Rings

14th January – 24th June 2017

Every year we select jewellers to display with us whose rings offer a unique alternative to what you might find out on the high street.  Stunning engagement and wedding rings, rings to mark special occasions or just a ring to wear every day; there’s something for everyone to enjoy. 

Libby Ward

Libby’s design approach is based on experimental methodologies; “I have a passion for juxtaposing unusual and an unexpected mix of materials using a myriad of making processes in order to create thought provoking pieces.”  Her making process starts from looking at objects around her that have interesting textures, making a mould of this and creating that texture in resin, silicone or latex.  She then manipulates the processes by adding materials, etching, coating, layering, stretching, heating and also breaking.  She will work with a similar process to metals, although the main techniques she uses for this are etching textures or images on to the surface.  Libby will carry on with this procedure until she has acquired a large body of unusual samples, to which she also adds strange existing materials that she has found or altered.

Bea Jareno

The Indian Summer collection by Bea is inspired by her travels to India.  A land of diversity, intricate architecture, radiant with colours and heat creates the perfect balance environment of India and it is these characteristics which are reflected in the unique pieces in this collection.  Bea’s minimalist style creates a harmonious feeling, a unique balance of colours, shapes and forms emphasising and exploring contrast within the precious metals and stones.

Sarah Brown

This Glasgow based jeweller creates stunning rings from silver and gold combined with precious and semi-precious stones.  By weaving delicate lines of irregular compositions together Sarah creates series of patterns that aim to portray the endless detail that can be found in an untouched natural environment.  “Coming from an island off the West Coast of Scotland I want to create pieces that draw upon memories of island legends and tales of creatures beneath the sea that embody a sense of curiosity and of the unknown.”

Kerry Newth

Jewellery by Kerry designs explore texture and form using traditional processes of granulation and reticulation in gold and silver.  Kerry’s ring collections are inspired by organic growth patterns in the natural world.  She uses gold fusing, reticulation and granulation to create raised textured surfaces that entwine each piece.  The work is often led by these technical explorations using them to play with scale, form and contrasting precious metals and semi-precious stones to create aesthetically beautiful forms.

Cari-Jane Hakes

Cari-Jane is based on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds.  Her background is in architecture; running a successful practice for 10 years, with her husband Julian Jakes. Whilst creating designs for bridges and buildings she became focussed on the details; a door handle, a handrail, a staircase, a bench.  She began to learn jewellery making and goldsmithing in 2005 at Morley College in London where she made tiny pieces of ‘architecture’.  Her designs draw on her architectural work and respond to particular natural phenomena.  In addition, she will often use literature and traditional stories as conceptual frameworks for her designs.  She works in series, reducing the visible world and that expressed in the written word into pieces of wearable sculpture.  She firmly believes that jewellery should be worn often, so that the pieces become part of you.

MH Goldsmith

Mat completed his goldsmithing apprenticeship at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing in 2006 and soon afterwards was offered a scholarship to work for 6 months in southern Germany.  He continued to work as a goldsmith in Germany for the following 9 years.  These journeyman years of working in European goldsmithing workshops developed both his technical knowledge and design aesthetic and enabled him to be where he is today.  Inspiration for the pieces he makes stem from the nature and properties of the materials he works with.  “My jewellery making process has evolved over time as I gained experience and working knowledge of precious metals and gemstones.  Design ideas often come from experimentation.   I’m inspired by the beauty of precision and symmetry.  Over time, I have become interested in combining this exact and precise aesthetic with organic elements.”

Mikala Djorup

Mikala did a traditional jewellery apprenticeship in her native Copenhagen before graduating with first class honours from London Metropolitan University.  Mikala makes wearable jewellery; modern with a glance back in time.  Her work is dominated by classic simple shapes, matt surfaces and a combination of unusual diamonds and pearls.

Sally Grant

Sally’s love of beautiful design and craftsmanship has informed her work from the very beginning when she studied 3D Design at Grays School of Art in Aberdeen.  Sally went on to work in a number of creative environments including marketing for a design consultancy, gallery assistant and florist while establishing her jewellery business.  Her most inspiring career move was to undertake a two year apprenticeship with the talented Tony Thomson in Oxford where I learned all aspects of jewellery making in precious metals, gold, silver and platinum and was introduced to the world of gemstones.   Tony’s workshop was filled with a lifelong collection of unusual fossils and stones gathered from all over the world.  This inspiration still informs her work today.

Kat B London

Kat’s parents were both classic musicians so she grew up with art.  Her parents wished for more tangible careers for her and her sibling and so they gave up all of their artistic ambitions and both studied computer science.  Most of her professional life she spent as an IT project manager, hurrying through the day to get more and more things done, almost forgetting her artistic heritage.  In 2009 her son was born and she started rethinking her life and the view of what really matters.  She started making jewellery in early 2011 as a means of expressing herself.  “Soon I started taking classes in the London Jewellery School and in the Mid Cornwall school of jewellery to learn the skills that will finally help me materialize the images and feelings I carried around in my head for so long.”

Jenifer Wall

Jenifer works in both precious and base metals and every one of her pieces has been made individually, drawing on inspiration from the natural world.  Rocks, stones and geological formations have always been a rich source of imagery for her, from smooth, tactile pebbles with lines of quartz to crumbling cliffs with slipping layers of strata.  “I am fascinated by both the accumulation of sediment and the erosion of surfaces caused by time and I try to emulate these processes, to recreate a sense of age in the pieces.”