Introducing Joan Houndlow

We've had a change of plans, houndies.

This was meant to be a Christmas in July release. Then Joan Houndlow turned up, fully formed, shining in her resin coar and refusing to wait until December. So instead, we're doing something better.
This Wednesday at 7pm, two signature brooch designs land together for the first time: your beloved Rita Houndworth, and the brand new Joan Houndlow. Both are laser-cut wood, both are embellished with artworks, and both are named, as always, for the leading ladies of the 1920s and '30s who knew a thing or two about making an entrance.

Joan is the new girl, but she's no less confident for it. Where Rita gives you the full, elegant stance, Joan is a head-and-neck portrait silhouette, all poise, profile, and quiet drama, like a cameo brought to life. Like Rita, she is designed so that greyhound, whippet, and Italian greyhound owners alike will see their houndie in her lines. No single breed claims her. She belongs to all of you.

She's a companion piece to Rita, not a replacement, offering two different ways of capturing the same quiet elegance, so you can choose the one (or both) that speaks to you.

Both Rita and Joan brooches in this drop are made using a technique that's new for Sass Artworks, and honestly, one I'm a little obsessed with:

1. Laser-cut wood: each brooch begins life as a precisely cut silhouette of my original artwork
2. UV printing, one at a time: each brooch is individually set up and printed by hand, not run through as a batch, with the design printed directly onto the wood in full, rich colour
3. Hand-finished resin: finally, each piece is hand-poured with a glass-like resin coating

The result is a depth of colour and a luxe, glossy finish that flat wood or acrylic simply can't give you. It catches the light. It looks like tiny wearable art - because that's exactly what it is.

Every single brooch is an individual artwork. Because of the hand-finishing process, no two pieces will ever be identical. The one you add to your cart on Wednesday night is the only one of its kind that will ever exist.

That's not marketing spin, it's just how resin behaves in human hands. It means when you wear your Joan Houndlow brooch, you're wearing something genuinely one-of-one; not "limited edition" but singular.

If you've spent any time searching for whippet jewellery, greyhound brooches, or Italian greyhound gifts, you'll know how rare it is to find pieces that capture the actual shape of these dogs. That elegant, tucked-up silhouette, that particular curve of spine and leg. Rita and Joan were both designed from the ground up to celebrate that silhouette, not generic "dog jewellery" with a sighthound label slapped on.

Each brooch is designed and made by me, personally, from my studio. No factory lines, no mass production, no two customers ever getting the exact same piece.

Sass Artworks is an independent, Australian, sighthound-obsessed studio designing original art, jewellery and homewares for greyhound, whippet and Italian greyhound lovers. Every bespoke piece is designed and hand-finished by founder Shelley.