Hill Tribe Silver and Lapis Lazuli Bracelet - Hill Tribe River

Artisan Organization: Somluck Komolmith

Country: Thailand

"My name is Somluck Komolmith. My nickname is Aoun, which means 'fat' but I'm not fat. :) I was born December 16, 1964, the youngest of five children. I have three brothers and one sister. My parents used to have a jewelry shop on the Myanmar border, but then we moved to a different city, where I went to high school. I decide to study for a vocational degree in accounting. My first job was in a bank and I worked there for 16 years.

"In 1992, I married my husband, who is an academic in the field of agriculture. I quit my job at the bank and decided to grow fruit trees. Almost all the trees in our garden are longan, mango and fruit trees to sell in the market. We have a son, born in 1993, and a daughter, born in 1996.

"Sadly, my father passed away when I was young. My brother and my sister moved to northern Thailand to be near me and to help take care of my mother. We all love her so much. And this has helped our family be closer.

"My two older brothers have jewelry shops and I have the chance to help them. I have had many opportunities to learn about jewelry and have even designed and created pieces myself. Other than designs to sell, I design almost all the jewelry I wear because I like to be different and original. But for myself, I have a number of jobs – running my business, being a homemaker, mother and wife. I'd never find the time to open a jewelry shop of my own. So I use the night to create jewelry to offer in only one place – with you. I use only high quality material from Thailand. Good material and good designs make for a good product, don't you think?

"For now I only create earrings, because they are so appealing to women. I also find them easier to make. I start by imagining a design, sketching it and selecting the materials. If I like it, I start to work on the real earrings. Eventually, I began to create necklaces and bracelets.

"In the future, I'd like to move my family to the country for a change and to become a farmer. Why? To take care of my mother. She wants to eat vegetables she has grown herself. She wants to be closer to nature too.""