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Share Your Story: Roy Mendoza - RedRoy Barcelona
My biggest passion is my business. But outside of that I am a big fan of photography. I love going out and taking photos of anything that seems unsual or just catches my eye. I also love old cars.
My business is mainly stainless steel and titanium jewellery. Most of what I do caters to men but it
is also unisex and I make a lot of women’s earrings and necklaces.
I make everything at home in my small workshop. You could call some of the jewellery mechanical or industrial. I just go into my workshop and make whatever comes to mind at that moment.
My business is my life. I have been working with metals since I was a child. Growing up in
Santiago, Chile I used to make my own toys, robots and things for the house. As a teenager I
started making jewellery in aluminium, copper and silver.
By the age of 20 I had opened a small shop which I had for a few years until I decided that I needed to look for new ideas and moved to Barcelona, Spain. It was in Barcelona where I really found myself. I started to create mechanical or industrial jewellery in stainless steel and then titanium. I had my own workshop and did quite a few street markets and Christmas markets. This is where I also started to sell online through ETSY.
In Barcelona I met my Australian wife, who helped me out in all my markets as my English is not
great and she, being a teacher and a great seller managed to convince me to come to the Central Coast. And here I am, since December 2016.
I chose this type of business as I have the freedom to do what I really love.
My proudest achievement in business so far was when a Chilean newspaper featured my work in a 4 page spread.
My business is unique as I feel that the type of jewellery I make is just starting to take off. When I look around at the jewellery shops here in Australia, and I’ve worked for a couple since I’ve been here, I feel as if they’re not open to new ideas or concepts. They seem to only work with gold and diamonds and don’t wish to move ahead with the times, looking down on anyhting that is different.
At the moment, I am the hand crafter in my business and my wife helps with the selling and marketing side of things.
In 5 years time, I’d like to have my own shop, perhaps in a little house near the beach where I
would work in the workshop and my wife could work on the sales from home rather than having to
go out to work to Sydney everyday.
The one piece of advice I would give to someone who is just starting out is to believe in what you do and don’t give up when times get hard.
Roy Mendoza
RedRoy Barcelona
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