The joy of being Amy Huberman

Amy Huberman is back on our screens in her self-penned comedy, Finding Joy. But somehow, she also found time to design a brand new line for Newbridge Silverware, says Vickie Maye.

AMY Huberman must be tired. She is launching her latest jewellery collection for Newbridge Silverware just three weeks after her self-penned TV show, Finding Joy, made its debut on RTÉ.

As she says herself, “People must be thinking ‘she needs to go home and go to bed’.”

But, no, preview to the press over, she sits down to chat afterwards, at Newbridge Silverware. And there’ll be no relaxing when she goes home either.

The evening we meet, the third episode of Finding Joy goes to air and she needs to decide the clips that will be released on social media. Surely, she has ‘people’ who can do that for her?

She looks at me aghast, and I realise Amy doesn’t do ‘people’.

She just gets on with the job herself. That work ethic is why she has risen to the top of every career she has launched: author, actress, jewellery designer, shoe designer, and now screenwriter.

Plus, Finding Joy is her baby.

There was no hiding with this one, she says, hence her decision to oversee social media for the show.

“I think it’s because it’s all me,” she says.

She’s thrilled at the show’s reception — it was the highest-rating comedy debut of the year on RTÉ.

“I’m pinching myself. When you make this, you are in your own bubble and then, suddenly, it’s out there.

“I wanted it to be identifiable, honest, old-fashioned fun.

“I wanted it to be reflective of the change we are seeing culturally now... But I wanted men to enjoy it, too.”

Her new six-piece line for Newbridge — launching November 1 — is tipped to be just as successful.

Already, stores are clamouring for additional stock for the Christmas market.

Her debut collection, launched in 2016, consistently sold out.

But Huberman’s designing success is not just down to her celebrity name.

Her pieces are truly beautiful, detailed, intricate designs, which look like they came straight from an antique market.

Amy Huberman wearing some of the collection.

Her inspiration is the jewellery boxes that sat on her mother’s and grandmother’s dressing tables (her mum is with her today to celebrate the launch).

“As a kid, I always loved my mum’s, my granny’s jewellery box. The necklaces were all really small; you could layer them,” she says.

The latest addition includes a weightier bracelet, another one of her favourites, yet it’s still slight enough to layer for that vintage feel.

Astrology is still a key theme — suns, moons and stars — but Amy’s personal favourite from the new line is the coin pendant: two bird motifs with a matching ring, and all still affordable, at €40 and €25.

Today, she wears that favourite coin pendant, star-drop earrings, and the aforementioned bangle. She’s almost doll-like, in a Topshop, powder-pink trouser suit.

The collection she showcases today — watch out, too, for the locket, another little treasure — had already been in some part imagined when she met the Newbridge design team for her very first collection. She arrived on day one with rough sketches and pieces of her own jewellery, and sat with the designer.

In the display case, stunning sketches, admittedly not drawn by Amy (though she adds she loved art in school), show her inspiration and the design process.

We met last February, again at Newbridge, as she arrived at the factory for the first time to discuss ideas for the line she launched this week.

And Amy, true to her reputation as Ireland’s Nicest Celebrity, not only greets me instantly, remembering my name, and my family, but she recalls intricacies of a conversation we had eight months ago. There’s genuine empathy, and with her quick wit, it’s little wonder the nation has fallen for her charms. In a world of influencers and fake news, Amy Huberman has that rare quality: authenticity.

From design meeting to Newbridge launch, it’s a quick turnaround, just like the screenwriting process for Finding Joy. Writing only stopped when filming started in May. And they are still editing episode six.

“It looks like I’m everywhere,” she laughs, “but this was all staggered. It’s just everything is launching now.”

After today, she insists, she’s taking some time off.

“I’m chilling out now,” she laughs. “The foot is off the gas.”

Social media clips done, she’ll sit down to watch Finding Joy.

“Usually, I never watch anything I’m in, but I’ve seen most of this in the edits, anyway.

“I kind of forget this is on other people’s TVs, too,” she laughs.

There might be the quickest scan at the response to it, but she’s learned not to pay too much attention.

“You put something out there and you just can’t control it after that,” she says.

She writes early in the mornings.

“I have four hours in me, and that’s it, done,” she says.

She used to write in the evenings, before she became a mum-of-two, when lie-ins were still an option.

She admits that she was still awake at 1am the night before her launch.

“If I miss my window, I can’t sleep,” she says, adding it was nothing to do with today’s launch. She just doesn’t “do” stress, enjoying the publicity just as much as the writing and the designing behind closed doors.

“I just like chatting,” she laughs, taking her mini bout of insomnia in her stride. Just like everything she turns her hand to.

- Amy Huberman’s collection for Newbridge Silverware launches November 1