About RedMānuka

RedMānuka | Rinopai is a silver and gold jewellery workshop at Parapara, Mohua, Golden Bay, New Zealand. The workshop sits on the slopes of Mt Rinopai, which flows from Mt Parapara with the Parapara River nearby. Located on the edge of Kahurangi National Park, Martyn Milligan has lived and worked here since 1989. The Rinopai workshop was established in 1995. Sterling silver is the primary material, alongside gold and semi-precious stones.

The work is primarily native flora — flowers, seedpods, leaves, and vine forms of the New Zealand bush. Pōhutukawa, mānuka, kōwhai, harakeke, kōtukutuku, climbing rata. Thirty years of workshop practice alongside daily interaction with the local bush have produced a working vocabulary of over 160 designs in sterling silver and 9ct gold.

The name comes from the land. Parapara takes its name from the red ochre that occurs in the rivers here — the same red ochre in the jewellery. The hillsides run white with summer-flowering mānuka. Red mānuka: the place and the flower.

Martyn trained under Golden Bay jewellers Michael Ayling and Peter Meares before establishing the Rinopai workshop in 1995. The first pieces entered The Vault, Christchurch that year, Form Gallery, Christchurch the following year. The range is now available through galleries in Christchurch, Wellington, Nelson and Golden Bay, and directly online.

New work moves into smaller scales — the microcosmos that structures the land around Parapara. A telescope and microscope have become part of the design process.

Frith Wilkinson works alongside Martyn and exhibits her own paintings and prints through RedMānuka. Frith is a member of the Paper Scissors Rock Gallery collective in Tākaka, where jewellery, paintings, cards and archival prints are available.

Visit
The RedMānuka workshop and gallery is at Parapara, Golden Bay — open daily in summer and by appointment at other times. Martyn attends the Nelson Market on Saturdays, 9am–1pm, west end.