We always like to keep our eyes peeled for emerging talent, so we were super excited to meet new jewellery designer Georgina Evans. Currently in her final year at Nottingham studying Decorative Arts, she has already had her designs worn by up and coming designers at London and Paris fashion week (impressive huh!?).We are expecting to see great things from Georgina in the coming future (remember you read about her here first!) Here’s what Georgina had to say…
How did you first get into designing jewellery?
For as long as I can remember I didn’t have a clue of what I wanted to do, I’ve never really been academic, your normal “school” subjects just didn’t interest me. However, I soon realised that Art was purely subjective therefore from a young age I learnt you can never really be wrong. So I ran head first at it and started to get creative. In the process I discovered that I LOVE making things! I adore designing beautiful yet functional objects that challenge perceptions and provoke people to think about what they’re wearing.
Tell us more about the process of making your unique pieces?
For me it’s all about the quality, not quantity. This nugget of enlightenment came to me during the process of my course, and with this I realised that patience is a great virtue. My course is very diverse therefore I have been lucky enough to have the option of working with all types of materials, ranging from ceramics, print, carpentry, resin, the list is endless but for me it was all about metal. However for metal and I it really wasn’t love at first sight. We fought and the majority of time I lost. I assumed that because it was metal I could be rough with it, I could hammer, saw and solder it….in reality I was so wrong. Metals, especially gold and silver are extremely precious; I have to be gentle and less heavy handed when dealing with metal.
What was your inspiration for the pieces?
I’m still unsure as to where my inspirations originate from, this may sound somewhat egotistical, but the majority of the time, my work reflects me and my state of mind. At one stage I became really interested in making jewellery for the bones of the body, I started making jewellery for the clavicle bones. It sounds insane, but it really did work! I’d love to revisit that idea one day. Another example of my work reflecting me would have to be the whole idea of contrasting materials, influenced by the old saying “opposites attract”. So at the end of my second year, I become obsessed with hard and soft materials, putting them together and seeing how the contrasting pair worked. This made my most successful piece to date…..a silk lined jacket, with metal adornments stitched to the built in scarf and pockets. I physically fell in love with it. This is where my precious stone collection originated from!
You’ve had some great success with your jewellery being worn at spectacular events….
I don’t know if success would be the right word, but it’s so rewarding to see my jewellery worn to prestigious events like fashion week and press events….not just in the UK but in PARIS as well! I feel very lucky to have such a supportive network of followers and friends, they talk about my work, wear it, photograph it, blog about it, and each time is like the first. I don’t think I’ll ever get fed up of that feeling. It’s what pushes me to design and make more.
What lies ahead for the future?
I love every moment of what I do so a future full of jewellery crafting is definitely in the pipelines. I can’t predict what exactly will happen but at the moment my current obsession is looking at the sustainability of the human body and how I can use its resources such as bones, hair and teeth to combine with metal and make more wonderful yet completely unique body adornments. I want to make something that will outlive me. Something people can feel as well as see. That’s my biggest goal in life.
Keep an eye out over the following weeks for our competition, where one lucky reader will win a piece of jewellery crafted by Georgina Evans herself (something you really don’t want to be missing out on). For the time being check out her Facebook page for a further look at some of her very unique and eye catching jewellery….
Images by Georgina Evans