Choose well, Buy Less, Buy Better, Buy Handmade

…..this Christmas,

at The Victoria Sewart Contemporary Jewellery Gallery

Clio Saskia

Cathy Newell Price

Cathy’s work expresses her love of the natural world, especially plants, which is not surprising as she has a degree in Botany. The pieces are sometimes symbolic, sometimes figurative and others just evoke a sense of a walk or just being in a particular environment.

The materials used are precious metals and vitreous enamel. For the enamelled work the silver is either shaped by piercing sheet metal or made by melting silver and then forming it into a shape in the rolling mill. Texture is added by roll printing with etched brass plates of her drawings. The enamel is then applied to the surface of the silver, fired in the kiln and then stoned back so it flush and smooth. Each piece is fired several times. The pieces are often oxidised which adds to the atmosphere and highlights the colour.

Cathy lives and works in West Devon on the Bere Peninsular beside the Tamar river.

Kathleen Ashcroft

Kathleen designs and creates jewellery from her small garden workshop in Plymouth and graduated from Arts University Plymouth in 2022. Her work draws inspiration from shapes and forms within architecture as well as the history that lies beyond what we actually see. The process of exploration is important to Kathleen and her work is grounded in the research connected to a particular theme which provides constant ideas for her designs. The building that no longer has a function, has been abandoned and is in ruins feature in her work in the hope that it continues to exist in the here and now, brought back to life in jewellery to be worn upon the body.

She hopes that the sculptural nature of her designs seeks to resonate with both the wearer and the viewer. Kathleen uses traditional jewellery-making techniques to create her work but is also keen to embrace technologies such as CAD (computer-aided design), which is beginning to play an important role in the preciseness of some of her new designs.

Sarah Jones Hughes

Sarah has been designing and making jewellery for 25 years, and first started as a jewellery apprentice in California USA. Her work has been exhibited internationally, from New York to Harrods in London. Sarah’s statement jewellery has been included in many editorials and publications, including Cosmopolitan. Her work is widely appreciated and sought after. Unique, exquisite jewellery incorporating gold, silver and glass beads, quartz crystals and a myriad of semi-precious stones.

Sarah now works at her studio by the sea in South Devon.

Shona Carnegie

Originally from Glasgow, Scotland, Shona lives, in the French Alps designing and making jewellery and small-scale silverware for galleries and designer jewellery shops.

Her past collections include work influenced by exotic travel and the imagery within her travel diaries, along with a fascination for tactile objects and the spirit of movement.

Her most recent work has evolved from old ranges and has adopted a more simplistic nature. Using elegant folded forms, while still maintaining some trademark stacking and tactile qualities.

Using the highest quality materials and diamonds, Shona’s jewellery has been designed and made to be worn daily yet feel like a special piece.

Rebecca Burt

Rebecca Burt Jewellery is a Cardiff-based jewellery designer/maker creating decorative feminine jewellery. Working with precious metals and stones she forms abstractions of the natural world she sees around her.

Rebecca’s background is in Textiles where she gained a degree in Textiles in Practice from Manchester School of Art in 2014. It is on completion of this that Rebecca began to transition into working with precious metals.

The influence of this can be clearly seen throughout her body of work. Often working with a strong theme of pattern and decoration, she builds up surfaces much as you would embellish a piece of fabric.