Gold by night, peanut butter by day
I learned goldsmithing at night school in New Zealand with my friend Lizzie, while working full time as the Marketing Manager for a peanut butter company.
When I was starting out, the night school tutor wanted us to work in silver as a practice metal, but Lizzie and I had limited time to work on jewellery outside of our day jobs, so we decided if we wanted to wear gold, we should learn in gold. Everything we made was something we wanted to keep, not just something to practice on. Solid 9 carat gold is a very unyielding metal to work with, much less malleable than silver, so learning all my hand tool skills in it taught me its nuances. I can now work in both, but silver always surprises me how soft it is when I come to bend, texture or solder it.
Designing fabricated jewellery
The fabricating process basically means starting with bits of solid gold metal, sometimes rounded into a wire and sometimes cut off a big flat sheet of gold. From these I bend, hammer, solder and shape rings and earrings.
Pictured from left: Lizzie preparing to solder up a ring at night school, my first Rourke Ring on the anvil before I engraved my name inside it, sanding a Morgan Ring
Delicate gold shapes
My first fabricated ring was a simple fine gold band, the Morgan Ring, and a pair of matching earrings, the Vera Earrings. I then linked two of these together during the soldering process to create the Lush Rings. These fine gold designs are pictured below.
Hammered gold
I then began to experiment with adding texture. First using a super fine gold wire to create the Grace Ring, and then using a thicker gold sheet to make the Rourke Ring, below.
More organic processes
Outside of night school, I began goldsmithing in the shed, testing out new ideas using a collection of antique hand tools from my Grandfather's toolbox. I made some thicker, solid gold, organically shaped circles, which became the Kininmonth Ring and Kent Earrings.
Lost wax casting
Lost wax casting is a process of filing, sanding and carving a shape from wax. A plaster mould is then made around the piece of wax. Once the plaster sets, the wax is melted out (hence the name ‘lost wax casting’) and the mould is filled with a precious metal.
My first work in wax
On a trip away to Kaikoura, New Zealand, I spent a day sitting beside a rock pool while the boys dived for paua, carving my first ring from wax.
I had always loved my partners family rings. One of four brothers, they each received a large, rectangular, not-quite-signet ring when they turned 18 for their middle or fourth finger. I wanted to carve a more modern version, a solid, androgynous shape.
My design was the early prototype of the Kirk Ring. When I finished carving it, I sent it away to a casting house in Auckland to be poured in solid gold. What came back was a little rough on the inside and extremely heavy, but I absolutely loved it and still wear it to this day.
Pictured, my Kirk Ring prototype
My second work in wax
One Saturday afternoon, my sister called while I was carving a second ring. While we talked, I kept carving, hardly noticing what I was making. A couple of hours later, I told her I’d carved a ring while we’d been on the phone. She said “you better call it the therapy ring then.” Mum couldn’t bear to see this one leave the family.
Pictured below, the Therapy Ring, on loan from Mum for the photoshoot
Photographing it
After two terms at night school, with my designs all made, I decided to celebrate my first collection with a photoshoot. I called up my long-time collaborators designer Geoff Francis and photographer Bonny Beattie. Geoff and I worked together to design a concept for the shoot based on paper and sculptures. My partner Arthur, a furniture designer, made me a range of solid oak pieces to use as plinths, which Bonny supplemented with wooden objects from around her home. Together we set up an elaborate ‘world’ to hang, balance and drape jewellery on.
