shane hinton – manufacturing jeweller

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Shane has been handcrafting jewellery for over 40 years and has a wealth of knowledge and experience, and a reputation that has spread by word of mouth throughout Adelaide and beyond. You can read his story below.

He is the designer and maker of his Initially Range of jewellery.

Shane has now moved from his former location in Balhannah where he served the Hills Community for over 20 years. He now consults from his Studio here on the Farm and is available for consultations by Appointment only.

You are welcome to make a booking using our on-line booking system below, or please contact us by email with any queries.

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Shane’s Jewellery Heritage

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John King Hinton’s Pawnbroking Business was established in 1864 at 90 Gawler Place, Adelaide. John’s family adopted Shane’s Grandfather, Joe and brought him into the Pawnbroking Industry where Joe became very successful.

“We have nostalgic photographs of Joe with his adopted brothers showing their newly acquired John Tan Safe”, says Shane.

The Safe was brought out from England on a sailing ship and delivered by horse and drey to their Gawler Place shop early in the early 1900’s.

Joe was an entrepreneur and eventually became the owner of the Pawnbroking Business over his adopted brothers. He owned several race horses and was a well-known identity in Adelaide – not only in the horse racing industry, but as a well respected business man.

“Things were fairly wild back then.” Shane explains. “According to my father, Joe carried a 38 pistol revolver back in those early days. My Dad came into the Business when they were trading from two shops as Hinton Bros. in Waymouth Street and also in Gawler Place.”

Over time Joe formed a business relationship with his son, Roy (Shane’s father) and established Hinton & Son. Wanting to remove the stigma of Pawnbroking they transitioned to jewellery as Jewellery Retailers. 

“Dad, although a watchmaker also had a keen eye for beautiful jewellery. He commissioned two jewellers in Adelaide at that time, Colin Burgess and Bill Marriot to make stock for the Shop. The mounts were beautiful – saw pierced and chisel engraved styles that were the fashion of the time.” says Shane. “Later, my half-brother Daryl joined the Business as a watchmaker. and became part of the Business after Grandpa’s passing.”

“Dad always had an attraction for Adelaide Arcade and had a desire to move the Business there for greater exposure.”  Shane recalls. 

So on Shane’s 1st Birthday, Hinton & Son moved to Adelaide Arcade in 1965. Shane spent a lot of time in his early years in Adelaide Arcade, as he would frequently visit or go to work with his Dad and his brother. He remembers that his Dad had several special drawers in his Safe that contained amazing pieces of Jewellery. They were exquisite pieces that his Dad had bought over the years, being from the Edwardian and Victorian Periods. As a treat when Shane was in the Shop, Roy would pull these drawers out and Shane would look at them in awe and study them, trying to comprehend how they were made and put together. So in 1979 Shane joined the Business part-time and then full-time in 1980.

Shane tried to get an Apprenticeship with manufacturing jewellers, but no-one would take him on because they knew he would go back and work for his father. Shane went to Trade School and Roy set Shane up with a Manufacturing Jewellery bench and tools upstairs above the  Shop, and from there Shane began to experiment in replicating the processes he’d seen in these stunning pieces. As there was no-one around in Adelaide that could teach Shane chisel-engraving at that time, Shane began the slow and arduous process of finding the correct steel to make the chisels and learning how to sharpen them, then becoming proficient in their use. There were only a few stone setters in Adelaide, but they weren’t willing to teach, so Shane sat down and mastered that technique through years of persistence and perseverance.  So with his engraving and stone setting skills, Shane started to generate his own Business within the Retail Jewellery Store, primarily being self-taught in jewellery fabrication and construction and its repair.

In 1987 Roy at age 75, wanted to retire and Daryl’s eyesight was struggling with watch work, so the Arcade Business was closed. Shane worked for a manufacturing jeweller for a few years, but in 1989 decided to open his own Business as Hinton Jewellers, and set up in Gays Arcade in 1989 and 3 years later in Gawler Place. He was commissioned by many jewellers throughout Adelaide to make and repair for them, and was a diamond-setter for nearly all of them at that time. 

Being in such high demand, Shane chose to make himself less accessible by moving his Workshop to his home at Summertown, where he could have less interruptions and get more work done. In 2003 he moved to Balhannah, proposing to operating with the door closed as a Manufacturing Jeweller for other jewellers, but then locals started to knock on the door and enquire if he could do work for them.

In 2005 he closed his Business to the trade (except for chisel engraving), and became a commission-based Retail Jeweller, manufacturing for the local community and beyond.