing out a piece of product and the customer giving us some money — we’re heavily invested in the whole process and just doing something that’s really special for people.”

Those pieces create lasting memories, not just for those who take them home, but for Sutcliffe himself — from a “very big, very expensive diamond; I’d just never seen anything like that in New Zealand before” — to an ultra-rare 1.2 carat pink diamond that would likely now be impossible to find.

“It’s really cool seeing those pieces go out to a good home. I spend sometimes months designing them just to get it absolutely right, and it’s so cool knowing that someone else loves it as much or more than I do.”

Often, customers who had meaningful pieces like engagement rings designed by Sutcliffe will return for “the upgrade”. “They’ve been in business and they’ve sold their business, and he gets a nice car, she gets a nice ring,” he explains.

“Then for consecutive years after that, they end up coming back to buy earrings, bracelets, you know, another big cocktail ring ... you do get tonnes and tonnes of repeat business.”

It’s why Sutcliffe hopes that the pieces he makes stay in the family of those who originally bought them.

“A timeless piece of jewellery is something that’s beautifully designed and absolutely wonderfully made — so hopefully a granddaughter will look at it and go, ‘Gosh, it is so beautiful I never, ever want to destroy it and turn it into something different’, because it’s just spot on.”

While Sutcliffe’s preferred style of jewellery is “classical with a twist”, he adds, “I’ve seen Art Deco pieces or Art Nouveau that are just beautifully made — you just never want to destroy that, because it’s just an amazing piece of artwork.

“It might not be my taste, but the craft that went into it, you’re like, this is definitely worth saving.”

What do the next 20 years hold for Sutcliffe and the business? “I’ll be retired,” he says, adding with a laugh, “I’d better be.”

What he hopes is to help keep the art of handmade jewellery alive in New Zealand.

“There are some great jewellers coming through and hopefully we get a few of them working here and I can teach them everything I know. And they’ll have stuff that I’ve never learned that I can learn off them, and that’s how the craft grows.”

Bethany Haverland is an Auckland-based journalist covering lifestyle and entertainment stories who joined the NZ Herald in 2019.

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