If you were at Wadadli Fest a couple weekends ago, you heard Krystal Walter’s Embellish line name-checked a time or two during the event’s fashion show as the models rocked her jewellery. We bring the young Antiguan who prides herself on the uniqueness of her pieces into sharper focus.

“People ask me what’s my style,” she told The Daily OBSERVER, “I say, ‘anything different’.”

While always artistic, Walter doesn’t speak of jewellery design as something she’s wanted to do since childhood. But while living in New York for some time, she and a friend decided to sell T-shirts at a street fair. They hit on the idea to create some accessories to complement the shirts and liven up their display.

“We got the material just to try our hand,” she said. “… We were just experimenting.”

Well, given the way that best laid plans have of going astray, it’ll probably surprise no one that the experiment became the main attraction.

“We sold more earrings than T-shirts,” she said.

She and her friend remained teamed as they hit other street fairs right up to Krystal’s return home in 2006, when they necessarily parted ways.

Shortly before returning though, they were invited to show their jewellery at an event in the Hamptons, and were so well received, she knew she’d found something worth sticking with. Embellish, sold mostly to private clients and available at Footnotes, lives; though the demands of life and motherhood means that Walter hasn’t been able to focus all of her energies in that direction. Still, she promotes the line online and dreams of her pieces finding a market in the wider Caribbean.

They’re dramatic pieces with leather, crystals, semi-precious stones, glass, beads, even foil as her material of choice.

“I’m above costume but below diamonds, so somewhere in between,” she said of the Embellish brand.

As for her “inspiration,” she said, “(it) comes from the material itself.”

But it doesn’t end there; a particular colour palette may appeal or the prospective wearer’s personality may exert its influence. In fact, by the end of this interview, she’d promised to make a piece featuring the ankh for this interviewer; a piece, she’d rightly read, befitting said interviewer’s personal taste.

Clearly, for Walter, her pieces are particular to the individual, and just like no two individuals are alike, she said, “I don’t do repeats.”

If her designs are alike in any way, it’s this: they are dramatic.

“My designs, you cannot be passive,” Walter asserted, describing her pieces as daring, showstoppers. “I encourage people who are a bit introverted to wear my pieces.”

The satisfaction of this approach comes in the response from the client on receiving the piece designed with them in mind.

“Their eyes light up,” she said, “that truly does it for me.”

More than a business, jewellery design clearly taps into some more instinctive urge.

“I need a creative outlet,” Walter said. “I think these earrings are the best outlet for me because I get to see it come alive.”

One of the main challenges she faces is sourcing material.

“I have to actually touch the material,” she said. “If I can’t bend it to my will, I can’t use it.”

But mostly she has to source from overseas, which affects the cost of production, which is a problem as she’s concerned with keeping the items at an accessible price.

So, as she navigates this and other challenges, she’s careful that her promotional efforts don’t outstrip her ability to deliver.

As she did with Wadadli Fest, she picks opportunities to show her pieces and indicated her interest in matching and showcasing her pieces alongside other designers. She would like to see more opportunities to connect artisans in this growing trade with the tourism market, opportunities for them to find a market generally. But for right now, she said, “word of mouth is a wonderful thing.” It’s worked for her so far.