Local filmmaker and friend of Jon, Mark Hammett, has been visiting us from time to time over the past six years and has built up a sporadic diary of the company. This is a short taster of some of those moments in the life of Jon Dibben. More footage will appear on the website in the future. We hope you enjoy it.
Visit Mark's website at www.l7productions.co.uk
Jon Dibben Philosophy
One of the best things about designing and making jewellery is that we become involved in the most meaningful times in people’s lives- celebrations of events that connect them to each other- and we experience all their emotions, here in the shop. Our customers trust us with these special, significant purchases, and our commitment is to give our utmost in return.
We are obsessive about design and craftsmanship; we take as long as it needs to get things right and will only let a piece go when we are as happy with it as we can be. We take pride in offering an old fashioned bespoke service, handcrafting Jon’s designs in very limited numbers with painstaking attention to detail and faultless finishing. All work is carried out in our own workshop, including the setting of stones.
The stones we use are individually and personally selected by Jon to be of the highest and frequently rare quality, and often of unusual cut and colour. In pairs or sets, the stones are meticulously matched and, occasionally Jon will buy beautiful stones to set aside and keep until he decides on the perfect design for them.
All our gemstones are natural; our diamonds are conflict free and are certified where practical. We have long and trusted relationships with our stone suppliers, and we are increasingly looking to them for ethically sourced stones. There are already certain stones we can offer with a full ethical background and we hope soon to be able to offer the same for all others.
In addition, we are now one of only two designers in the south of England to be licensed to make and sell designs using Fairtrade and Fairmined gold and platinum. This means we can help to improve working conditions and trading standards for small-scale artisans – a little like ourselves – around the world.
We also pride ourselves on the integrity of our customer service. We aim to provide a relaxed aesthetic environment, where Jon and the goldsmiths are accessible, where we offer friendly and informative advice, and where customers are wholly involved in ideas and decisions about the unique piece of jewellery they imagine.
The designing and making of our jewellery is as important to us as your future heirloom is to you.
The Company
Jon Dibben, the company, began at Smithbrook Kilns in 1990, when Jon set up his small shop and workshop to personally hand make his own original designs. Expansion soon followed, in terms of space, loyal custom and new colleagues. In the Autumn of 2000, Jon opened a striking shop in Guildford and, for nine successful years, he and his team built on his reputation for elegant design and high standards of craftsmanship.
They then came to the decision that the focus of the company should logically return to its bespoke roots, with an extended and redesigned shop alongside Jon’s original workshop. The move reflected Jon’s own personal drive, amongst the many and varied demands on his time, to get back to his workbench. His design inspiration and perfectionism still motivates the small and loyal team, who instinctively understand and achieve the standards he demands. He retains daily direction, seeing each design through from his first idea to the finished and polished piece. His work now retails exclusively from Jon Dibben at Smithbrook Kilns.
Jon Dibben
From septicaemia in the desert to becoming a caveman for a history information film, Jon’s enlightening teenage travels around the Middle East and Europe culminated in two years in a hut on a nudist beach on the Greek island of Naxos. With such a minimal existence, it may be unsurprising that a natural talent for creative design found its outlet in making simple jewellery from shells and beads.
That was the beginning of Jon’s inspiration and career, which crystallised on his return to the UK, with refinement of his skills and increasing demand for his work. His acknowledged instinct for proportion and harmony gives his jewellery a classic, sculptural and ultimately wearable quality, and enables him to turn his skill to other areas of design, including the interiors of his shops and a clear vision for his publicity.
Though his life is now more complicated, he still finds solace and inspiration in meditation and nature, both in the practice of Shintaido- a Japanese movement system, and in the countryside around his home in West Sussex, where he spends time exploring with his wife and three children. His interest lies beyond simply reproducing nature, to being inspired by the way nature evolves a beauty of form through function and environment.
Team Biographies
Paul Dibben
Paul is Jon’s brother and partner in the company. They shared much of their early travels, which stimulated his own interest in jewellery, as well as in Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean cooking. Back in the UK, his unconventional route to his destined position included working as a chef, Victorian sash window restorer, furniture importer’s assistant and anaesthetist’s technician. Coming from a close family, Paul gave Jon support and encouragement from the beginning of his venture and finally joined him on a full-time and permanent basis. He brings his cultural interests and multi-tasking skills to the day-to-day running of the workshop and shop, and has built on his fundamental role as a self-effacing and approachable anchor man.
Dudley Lynock
Dudley is in his eleventh year with Jon Dibben. With over thirty years experience mounting, setting and finishing jewellery to the highest standards, his quiet diligence and attention to detail are clear to see in the way he brings Jon's designs to life. He is also a key part of Jon's design process, combining an enthusiastic and natural ability for CAD software with his innate feel for form. Dudley is also our chief product photographer. Dudley usually (read always) has a chicken and salad sandwich for lunch and is addicted to his MacBook Pro.
Chris Newbery
Chris says his career move was the result of an early mid-life crisis at the age of 23. He had joined IBM with a business degree but, listening to the inner child who loved taking the back off things and making contraptions, retrained to follow a more creatively satisfying path. After an HND and City & Guilds at Sir John Cass, and two years at a designer’s workshop in Chelsea, he came to Jon Dibben in 2001, and now puts his talent for discipline and precision into the meticulous crafting of Jon’s designs. He’s outgoing and articulate too, and enjoys contact with our customers, usually being the first to show them around the workshop and offer insights into how the jewellery is made.
Rachel Pullen
Rachel is the first person you are likely to meet at Jon Dibben and has experienced the jewellery business from all perspectives. She began her training as a promising designer-maker but, hankering after a more sociable and connective role, was drawn to interaction with customers. A qualified gemmologist, she enjoys sharing her passion and wide knowledge, and sees her role as communicating the thought, time and rare quality that lies behind our jewellery. She has a good eye for design and a strong instinct for the colours and styles of pieces that will suit each individual. She takes pride in maintaining our reputation for attentive and efficient customer service.
