It was born from the sudden and unimaginable passing of my 13 year old daughter, Ivy, a moment that did not simply alter my direction in life, but brought about a reckoning that redefined it entirely. I found myself navigating the duality of hopelessness and an overwhelming need to help young people find their way at the same time, a tension that challenged me in countless ways and ultimately began to translate itself into action, most notably through the development of The Forge Institute.

A Sacred Mourning emerges alongside this, not as a separate idea, but as a parallel expression, one that turns inward where The Forge turns outward.

Prior to this, I held an eight-year practice under the Brent Dakis Jewellery label, followed by a ten-year absence, a pause that only now reveals its significance. What returns is not simply jewellery as adornment, but as ritual object, something that can be held, worn, and returned to as part of an ongoing relationship with memory and loss. It is only through this immense loss that I have found my way back to my craft, and for that, I remain grateful.

Grief does not unfold in clean stages, but settles into us over time, shifting between heaviness and quiet acceptance, where absence becomes part of the everyday rather than something separate from it. It is within this space that ritual becomes essential, offering a way to give shape to what would otherwise remain intangible, allowing memory to be expressed through action, through repetition, and through the senses.

A Sacred Mourning exists within that understanding, offering mourning jewellery, ritual oils, and symbolic objects designed to support these acts of remembrance, whether through a piece worn daily as a quiet continuation, or through incense, resins, and oils used with flame to create moments of pause, reflection, and connection. These are not grand gestures, but subtle, consistent practices that provide small anchors, helping to transform pain into something that can be carried with intention.

Because grief does not leave, and it is not meant to, but through ritual, through intention, and through the act of honouring, it can be given form, becoming something we can carry with care, creating space for those we have lost to remain part of our lives in ways that are tangible, present, and enduring.