Jewellery Citybreak Capsule

I spent a few days in Florence recently. I always try to pack fairly light when I travel so I don’t spend time waiting for luggage. Of course packing for a trip can be a challenge, and it’s no different with jewellery. Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?

• - Take jewellery I don’t usually wear; wear none of it.

• - Pack different jewellery for every day and wear the same four pieces.

• - Wear only my favourites but then feel I can’t ‘dress up’ enough.

The goal for me is to take just a few pieces, and wear them all. It took some serious consideration, but this is what came with me in the end.

Image: My jewellery capsule collection photographed on my Florentine notebooks from Il Torchio

My gold Ribbed Hoops are a mainstay in my earring wardrobe as they just seem to work with everything. I added pair of diamond droppers to add a bit of sparkle and elevate my look for dinner and New Year’s Eve celebrations. I made the detachable droppers for just this reason! If you have these earrings I’d love to know if you do the same. I also took my Small Floating Ring with Diamonds - I find I often reach for this rin when I want to wear something special, but I’m not sure if where I’m going is the right place for one of my my bolder pieces. I also had a few outfits planned that I knew would work with my Arc Cluster pendant. Mine is set with a selection of sea-inspired tourmalines as I wear a lot of blues and greens. I knew that I would want to wear these stones again and again. These pieces made an ideal jewellery capsule for this trip, I expect it will work for plenty more.

Florence is so rich in history and culture it’s a deeply inspiring place; there’s something for everyone to enjoy in this wonderful city. With so many galleries and museums I tend to follow my nose when I visit. I happened upon a fantastic exhibition of Impressionist painters at the Museo degli Innocenti. The museum is in a beautiful courtyard, away from the crowds of Piazza del Duomo. Even better, there is an excellent rooftop restaurant with superb views of the city and beyond. I’d highly recommend it if you happen to be visiting in the next few months.

Florentine Recommendations

There are some fabulous boutiques in Florence, and I love to visit Il Torchio on via de’ Bardi - a traditional bookbindery which uses the most beautiful, classically Florentine marbled papers for their notebooks. I warn you that it is very tricky to leave without at least one little purchase.

Scent-hunting is always part of any city break for me and so I also highly recommend a visit to Lorenzo Villoresi, a lovely boutique tucked away just south of the river.

If you do have a trip to the Tuscan capital planned, do check out @theflorentine and @girlinflorence Instagram to find out what’s going on in the city. The Florentine website is full of great information and already want to go back to see this intriguing exhibition of photographs.

Do let me know if you have any Florentine recommendations of your own to add to the list.

Summer Stones

I find gemstones absolutely magical - never more so than when the sun is shining and you can appreciate all the subtleties of colour and the fascinating inclusions in a stone. Even a fairly opaque looking stone reveals its inner fire when struck with a ray of summer sun. Being able to dress a little more lightly in summer presents the opportunity to adorn the neck and ears with luminous gems. Summer is full of events that make a great reason to chose a new piece of jewellery. Weddings, holidays, a lovely garden party. Any outfit can be elevated with the addition of a gorgeous gemstone or two.

I spend many happy hours sourcing stones, and my jewellery is very much led by the beautiful stones I select. A few types of gemstones seem to really sing ‘summertime’ to me.

Tourmaline

Like Sapphire, Tourmaline exists in large variety of colours, many having different names. The very recognisable bi-colour tourmaline in pink and green is known as Watermelon Tourmaline for obvious reasons. Blue tourmaline can be a very dark inky blue and is known as Indicolite. A fine bright blue tourmaline found in Brazil is known as Paraiba tourmaline. I particularly love green and blue gemstones, and there are a wide variety of verdant tourmalines to be found. I love the gorgeous rich green of the tourmaline cabochon in this pendant.

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Tourmaline is one of relatively few naturally pink (rather than red) gemstones. The luscious ring (below) uses a sensational Brazilian tourmaline. The combination of the candy pink and buttery 18ct gold is delicious! This ring is just asking to be worn to a summer wedding.

