Busy Head earrings: Therese Smith creates wearable pet portraits

Dogs, cats, guinea pigs, bin chickens — there’s no limit to the quirky, adorable and fully customisable illustrations that Therese Smith turns into funky earrings at her Bardon home studio.

Therese Smith is behind Busy Head, a Brisbane accessories label that lets you wear a customised portrait of your pet as earrings. Picture: AAP/Renae Droop

Accessories designer Therese Smith has a busy head.

It’s busy because she battles an anxiety disorder that sometimes wracks her brain, and because of the fabulous oversize earrings that are her signature.

The 29-year-old makes and sells them at her home-studio in Bardon. And the name of her accessories label? Busy Head, of course.

“When I first started doing illustrations it had a really calming effect on me, so it felt really natural to then call my business, where I turn my drawings into earrings, Busy Head,”

says Therese, who launched her label in 2016.

Her first design is still one of her favourites.

Busy Head creator Therese Smith with her kelpie Mia. Picture: AAP/Renae Droop

“I’m an avid plant collector and I wanted earrings that were plants hanging in baskets hanging from my ears,” Therese laughs.

“They didn’t exist, so I made them myself and wore them everywhere. People would stop me in the street asking where they were from and how they could get some. That’s when the Busy Head seed was planted.”

Each design is hand-drawn, then printed on to polystyrene film that can be cut out by hand and shrunk. The prints turn into lightweight but firm charms mounted on custom ear hooks.

The designs come from Therese’s busy brain, which actually sounds like a pretty cool place.

There’s lots of plants, martinis, Australian flora and fauna and even a snag on bread.

That said, her biggest sellers are customised pet portraits, an idea inspired by Therese’s best friend, her kelpie Mia. “I like to say that Mia is the head of company morale here at Busy Head,” Therese says.

“I think people use fashion as a means of self expression, so why not express your love for your animal in your attire?”

She has made guinea pigs, llamas in bandannas and a slew of adorable and “beautifully ugly” cats and dogs.

“The great thing about Busy Head earrings is I make everything fully customisable. I can draw fun things in, so if your dog likes to wear a Hawaiian T-shirt, let’s put it in. Anything goes.”

Therese fell in love with drawing when she was sketching artefacts as an archaeology student at the University of Queensland.

“I graduated in 2012 but then I realised I ultimately wanted to do something a little more creative,” she says.

“My mum was a seamstress so I’ve been making clothes and all manner of

things since I was a kid.”

Busy Head has garnered such a loyal fan base that it’s now Therese’s full-time job and her designs are stocked in boutiques from Cairns to Hobart.

“For all of my designs, there is no typical customer,” Therese says.

“I get everything from younger kids (to) men and women who you would presume don’t want to be outrageous buying enormous cactuses to hang from their ears. It’s great.”