MAYAGEMS & BEADS

SUSAN STORM has a family background that many have trouble believing. She is the daughter of the late Harry Bloom, wartime correspondent and Reuters photographer, civil rights champion and ardent campaigner against South Africa's anti-apartheid regime, and award winning writer of Transvaal Episode, (which he wrote during his years as a lawyer working in the African townships of Alexandria and Orlando) and King Kong, the smash hit musical starring Miriam Makeba. Susan was born in Prague and given the name Storm because her perceptive father, who'd seen the name on a door plaque, liked it enough to believe that if his infant daughter ever became a writer, Storm would sound terrific. She grew up in Africa, and dropped the Bloom name after marriage, but the desire to travel, write and photograph runs deep in the extended family's veins.

She lived and worked in England, then emigrated to Australia, where she was a travel writer & photographer for many years, working for many Australian and international publications. She’s photographed Nelson Mandela, & Imram Khan & Naomi Campbell & camels & komodo dragons & babies & belly dancers & food. She’s won awards for her writing & photography... (more on photography page)

Her photographic trips into the world of the tribal women of India, and her childhood in Africa fuelled her fascination with their jewellery & Mayagems began with the inclusion of tribal trinkets and rare and unique beads in her luggage.

DAVID SUTHERLAND ran a gallery in his previous incarnation, but now runs Mayagems with Susan, designing jewellery and sourcing unique beads and artefacts on their frequent travels. They met during Susan's sell out photography exhibition on Indian Tribal Women. Their lives have never been the same as the bead bug took hold and expanded their lives in many different directions.