MY LIGHT BULB MOMENT
Annie HAAk is a 61-year-old jewellery designer and founder of Annie Haak Designs. She lives in Hampshire with her husband, Johnnie, 62. They have three grown-up children. AT 21 I was married. I then spent many years raising three children as a farmer’s wife, so I never really had my own career — or travelled.
Yet I was always creative and used to sell paintings. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t give me purpose.
Then, in April 2007, my husband had a major motorbike accident in Bali — he was visiting our daughter, who was working there at the time. It caused two brain haemorrhages.
I got the call from the hospital and was on a flight in three hours. It was terrifying. I had no idea where to go. No doctors spoke English. I thought he was going to die. It felt like my life was falling apart.
Just a few months before, my parents had passed away suddenly. I’d also had a hysterectomy. I was in shock, struggling to cope with two great griefs — and my own sense of ageing. At 50, I was at a juncture. I felt so lost. It was a midlife crisis.
For weeks, I visited my husband in hospital daily. As a distraction, I sketched. I kept thinking about a charm bracelet my parents gave Lapis lazuli gold bracelet stack, £378, anniehaakdesigns.co.uk me years before. I started drawing little guardian angels. Bali is known as the ‘island of the gods’. Never was I more in need of good luck. Then something amazing happened. The taxi driver who took me to hospital told me his brother was a silversmith. I showed this man my designs and asked him to make them. It felt like a good omen — and it was. Not long after, I found out my husband was going to be okay.
I wept with joy on picking up the finished pieces. I realised this was what I wanted to do and immediately put in another order.
After coming home, I designed my first jewellery collection: a range of stacking bracelets with mantras inscribed on the inside, all made by the same local silversmiths in Bali.
The early days were tough — we had to remortgage the house to fund the range and there were many sleepless nights. But my husband, who had now retired, was supportive.
I founded Annie Haak Designs in the garden shed in 2008. We have a turnover of £1.3 million and sell more than 40,000 products a year, including bracelets, necklaces and earrings, online and in 26 shops.
I never thought Bali would give me a new chapter, a second act. I’ve struggled with a lack of confidence, but now I’m financially independent and it’s the most amazing feeling.
anniehaakdesigns.co.uk