BEAR X Lizzie Stokely
INSIDE VOICES
BEAR X LIZZIE STOKELY
This multitalented Bruny Island local is covered in sand, salt water, silver dust, sunscreen, and sparkles. Trust us when we tell you she can do it all. Meet Lizzie.
Give us an elevator pitch.
I’m Lizzie Stokely, I’m 27 years old. I have grown up on and live on Bruny Island, Tasmania. I live on a seaside farm in Lunawanna. Naturally this has made me love the ocean - surfing, fishing and diving, and for work I am also a skipper - so always either in the ocean or on it! I think of myself as very lucky to live how I do. I’ve travelled to places worldwide for surfing or experiences, and I’ve spent the last 3 winters in Exmouth WA chasing work and more waves. Tassie is the best place in the world though, so I have found myself home again for good and I’m so happy about it.
Tell us about your jewellery brand luna!
luna is my small business that I started back in 2018. I’ve always had a creative tick and making jewellery has been my outlet. I have made my range of ocean safe, gold and silver pieces - to fit in with mine and others lifestyles of being able to wear jewellery everywhere. My most popular products are made out of the abalone shell, which is a big part of my life (and lots of other Tasmanians’ I’m sure) given how much we dive for it to eat!
I’ve always been quite driven, and this is also how luna began. I started luna purely to save money for international surf competitions when I was 19 because they are so expensive, and to get major funding sponsors is extremely difficult - so I thought I might just sponsor myself! luna started in the back of my van in Queensland, and traveled home with me to Bruny Island. I’ve taken this business with me in my ute to work wherever I go - Exmouth, South Australia, across the Nullarbor. Over 7 years I have always travelled and it has come with me.
Now, I am finally home and myself and my business are going to be staying put here on Bruny Island.
You just converted your little sister’s old cubby house into a studio for luna, so you have a space to make your own jewels! How has the learning process been?
Yes !! I feel now I’m home I have so much more time to put into luna. This includes making a space just for luna (not out of the back of my car or in my mum and dad’s lounge room), and the little sisters cubby house is good enough! I spent a couple of weeks gutting it and making space, and finally getting set up to start silver smithing. This is the new chapter I’ve started - I am completely self taught, but the process of making rings is something I love doing. Each piece is different and made with a lot of love. I spend hours out there happily, it’s a creative outlet and almost a way to relax. Just get the tunes on and get in the zone in the cubby house who would have thought!! I am currently working with Bruny Island seaglass or shells I have found, so the foraging for these is also so fun and it feels really special when I’ve completed a piece and it has a part of my home in it. But it’s awesome that I now have a space dedicated to the business - it has already been so beneficial, lots of ideas and projects to come in the cubby :)
If you could set up a pop-up studio anywhere in the world for one month, where would it be?
Ooo I am absolutely dreaming but if it were possible, I’d choose Red Bluff in WA. If I had that view and surf on my doorstep while I was making jewellery I probably wouldn’t make much jewellery haha, but the shells and finds on the beach would be super cute to create jewellery out of too! It’s a beautiful part of the world, where the desert meets the ocean. Super quiet and isolated with amazing surf and beaches. I seem to like those places a lot more than cities I’m finding.
Give us a local’s guide to Bruny Island?
Bruny is so special! Theres so much to see if you like an adventure or getting away from the busy life. You clock on to Bruny time and relax as soon as you get off the ferry I reckon. My favourite beaches would have to be Hansons Beach on the way to Adventure Bay because of the crystal blue water, Cloudy Bay beach because of the surf, and Mable Bay. If you love oysters, you can’t go past Get Shucked! My best advice is to spend more than a couple of days here and explore each nook of Bruny from the bushland to the beaches, because thats where it gets really special.
The best stay you’ve had?
Definitely Namotu Island Resort in Fiji. I was lucky enough to be invited there to surf guide earlier in the year, its a private island surrounded by waves and crystal blue water. Amazing fishing and food, great people, warm weather. Absolute paradise.
You’re a fellow water baby. What has been your favourite experience with the ocean?
I’m so lucky I have so many from surfing and work that I could list. I’m going to pick when I was skippering in Exmouth for a whale shark swim company, and a 4-5m Great White emerged and bow rode the front of my boat. I was looking straight over it gobsmacked, it was amazing! Close second would be surfing Shipsterns for the first time when I was 18, it opened up a new feeling and was the first experience of adrenaline from a wave like this. It’s made me chase that feeling ever since.
3 songs that belong on every road trip playlist…
Copper Head Road - Steve Earle
Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
Good Light in Broome - Neil Murray
You travel the world to surf new waves and are dipping your toes into the big wave scene, where/what is your dream wave?
I would love to one day surf Jaws in Hawaii! But for now I have my eyes on our local wave called Pedra Branca, giving this a crack is a near goal of mine.
One passport stamp you’re most proud of? And one you’re chasing!
Ooo would have to be Mexico! I got to travel here for a month camping down the coast with my big brother and friends. We scored so many waves and had a ball, in a camper and with no real plan. As good as it gets!!
Find ocean-safe jewels from luna here and luna’s instagram here
Stray beautiful,
BEAR.