What does SUNSABI mean?
SUNSABI is more than a name.
It's a feeling, an identity, a collection of moments and a way of moving through the world.
Names have always felt important to me. They carry stories, depth and meaning; culturally, linguistically, personally, emotionally. Sometimes we grow into them, and sometimes they shape who we become.
SUNSABI is a combination of two ideas and one soul; SUNS + SABI.
SUNS
The SUNS in SUNSABI is for the suns in my universe; the people I love most - my two sons and my fiancè - and the warmth their presence provides to my life.
A phrase I've said to them for as long as I can remember:
"I love you more than all the muches in all the universes."
A phrase we have continued to add to because the love continues to grow, infinitely-
"... double, triple, infinity and beyond
all the stars in the sky,
all the sand on the beaches,
all the water in the oceans,
all the roofs on all the houses,
all the chimneys on all the roofs,
all the dirt in the gardens,
all the worms in all the dirt,
all the air in the atmosphere,
even in the aeroplanes,
even in the aeroplane toilets..."
An expression of something impossible to measure, yet instantly understood. A love that stretches beyond limit, beyond time, beyond what words can properly hold.
My boys have shaped so much of how I see the world. They remind me daily to notice the small things. To slow down. To find wonder in ordinary moments. To see treasures that others might walk past without seeing.
When those treasures are picked up by tiny fingers and handed up to you by pure hearts, something changes.
The tangible and intangible collide.
A simple object becomes a memory.
A shell.
A rock.
A feather.
A flower picked by little hands,
Or given by lovers hands.
The way their eyes looked to you -
Their excitement.
Their wonder.
The quiet significance of being the person they wanted to give it to.
The sun in their universe, just as they are in yours.
SUNSABI is rooted in that way of seeing.
In noticing.
In remembering.
In understanding that meaning is rarely found in the object itself, but in the moment, value and meaning it represents.
The rocks, the feathers, the flowers that have long since dried, the handwritten notes, the scribbled drawings, the handmade gifts and handwritten cards. All the things that, six months ago, when a bushfire threatened our home, I instinctively gathered first. And in that moment I realised their value was never in what they were.
Their value was always in what they meant.
A moment, a thought, a gesture, a memory, a piece of someone you love and who loves you, and perhaps that is what love is. Becoming, together, the sun in each others universes.
SABI
The SABI, in SUNSABI is inspired by Japanese philosophies that I have long resonated with and continue to shape the way I see beauty.
Wabi-sabi is the appreciation of natural, imperfect beauty. It celebrates the weathered, the handmade, the fleeting and the incomplete. It reminds us that nothing lasts forever, nothing is perfect, and that there is beauty in both truths.
Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery with gold, honouring the cracks rather than hiding them. The repair becomes part of the object's story, making it more beautiful because of what it has been through.
Together, these philosophies gave language to something I had always felt.
A life shaped by love.
A respect for the stories carried in people and objects.
An appreciation for the marks left by time.
A belief that imperfections are not flaws to be hidden, but chapters to be honoured.
It's noticing the way rain traces patterns down a windowpane, it's keeping rocks your child placed in your hand years ago and displaying them like art in your home. It's reaching for your favourite mug each morning, even though the handle is chipped.
It's finding beauty in things that are imperfect, fleeting and deeply human.
SUNSABI is not about jewellery.
Not really. Jewellery is simply the vessel. A way to carry a memory, to honour a moment, to hold close the people, places and experiences that have shaped us. Because in the end, the things we treasure most are rarely the most tangibly valuable, they are the most meaningful.
And meaning, perhaps, is the most beautiful thing of all.