Aquamarine

Aquamarine in all its variants, from pale milky blue to sparkling sea green is the quintessential summer stone. There is an aquamarine to suit all complexions - for me, when my skin is a little sun-kissed, aquamarine really pops. It’s like carrying a piece of a turquoise summer sea with you all year round.

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Aquamarine varies in colour from pale sky blue to sea green blue right through to dark blue, the best stones tend to come from Brazil & Madagascar. When faceted, Aquamarine can diachronic - appearing to change colour when viewed from different angles. I like to use all kinds of aquamarine; faceted and cabochon. These are few of my favourite pieces using Aquamarine.

Yellows

It would be wrong to not include some sunny yellow stones! Though there are many yellow and brown gemstones, I have a couple of favourites. Firstly, an unusual gemstone with a wonderful name, is Heliodor, which means ‘gift from the sun’. This deliciously caramel yellow stone is a type of Beryl - the blue variant being aquamarine. When cut into a polished cabochon, it almost glows from within. I can see this pendant (below) being worn with a simple linen dress, allowing the understated elegance of this piece to take centre stage.

Citrine is the yellow hued variety of quartz, it’s actually quite rare to find quartz citrine - a lot of citrine is in fact heat treated amethyst. I’ve used three different shades of Citrine in this pendant (below), which feels like a summer sunset to me.

Lastly, sapphire. Beyond its commonly known blue form, sapphire comes in many tones and the ring stack below show sunny shades of yellow combined with diamond.

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Making a Commission

I was asked to make a short film which was shown as part of the @craftfestival in December 2020 . It followed the making of a pair of earrings, commissioned as a variation of my Airstream earring design. I really enjoyed making this film and hope it shows how many processes there are in a handmade piece of jewellery. I’ve still so much to learn about recording the making process on film but it’s been interesting to learn a little over the last year. Most importantly, my client loved the earrings! ⁠

Virtual Appointments

We will all miss the in-person cheer and chat of the Goldsmtihs’ Fair this year but you can still come and see my stand and have a catch up with a virtual appointment. 1-2-1 appointments can be arranged via Zoom or What’s App (whichever you prefer) at a time that suits you.

I will have a little display of my work here in the studio, as I would do at the show and you can either have a private tour of the whole collection or we can chat about individual pieces you’ve seen online and would like some more information about.  This bespoke service will enable you to see my beautiful jewellery up close and have my undivided attention to answer any questions about the design, materials and story behind the pieces.

Virtual appointments are also a great opportunity to discuss commissioning a piece or adding to your collection with co-ordinating pieces.

The Fair runs from 24th September - 6th October

The Big Make

Back in June Cockpit Arts hosted an online event in lieu of our usual Summer Open Studios. With almost all in-person jewellery events on ice this year these online events are going to become our ‘new normal’ for a while I think. Many Cockpit makers contributed different content across the weekend and my contribution was to document the making of a piece in real-time through photos and little video clips via Instagram stories.

I chose to make one of my ‘Angles’ rings as there are some lovely, subtle details in the process of this piece that give it an appearance of pared-back simplicity once complete. It was a sharp learning curve to try and work out how to film while I was genuinely working as opposed to staged shots for a camera and so this really is very basic but I enjoyed making in this way, posting each stage and then receiving comments and questions from those who were following on Instagram so I might try it again in future.

I thought it would be nice to gather the photos and clips together as a short film that I could host here on my website as a record of the process.

The stone I chose for this project was a moonstone I picked up on one of my stone buying trips to India, a grey moonstone but very translucent and with beautiful flashes of green. I haven’t had grey moonstones so clear as this before and I am now carefully considering what to do with the 2 other similar stones I bought now that I’ve seen how this one works in a finished piece.

I’ve made a number of these rings over the years and always enjoy making slight alternations to the design to accommodate the different qualities of the stone I’m working with. Here are a few members of the ‘Angles’ ring family from the last couple of years.