Melissa Forde is the creative jewellery maker for Ace of Swords Jewellery.

Residing in the creative region of Byron Bay in Northern NSW, Australia.

Melissa started making jewellery as a teenager and quickly become obsessed with the miniature creative world of jewellery fabrication.

"The art room at my high school had a left over kiln and powdered glass from the enamelling trend of the 1970's, my art teacher encouraged me to experiment and then shared his tool collection with me over the summer holidays. With no YouTube, pure determination and a lot of frustration,I taught myself"

Melissa went on to complete an Associate Diploma of Jewellery and object design from Enmore Design Centre in Sydney, 1995.

Moving to Byron Bay in 2002, Melissa established Metal Club, a silversmithing school for children and teenagers at the Federal Village Gallery. 10 years of creative silversmithing with hundreds of young people was a highlight of Melissa's jewellery career.

What inspires Melissa is the language and symbology of jewellery and how we adorn ourselves in very individual ways for power, protection, reflection and beauty.

"Jewellery has a way of creating an aura of our individual expression, it is an intimate way that we connect with ourselves, bringing beauty and meaning to our everyday. People take great pleasure in how they arrange their jewels and love to explain what each piece represents, where it was from, who gave it to them, who wore it before them, what the gemstones represent. I love the way people light up when they share this with me, and the reason why I enjoy selling my work in person at craft markets"