Rocky business has a unique way of helping koalas

The unique business is among many who have pledged to donate their sales profits following the catastrophic bushfire season.

CRAFTY: Emma-Rose Pye, owner of Penny and Pebble, crafts a pair of her unique koala earrings.

A LOVE for animals big and small is something many can relate to.

But for one Rockhampton-based jewellery designer, her fondness for all things furry has evolved into something much more inspiring.

Following the recent bushfires which devastated Australia and its koala population, Emma-Rose Pye joined other CQ businesses who pledged to donate profits from their sales to various charitable causes.

But instead of selling an existing product, Ms Pye decided that donations raised from her sales would come from the very subject she intended to help – koalas.

The Rockhampton schoolteacher crafts her own speciality-made polymer clay earrings in her spare time under her newly founded business, Penny and Pebbles.

With a range of handmade designs already available, the baking fanatic put to use her unique skill to create earrings in the shape of a koala face.

She later declared that 50 per cent of profits made from the unique jewellery would be donated to the Australian Koala Foundation in a bid to help recovery efforts.

“I’ve been following the AKF and their work for many years. Since the devastating bushfires, they were in even more need of help and I decided to raise some small funds by making koala earrings,” she said. Last month, the AKF estimated there were less than 100,000 koalas left in the wild, with as little as 43,000 residing in the country’s east.

Ms Pye said the koala earrings were popular among locals to the point they had sold out.

However, they would still be made to order.

“I’ve been doing that just to allow myself 1-2 weeks for the production process and busy demand,” she said.

“It takes two and a half hours to get a batch of 10 pairs ready to bake in the oven. Then I paint and wait for the eyelashes to dry. The glue for the earring posts takes 24 hours to dry, so it’s not a quick process.”

So far, sales from the earrings have totalled just over $500, though Ms Pye has little plans to slow down on her heart-warming gesture.

“I hope to continue making koala earrings for a while, I have also been asked to make shirt pins and magnets which I might also consider.”

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