Soul Design established itself in 2004 as a world first in creating inspirational 'soul necklaces', channeled and handcrafted by soul-centred silversmiths Margaret Ninness and Dan van Wylich. It has recently expanded to include the Solarfire range of ready made energy pieces.
Soul necklaces, the core of their work, are created in their workshop at home in New Zealand. They are an innovative and exciting way of seeing your true inner being made into form. Bold, beautiful, and rivetting in design, this process is performed with the highest possible level of guidance and integrity.

Margaret and Dan have spent 25 and 30 years respectively developing their inner selves and spiritual gifts. This background in energy training is the foundation of their soul necklace work. To make a soul necklace they surrender to the divine and become available to receive your soul's impulse ... standing in true alignment with your energy as the piece unfolds. This has been a humbling path of enormous challenge and growth for them, having no teachers, just inner guidance and hands-on learning. From choosing genuine gemstones sourced from around the planet to creating the design and forging it in silver or gold, the soul necklace process is always intense and performed with love and integrity. This is the reason their creations are alive and vibrant with life and healing power for the wearer.

Currently Soul Design is morphing into a centre for creative, like-minded people who also wish to make a difference by sharing their unique ideas, gifts and businesses with the world.

The roots of Soul Design are planted firmly in my personal journey. Looking back, I don't know in truth if I grew it or It grew me.

I will write the story in full, for those who have the interest to know the whole picture. For me, it is without doubt the most humble, magical, profound and absolutely divine privilege to be doing this work and to be a part of people's life journeys in the way that I am. My faith and trust in this process is absolute. 1992 was the beginning. I burst into creative expression with two new passions... making recycled paper and playing with gemstone chips. My first attempts at gemstone trees were made out of fuse wire, and I sold my first pair of crystal point earrings to my daughter's relieving kindergarten teacher whom I sat next to on a bus trip. About a year later, my (then) husband and I bought a Fish Supply business and I was selling quartz crystals out of my sunroom (plus parenting, healing, training/instructing in our martial art and counselling). Bizarre combo. A friend who asked me if I was going to be a 'crystal visionary' was the inspiration behind the name Crystal Visions. I went on to find an enthusiastic business partner who - although committed - unfortunately couldn't step inside the 'crystal' impulse.

The business was sold, but the new owner's life turned to mud and we had to reposses the crystals (ouch!). On a direct parallel, my external life also broke down and I found myself separated, penniless with two young children and with lots of rocks in boxes and an old car! In spite of the external circumstances, I felt exhilarated and free inside. I started selling crystals on a friend's front lawn or on the road side, until they were unexpectedly stolen out of my car one evening when I was too tired to unpack. As I didn't have insurance, that was the absolute end of Crystal Visions (and my extra income!). Not however, the end of my crystal journey. Inwardly driven and undeterred, I did an intensive small business course, nutted out a business plan and acquired a Government grant to start another business. Crystal Visions energetically morphed into Crystal Art, and I started a new phase in my life and became fully self employed. Our rented home had extra rooms previously used as a doctor's surgery with a separate entrance, reception and parking, so it seemed perfect for a home business.

Not So!!! The Christchurch City Council turned up on my opening day with a piece of paper demanding I close within two weeks, or face charges. A Dutch neighbour who had a grudge against our house owner (an Indian woman doctor) had complained that I was retailing in a residential area. Resource Consent was required. Fighting for the chance to launch my dream, I turned the shop into a healing clinic- which was permitted apparently - and sold crystals 'therapeutically'. Most importantly in terms of this story, I started beading necklaces. THE FIRST SOUL NECKLACE was inspired by the dream of a friend. "Can you make me a special necklace I have seen in my dream?", was the request. "I want it for your wedding." It was 2002 and I was about to marry Dan ... (yay!). A week later, out popped a necklace like none I had ever seen. We called it the Chandelier! A fierce woman with a gift for healing and a wild personality, Kay launched into a journey that was astonishing, even to us. She wore it everywhere. At home alone, she wore it in her dressing gown after a shower. At 2.00am on sleepless nights, she would get dressed and go to the BP station for coffee wearing - you guessed it - her chandelier. She noticed that when she wore it, she changed state. She also noticed that when she spoke to other people (wearing her necklace) other people went into an altered state! It changed from "Chandelier" to her Working Necklace. The effect on herself and others was extraordinary. We watched, intrigued. We bought a family house, and a year later I had a call from the States. "Can I have a necklace like Kay's? was the request. She had seen a photo. "Absolutely not" was my reply. Confusion ensued on both sides. "Why not?" she persisted. I was thrown. "Because it is her" I answered. "Then make me one that is ME" came the reply! So I did. In flooded information about her physiology, her vibratory 'mix' and her core energy. I intuited the appropriate colours and gemstones, and threaded up her necklace. So far so good.

