Founder, Kingsley Wallman, returned to Sydney after more than 10 years living in the UK and the USA, working as a corporate lawyer. He had decided to leave the law and follow his dreams. During his years abroad, he and his architect wife, Genevieve Lilley, had noticed the advances in modern Australian architecture and design, but also the paucity of truly modern jewellery. In particular, they were intrigued by the lack of interest in Australia’s national gemstone, opal, and its unsympathetic treatment by jewellery designers. As the son of one of Australia’s opal pioneers, Kingsley was determined to rescue the national gem from the tourist souvenir basket. With his love of modern design and coloured gemstones, he decided to retrain as a gemmologist and to create venerari – with Genevieve using her architectural skills to set the creative direction of the business and become its principal designer.

venerari opened its Strand Arcade store in October 2004. The following year, its jewellery workshop opened alongside Genevieve’s architecture studio, taking the design and manufacture of their jewellery in-house. Kingsley studied and qualified as a gemmologist and jewellery valuer and continues to source gemstones for venerari. Slowly the word spread that venerari was doing something interesting with Australian opal and other coloured gemstones. The business grew and has gone from strength to strength as its found its tiny design niche. Although the direction of the venerari has expanded to encompass other coloured gemstones, in particular, Australian sapphire and pink diamonds, the vision and passion of its founders has never wavered.