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We always love to hear stories about family run businesses, and there’s something particularly endearing about a father / daughter collaboration. Klaylife is one such business, run by father / daughter team Phillip Jones and Kerri Wallace, who are originally from South Africa, but who have been Melbourne based since 1989.
Kerri is a super inspiring creative businesswoman, with a background as a radio producer, working with talent such as Hamish and Andy. In 2014, after leaving her radio career, Kerri decided it was time to launch her own creative business. The timing was perfect to join forces with her father, Phillip, who had just retired from a long career running an international food import business.
‘My family emigrated from South Africa in 1989, and I have always wanted to find a way to reconnect with my roots’ Kerri says. ‘I stumbled across these beautiful clay bead chandeliers, and made contact with the woman who started the business in South Africa. Luckily for us, she entrusted us with her baby, and together we developed our first range of chandeliers, launched in Australia in February 2015’.
Klaylife creates a stunning range of handcrafted clay bead chandeliers, all made by hand in South Africa. ‘Each clay bead is hand-rolled, hand-dyed and hand-strung by a beautiful South African community, the majority of whom are women who have been impacted by HIV’ explains Kerri. The enterprise now employs over 65 dedicated women, making a real difference to their local community.
This year, Klaylife releases a brand new range of chandeliers in bold, dramatic hues, through an inspired collaboration with Melbourne stylist Jacqui Moore. Jacqui has been involved with Klaylife since the launch of the brand in 2015. ‘I was thrilled to be asked by Kerri and Phillip to style their launch campaign at the start of 2015… what began as a simple styling job fast became an ongoing conversation about the brand’ Jacqui recalls.
For the Klaylife X Moore Concepts collaboration, Jacqui has injected blush and teal into the range, as well as offering a range of new pendant shapes that can be hung singly or as a cluster of three, five or more. ‘From there it grew into floor lamps and table lamps too…’ Jacqui says ‘in the end we had to hold ourselves back – but that means we have lots of ideas in the bank for the future!’.
The Klaylife x Moore Concepts lighting range starts at $599.00, and launches today.
