The two women stood at the pop-up jewellery stall, weeping. They must have been a curious sight. But neither cared.

Ami Tsoi was there to sell jewellery she had designed and made by hand. But she ended up sharing her life story with a customer instead.

The piece the woman had been eyeing was part of The Blessings series. The tassel earrings in the collection are inspired by the tassels on the garments used by priests in the Old Testament of the Bible that represented holiness. Each earring has a name. The one Ami and her customer bonded over was called Lydia.

Ami at a weekend market in New Zealand. It was the first time she sold her handiwork and got to see others appreciating her craft.

One of the tassel earrings from The Blessings collection.

The name is particularly meaningful to Ami.

“I was engaged once. My ex- fiancé had given me a lot of promises. He even said our girl would be called Lydia.”

When Ami was designing the earring, she had asked God for the name of that piece.  

Ami modelling the Imperfect bracelet, the Olive Branch necklace and the Twelve Stones necklace.

“I always involve God in the design and craftsmanship of my pieces. 

“When I asked Him what the tassel earrings should be called, He named it ‘Lydia’.

“I told Him, ‘God, You are so cruel. Why would You tell me this name of all the Bible women’s names? Do You want to taunt me with what I do not have?’

“I was crying, but then He said, ‘Lydia is not your daughter’s name. Her name is another name.’ I felt His promise. Even though I don’t see it now, it is His promise to me. That brought a lot of healing to me.”

When Ami shared the story with her customer, the woman – who was also single – identified with it.

“I told her, ‘God knows your heart, your desire.’ We prayed together at the booth and we cried together. We were blessing each other.”

When Ami started Deror Jewellery (Hebrew for “freedom”), she wanted a brand that delivered revelations from God. That is why each piece she designs has a story that inspires.

Ami, who loved to draw as a child, picked up jewellery-making as a hobby.

But behind the brand itself is also a story, one of embracing the love of the Father and the freedom that comes with that unconditional love.

“Do you want to dance with me?”

The year was 2018. Ami was stressed and stretched at work and in church. Her Hong Kong job in investment banking was intense and the hours were long.

In church, she was involved in several different ministries, from missions to discipleship and fund-raising.

Ami in her heady corporate days, when dressing well and living well also meant working long hours.

“I was really depressed at work. During rush hour, when I saw a lot of people in the MTR, I would become depressed. I didn’t even know why.

“Maybe it was burnout. Maybe it was the suffocation from meeting up to the expectations to be a good girl,” said the 36-year-old who was born in Hong Kong and lives there.

The year before, she had attended a seven-day Fatherheart Ministries school at the behest of her best friend where she had learnt about the love of God the Father.

As she contemplated her state and what she had learnt, she wondered: If I am so loved and approved by God, why do I feel like this?

That was when she decided to quit her job and take three months to explore the Father’s love.

“I felt in my heart like God was pulling me to go. I wanted to be free from all this.”

The middle child who had always lived by the book surprised her parents with her decision to enrol at the Fatherheart Ministries’ Inheriting the Nations (INS) training school in New Zealand.

Ami’s decision to go to New Zealand for three months and join the Fatherheart Ministries’ INS training school was one that puzzled her friends and family. But it would change the trajectory of her life.

“In New Zealand, God was so close. Every day, He would speak to me very gently, very intimately. I had never experienced such a long, intimate period of time with Him.”

One night she was chatting with a friend there and the next day God talked to her about the very topic of the conversation the night before.

“It was as if He was in the conversation!”

On another occasion, she learnt Scottish folk dancing.

“When I woke up the next morning, God asked me, ‘Do you want to dance with Me?’

“It was a very sweet invitation. I had always seen Him as a frightening God who would punish me. But this was so, so sweet.

During her time in New Zealand, Ami got to experience God’s Father love in a way she never had before.

“I used to see myself as a servant. But during those three months, God tangibly showed me that I was really His daughter. That love, that approval, helped me to open my heart to receive His love and allowed me to acknowledge my heart, my desires and my feelings towards God.”

Some of those encounters with God would become the basis for Ami’s design ideas.  

A little girl again  

When Ami went to New Zealand, she brought material for making jewellery with her, as well as pieces she had made. Jewellery-making was her hobby.

Classmates who saw her work asked her to make jewellery for them. When she set up a pop-up stall at a night market, her creations sold quickly.

Each of Ami’s creations tells a story. Her hope is that the meaning behind each piece will give meaning to those who wear it as well.

