Lure Jewellery was started by Ann Culy in 1995 in a small upstairs studio in Dunedin’s lower Stuart St as a contemporary jewellery workshop and gallery.
Ms Culy’s idea was to have a public space where she and other jewellers could make, display and sell their own work.
Rainer Beneke joined the business in 1998 after working in Central Otago as a jeweller for 10 years — "and I’ve been here ever since", he said.
Ms Culy trained in sculpture and moved into jewellery when she moved to Dunedin in 1988. Mr Beneke trained as a mechanical design engineer in his home country of Germany and, when he moved to New Zealand, he attended evening classes at Otago Polytechnic’s Dunedin School of Art. The pair met when Ms Culy taught his drawing class.
Their workbenches were only a metre apart in the studio and he thought that was a sign of how well they got on, Mr Beneke said.
"It has been quite a fruitful relationship and a friendship that developed quite easily," he said.
Lure had become "somewhat of an institution" in the inner city, Ms Culy said.
People who had bought jewellery as students were coming back to buy graduation presents for their children.
Being a jeweller was a way of creating art while also being in business, she said.
"The fact we can earn money while making art still amazes me.
"It is quite a portable way of expressing yourself," Ms Culy said.
While it is the end of Lure, it is not the end of their jewellery.
Ms Culy set up a studio at her St Clair home after last year’s Covid-19 lockdown.
"I’ve got a bench set up for Rainer when he wants to come and work with me so we don’t lose that connection," she said.
Mr Beneke is going full circle, heading back to a studio in Central Otago. He believed the region was a source of inspiration for his work, he said.
Leaving Lure and going their separate ways was a hard decision — "it has its own separate grief," Ms Culy said.
"We’ve got to the stage in life where we want to focus on what is important," she said.
Dunedin was a great place to run a small business, especially with its loyal customer base, Ms Culy said.
Asked what was the highlight of their time together, they both agreed it was a joint exhibition they held in the early 2000s which travelled through the country.
While Lure would be open until at least Christmas, it was going to take a while to clean out 25 years of stuff, Mr Beneke said.
"I’ve already taken a load of stuff out, but after a long time there are a few memories to go through," he said.
