Introducing the work of Kerry Howley, a jewellery student from Cambridge, whose collection offers an unusual take on organic jewellery. She created the necklaces using hair from the head of her mother’s friend, and takes her inspiration for the flowing designs from the intricacies and details of wallpaper .

She created each piece by weaving the hair using broken saw blades. I wish I had thought of such a novel way of using the broken blades when I was learning my craft. The designs have already attracted the attention of the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture, who awarded Kerry its Arthur Silver Award for 2011.

Kerry designed the jewellery to demonstrate that people can feel opposing emotions about the same material, depending on where they see it. She said: “The necklaces are made of human hair, a material we are familiar with and take pride in. However, once off of the body it becomes an innate source of aversion. I wanted to see if I could make discarded hair attractive again. I hoped to create a delicate balance between feelings of aversion and attraction.”

I think she’s definitely achieved her goal. I find the necklaces both intriguing and beautiful to look at, but when my mind strays to the material, I  feel that slight feeling of aversion that she is looking for, deep down in the pit of my stomach! Very interesting.

Her designs were on show alongside work from other Middlesex University jewellery students at the New Designers graduate show at the Business Design Centre in London: a show that I have visited before and where I have always been amazed by the intense creativity of our graduate designers. Fantastic: Long Live British Design!

See more of Kerry’s work at   www.kerryhowley.co.uk

Well sorry Folks, It’s been a very busy few weeks since getting back from the Treasure exhibition, which was part of London jewellery week.  I came back to a lot of designing work for various new pieces and commissions and needed to spend some time with the family, who had begun to notice my absence!  Still I am more on top of things now, so have a bit of time to chat.

The first thing I want to share is the stand we made for the Treasure exhibition. During the few weeks beforehand, me and Rachel had talked through some ideas, but still hadn’t come up with a definite concept, well at least not one that was practical and acheivable!

It was literally the last weekend when things started to take shape. I remember walking into the workshop, thinking that i needed a break from ‘stand anxiety’ only to re appear a bit later to find that Rachel had taken out every draw from every piece of furniture in the shop. She was stacking them and creating a look that  intrigued me instantly. The rest was just playing, and adding the fabric to the bases of the draws. The fabric came from ‘offf cuts’, left from having all the chairs reupholstered . It was quite a  moment seeing someone you employ stepping up and making a huge difference. It was such a creative idea, and completely conceptualised from things that were already around us, so environmentally sound and quite Buddhist too.  She’s not just a pretty gemmologist you know!

Due to our involvement launching Fairtrade and Fairmined gold, we exhibited within Essence, an inspiring ethical pavillion. It had been styled by Interior students from the London Metropolitan University, who graciously allowed us to personalise their creations. Above shows another great idea from Rachel!

Publicity shot for Treasure, where we will be exhibiting as part of London Jewellery Week on the 10th, 11th and 12th of June.

Have a look at our News page to win tickets.

Ten points for spotting the Jon Dibben pieces!

Welcome to our Blog!

I really am very excited about it…

Please do return from time to time, as we are all looking forward to posting lots to look at; Inspiration, current commission work, new designs progressing, fabulous stone finds…basically all that we are up to in the workshop…

See you soon i hope

Jon