“People appreciated my jewellery and the meaning behind the pieces. It gave me so much joy to share with people and it ignited something inside me.”

As a child, Ami had loved to draw. But her mother had discouraged her because she believed that artists have a harder time making a living. So Ami suppressed her creativity and went into banking and finance instead.

“I realised God had put that creative desire in me when I was young. It felt like God was allowing me to be a little girl again. It gave me pure joy.”

Ami’s jewellery displayed at her first pop-up stall in Hong Kong.

When Ami returned to Hong Kong, she did not go back to banking. Instead, she took a few part-time jobs. Then, Covid swept across the world.

“During Covid, I told God, ‘Why don’t You give me a job? I know You can.’ One day, He asked me, ‘What brings you joy? What do you like to do?’”

Although her jewellery can be bought online, Ami likes to set up pop-up stalls where she can interact with her customers and share the stories behind her pieces.

Jewellery-making came to mind immediately. But Ami hesitated.

“You cannot make it a full-time job. It would not pay the bills at all.”

But Ami’s church would not let the dream that God gave her die. Not only did they pray for her, they let her use a room in the church as her studio.

A church friend became her model for her jewellery photo shoot for free. Another took time off work to help her when she set up a pop-up stall.

“I realised that I did not have much capital to start off with but God blessed me with so many people so that I could have my dream and be a little girl again.

“My desire was His because He gave this desire to me.

“When I was in finance, I felt like my arm was dislocated and I had to go to work everyday with a limp. But when I am making jewellery, I feel like my arm is properly in place. It is very natural. I feel like I am flowing with the Spirit.”

Twelve Stones

Asked which piece of jewellery she created holds a special place in her heart, Ami cites the Twelve Stones collection, her first design for Deror Jewellery.

“The day I woke up after making a decision to set up my business, God gave me this line: Today you are going to cross the Jordan River.

“He had given me the design of the Twelve Stones in my dream.”

The Twelve Stones earrings and necklace which God designed and downloaded to Ami.

The collection is inspired by Joshua 4:1-5:12. After crossing the raging Jordan River that had been miraculously parted in order that the Israelites could possess the Promised Land, Joshua tells a man from each of the 12 tribes of Israel to take up a stone from the middle of the dry riverbed.

The 12 stones were set up at Gilgal as memorial stones so that the generations after would know that “the hand of the Lord is might” and they would fear God forever.

“It was exactly what I was facing opening a business during Covid. No one was going out. Now You ask me to open my business? Are You kidding me, God?

“But when you step into it, like the Israelites who stepped into the river then it parted, only then do you realise He is real.”

When Ami’s pastor first drove her with all her jewellery-making material to her studio in the church, the pair had to cross Victoria Harbour.

“I thought: This is how I cross the Jordan River.”

God would show Ami her Promised Land as well. On the first day she worked at her church studio, someone offered her the last spot at a weekend market. She had 14 days to set up her business – create a website, do photo shoots, design and make jewellery and get name cards printed.

Church friends came alongside her every step of the way to help. Even so, she only managed to make one piece. Yet over the two-day market, she managed to pre-sell about $2,000 worth of jewellery.

“It was God with me in my whole business. If I had studied jewellery design, I can brag. But all this is what Father God created with me.”

Letting go

Even so, the leap from the monied world of finance to the uncertainty of running a small business took getting used to.

Beyond adjusting to a more modest lifestyle, Ami had to re-think her identity which had been tied to her job.

Ami (left) at her brother’s wedding.

When her younger brother got married and she could only afford to give him jewellery she had made instead of solid gold jewellery during the tea ceremony, Ami grieved.

“I cried so much. I didn’t know my choice would affect my family. For myself, I’m okay. But when I cannot bless my family like before, my heart was so sad.

“But Papa God was just so sweet. He said, ‘What if I don’t want you to bless him financially but through your presence?’”

God has since shown Ami how her presence can be a blessing by bringing people to her pop-up stalls who needed to hear the stories of love, hope and faith behind each piece of jewellery.

This is why, though her business is primarily online or sold on consignment in places like the National Gallery in Singapore, she still sets up pop-up stalls whenever she can.

She now has a studio of her own and two employees, as well as clients who commission her to design jewellery for them.

Ami (left) at a pop-up stall.

“Now I can tell my mum I also make custom-made designs like engagement rings with real diamonds.

“I show her my products and tell her I am doing real business. She is more okay about it now, less worried for me.

“It is all by the grace of God.”