Two months later, I had another phone call, this time from Kentucky. A friend of the friend. This time, however, everything came unstuck. The centre piece I chose made me feel physically sick. I had my head down the toilet, nauseous and vomiting. I tried changing the centre stone for another, but each time I did the necklace energy collapsed. It was go with it, or give the whole thing up. I threaded it together, said a silent prayer, and sent it off. A month went by ... I heard nothing. I had to ring America and ask the woman if she had received her necklace. She was FURIOUS. "Why didn't you finish it?" She raged. "You didn't finish it!" Apparently it arrived in a broken box, still pinned but in separate pieces. The jump rings were intact, but not joined together. Unreal. And unpaid for. All very odd. I felt sick again. This time with fear! It was over before it had even started. "Send it back", I said. It arrived ... and she was exactly right. The necklace was meticulously pinned in the bent box, and in pieces. Not a good look. Not a good sign. I was stunned. I rang her back up. "I have to ask ... what's your day job?". "I'm an anesthetist" came the voice down the line. Woah!!! Time stopped. A huge wave of energy smashed into me and swallowed me up. I was dizzy, sweaty, terrified. Somebody who separated people from their consciousness as a day job, had just received their necklace in meticulous pieces. ??? I rethreaded her necklace, added some beads for protection and bought a beautiful Kiwi box (in case she didn't like the necklace). The parcel went off. Heart in mouth... I waited.

As it turned out, the woman concerned had gone into a healing crises and had to stop work. Once she opened up to herself on a deeper level, realised some childhood griefs and met herself more fully, she turned the corner and was embracing her life when her necklace returned. She sent me a beautiful thank you card (which touched me deeply) with some money and as far as I know she and her necklace lived happily ever after. Phew! Life had shifted a quantum. I started beading these special necklaces whilst still selling crystals, trying to decide what to call them... "soul reflected necklaces" ... "soul INFUSED necklaces" and so on, until the day when someone rang and asked for a Soul Necklace. Bingo!

I went to school to do a year in jewellery design and to learn to solder. I was painfully aware that I needed to learn how to meld metals to capture the sacred geometry and designs the soul would need for its journey. I had learn to combine my spiritual healing gifts with meticulous silver smithing techniques. THE BIRTHING OF SOUL DESIGN LTD was both profound and painful. After my solo dance to "My Immortal" one night, a Venezuelan woman came up to me crying. Her 16 year old son was at home (here in NZ) in the final stages of a brain tumour. He had just gone blind and had been sent home from hospital to die. "My Immortal" was his favourite song.

When invited to meet him, lying propped on the couch, it was his Dignity I met first. He couldn't see, he couldn't sit up, he could no longer feed himself, but he was Present. So unbelievably present. No drama, no need for pity, this kid was opening his heart wider moment by moment. It was heartbreaking to see the desperate love his mother bore him and to see the threads of his astral body unraveling. He was dying so openly I felt somehow tiny. How they could invite a complete stranger into their lives right now? I don't think I could have done it. Two weeks later when he died, I finally understood the gift I had been given and how I needed to die to myself. I cried. And I cried. I realised my busyness of racing out to dance, throwing meals into the oven for the family, racing from pillar to post etc etc was stopping me from being with myself. So I chose to give it up. The dancing I loved, the busyness, the justification for not listening. And I sat on the lawn, waiting for the New Dance to emerge out of the stillness. Please. Everyday I sat on the lawn, with no customers (I was still selling crystals as a day job), going broke. One day I had a phone call from a woman wanting to buy some crystals to start her own business. Did I know of anyone wholesaling? Three days later, every single crystal was sold and I had two hollow, empty rooms. So I went back to sit on the lawn. In silence. Inside this silence was born Soul Design. By my soul's design, by that boy's soul's design, and by yours. In allowing these words to find a home, I thank you. Life, by our Soul's Design, had found a new channel. With a pair of bent pliers, a door jam and a truck load of faith, the next phase of my Journey had begun. 1st June, 2004, I recommitted my life to being available to serve, whatever form it took. And I opened the doors. Have you seen the Gallery?