04H00
This may appear to be a very odd title for a collection. And the reason is that I often find myself awake at 4am, with ideas and thoughts whirling up from my subconscious, precluding further sleep. Design challenges suddenly have a solution, and fragments of ideas expand into whole new design concepts that have to be hastily jotted down.
Some don’t survive daylight’s scrutiny, but those that have appear below.
Jewellery
Opal and diamond flower brooch
This was one of the first pieces of jewellery I designed for my wife. The starting point was the beautiful Ethiopian opal. After various designs had been discarded this concept popped up and was hastily drawn on the nearest piece of paper at hand, which turned out to be my script pad! I never altered the design, and it went off to the goldsmith as a rather unconventional “prescription”.
The opal is teamed up with diamonds and set in 18ct white gold.
Baroque pearl brooch
This is another brooch I designed for my wife. I found the very large baroque pearl at an antiques market, amidst a stallholder’s array of vintage jewellery. The thrill of the find brought back early childhood memories of scouring tidal rockpools for hidden treasures and of the mesmerizing sway of the sea anemone’s fronds that would then hastily retreat when clumsy little fingers approached.
The shape and form of the brooch is reminiscent of those sea anemone fronds, but in this instance, reaching out to the pearl. It is made in silver with small diamond accents at the tip of the “fronds”.
This brooch is special to me for another and very different reason. After the goldsmith had completed it, he very casually suggested to me that I should consider designing jewellery more seriously.
The Love Letter brooch
I have been enthralled by the beauty of Emily Dickinson’s poetry for many years, and I had for some time wanted to incorporate lines of her poetry in my jewellery designs. This large and beautiful piece of jade, another antique market find, sat in my drawer of “treasures” for some time before this design emerged at 4 in the morning. Its postcard-like shape gave rise to the idea of a love letter, with the lines “That love is all there is, Is all we know of love” engraved as a hidden message for the recipient, on the back of the brooch. The design and the palette of the gemstones have a very strong Art Deco aesthetic and may appear to be at odds with the very romantic nature of the brooch.
However, jade represents harmony, eternity and virtue and is associated with the heart chakra. The garnet symbolises love shared and onyx is regarded as a protector of harmonious relationships. This brooch was exhibited at the Milano Jewellery Week 2024 in the prestigious Artistar Jewels exhibition.
The Janus Neckpiece
This rather unusual necklace has as its focal point a rather unusual key. Known as an O’Dell key it was invented in the late 18th century and was used primarily in Edinburgh for opening the communal door to tenement buildings. It does not turn in the lock but is inserted into a horizontal slot and with an upwards movement it opens the latch.
Keys are such an integral part of our daily landscape yet receive scant attention until they are misplaced. They also possess a duality that intrigued me as they can open and close, confine and liberate and have given rise to many metaphors in everyday use. The keynote speech, the key to success, the key figure in an investigation, to mention but a few.
Janus is the ancient Roman god of dualities, thresholds and doorways and is always depicted with a key in his right hand and 2 faces – one that faces the past and the other facing the future. I have attempted to portray this in the twining of shapes and forms that centre around the bale and of the chain.
“January” is derived from Janus as it’s the month that is at the threshold of a new year. The word “janitor” has the same derivation but alludes to the carrying of keys and guarding of doorways.
This neckpiece has components that span 3 centuries. The key is 18th century, the custom cut lab grown yellow sapphire is mid-20th century and the other hand made steel and silver components are all 21st century.
This piece was exhibited at the Milano Jewellery Week 2024 as part of the prestigious Artistar Jewels exhibition. It was also selected to be part of the Inflow Contemporary Art Jewellery Exhibition in Budapest 2025 as part of their themed exhibition “Transformative Narratives”.
The Hope brooch
The chance finding of a short length of weathered iron chain in a car park was the inspiration for this brooch.
“Will there really be a “Morning”? Is there such a thing as “Day”?”
These lines of Emily Dickinson’s poem, inscribed on the frame of this brooch, are the embodiment of the despair that unites all those who find themselves in one form of prison or another – be it emotional, psychological or physical.
The walls close in, the chain tightens, but the small window set high in those prison walls, allowing a glimpse of sunlight or perhaps the faint glow of stars, is all that is needed to illuminate hope, endurance, a dream of freedom. And with that there is an almost imperceptible widening of a link.
This brooch was selected to be part of the Inflow Contemporary Art Jewellery Exhibition in Budapest 2025 as part of their themed exhibition “Transformative Narratives”.
The Unearthed brooch
Amidst the ruins of an old homestead I found this hand forged iron nail. My delight in stumbling across this spurred on further searching in the dust and scrubby vegetation that was slowly reclaiming the bygone endeavours of a tenant farmer.
It made me aware of how easily it is to become swept up in the excitement of discovery. And how this will inevitably be vastly intensified when what is unearthed sparkles with the lustre of possible fortunes and fame, as is witnessed by the extensive mining operations for gemstones and precious metals all over the world.
The nail, combined with the natural aquamarine crystal speaks of this relentless plundering in our pursuits to meet the insatiable appetites for wealth and the trappings of success.
Amethyst and gold pendant
This large and very beautiful amethyst was initially set in a ring and apart from its very ecclesiastical appearance, the stone was not shown off to its best advantage. I felt that set in a pendant its rich colour would be better appreciated as it moved more freely when worn.
Reminiscent of a ripe summer plum the amethyst appears almost to be suspended from the gold branch with the bale hidden behind the stem and top leaf. The lovely grey pearls were repurposed from the lone survivor of a pair of earrings.
ALPHA brooch
In 2024 I decided to learn how to do wax carving. I felt that a simple organic shape was going to be the easiest to attempt.
My Alpha brooch was the outcome of this first tentative exercise in wax carving and represents the start of exciting and very rewarding design possibilities.
JELLY FISH BROOCH
With the change of fashions and tastes beautiful pieces of jewellery usually find their way to the back of the drawer where they languish forgotten and unappreciated. This has been the case for the graduated pearl necklace that almost every woman wore from the 1920’s to 1960’s and what I jokingly refer to as “granny’s” pearls. While some are strung with artificial pearls, many were made with beautiful, cultured pearls.
I had toyed with many ideas of how to repurpose a strand of “granny’s” pearls but could not come up with a way to utilise all the pearls from one strand until the jellyfish idea. The body of the jellyfish was carved in wax before being cast in silver and the pearl “tentacles” are strung on very thin silver wire, allowing the tentacles to be shaped, giving the whole brooch a sense of movement.
Special commissions
The necklace and the pendant were commissioned for birthday gifts.
The necklace was for a birthday in March, hence the aquamarine and the amethyst pendant for a birthday in February. And in both designs the leaves of the Acacia tree feature.
