SHORELINE STERLING SILVER JEWELLERY COLLECTION
SHORELINE STERLING SILVER JEWELLERY COLLECTION
NEW DESIGNS: ISLA AND SKYE
NEW DESIGNS: ISLA AND SKYE
Isla and Skye, sterling silver necklace and earring sets, are designs from a new range of jewellery called Shoreline.
Designed in Chipping Campden by Kit deBretton Gordon, our Head of Design, and hand made in the Shetland Isles for Robert Welch Designs.
Our connection with the Shetlands has a long history, explained after this short interview with Kit in which she gives an insight into her design process, and shares her sketches and what inspired her.
Is this the first jewellery that you have designed?
Yes, as a collection. After designing the Shoreline range, I enrolled with a local Jewellery School to learn to make silver jewellery. Understanding how to create something by hand, directly from the raw materials was very satisfying and invaluable to my role as a designer. I like wearing simple pieces and one of the favourite pieces which I made myself is a slim, silver bangle decorated with a long hammer planished texture.
Is this the first jewellery that you have designed?
Yes, as a collection. After designing the Shoreline range, I enrolled with a local Jewellery School to learn to make silver jewellery. Understanding how to create something by hand, directly from the raw materials was very satisfying and invaluable to my role as a designer. I like wearing simple pieces and one of the favourite pieces which I made myself is a slim, silver bangle decorated with a long hammer planishing texture.
Wrap with us:
1 - Join us in this tutorial of how to wrap a boxed table gift to complete a table in style.
2 - To start, measure the paper to fit a cube or the object you’re wrapping. You don’t want too much excess; the sides don’t need to fold all the way up.
3 - Double sided tape is key for the professional look. Add some tape to the end and line it but don’t stick it down, get the positioning right first.
4 - Trim the excess.
Head of Design, Kit deBretton Gordon often takes inspiration from nature as part of her design process.
What was your inspiration for the Shoreline range?
For this range, I already knew the pieces would be made by Shetland Jewellery, so I was inspired by natural organic forms and the seashore around an island. This evoked soft pebbles washed up on the beach. In addition, the natural striations found on pebbles are always so interesting and I wanted to translate these into my designs.
Does designing jewellery differ from other types of product design?
I approach each project with the same attention to detail. For this range, I considered how the pieces would sit on the neck or hang off an ear for example. I also think how a range can be added to and developed, I would love to design some rings and possibly cufflinks for example.
Robert Welch didn’t consider himself a jeweller, but designed quite a lot of jewellery, is there any particular piece in the archive which inspires you?
I particularly like some of the more unusual precious stones that were set into rings in the archive, and though these were not a direct inspiration for this range, I like the asymmetry of the finished pieces. He was a silversmith, so silver was an obvious choice as it fits with the Robert Welch brand; silver, stainless steel and cast iron have always been part of that. Also, it is a very easy colour to wear and gift.
What was your inspiration for the Shoreline range?
For this range, I already knew the pieces would be made by Shetland Jewellery, so I was inspired by natural organic forms and the seashore around an island. This evoked soft pebbles washed up on the beach. In addition, the natural striations found on pebbles are always so interesting and I wanted to translate these into my designs.
Does designing jewellery differ from other types of product design?
I approach each project with the same attention to detail. For this range, I considered how the pieces would sit on the neck or hang off an ear for example. I also think how a range can be added to and developed, I would love to design some rings and possibly cuff links for example.
Robert Welch didn’t consider himself a jeweller, but designed quite a lot of jewellery, is there any particular piece in the archive which inspires you?
I particularly like some of the more unusual precious stones that were set into rings in the archive, and though these were not a direct inspiration for this range I like the asymmetry of the finished pieces. He was a silversmith, so silver was an obvious choice as it fits with the Robert Welch brand; silver, stainless steel and cast iron have always been part of that. Also, it is a very easy colour to wear and gift.
Sketches and inspirational material for pebble jewellery designs.
Jewellery has always been part of the Robert Welch Designs story and it is something Robert Welch could turn his hand to, he made his Wife’s engagement ring for example, although he didn’t consider himself a jeweller. So why the partnership between Robert Welch and Shetland Jewellery?
Why Shetland?
Robert Welch worked with a number of jewellers over the years who made pieces to his designs, as well as designing and making some unusual items himself, but his relationship with Shetland Silvercraft in the 1980s was to become a permanent one. Founded by Jack Rae in 1953, now renamed Shetland Jewellery it is run by Jack’s son, Kenneth Rae.
To understand how the relationship came about, we have to go back to the 1950s…
From the first days in his new workshop in 1955, on the top floor of the Old Silk Mill in Chipping Campden, and before John Limbrey began working with Robert, he was occasionally joined by a jeweller who would visit to make pieces, and occasionally help with some of the larger silver designs. At this stage Robert was designing and making huge ceremonial pieces for churches and universities so another set of hands would have come in very useful.
Whilst at Birmingham College of Art (1950-52) Robert was awarded a travelling scholarship from the Charles Henry Foyle Trust. He used the scholarship to tour Switzerland and Italy with this same jeweller, whose name was Donald McFall, in the summer of 1952 - by motorbike and sidecar! There is no information in the archive as to how they had first met, but as with all these things we may find out one day.
Robert then went on to study silversmithing at the Royal College of Art, before establishing his Chipping Campden workshop and studio in 1955. In this evocative image, Robert is sitting in the background at the workbench of his recently opened silversmithing workshop, and Donald is standing in the foreground.
1956, in the workshop. Robert Welch (seated) & jeweller Donald McFall (standing)
He would visit and keep Robert company in the early days – after Robert had stopped sleeping in the Mill, when he had lodgings with a spare room in ‘Little Martins’ on the high street – and make his own work whilst he was there. We have a whole series of photos in an album in the archive from 1956 of the two friends at work, and of pieces of Jewellery Donald had made and sold whilst working in Campden.
Jump forward four decades, and the connection to Shetland becomes apparent - Donald McFall worked for Highland Craftpoint in the 1980s. This was only discovered as he was interviewed in a BBC documentary about Robert Welch in 1986.
Highland Craftpoint was an organisation aiming to stimulate and support the development of the crafts industry and help artists achieve commercial success. Donald McFall had been tasked with trying to find a way to change the output of Shetland Silvercraft, which had spent 18 years producing precious metal objects and jewellery, to ensure the business’ sustainability, and he approached Robert Welch to commission him to conceive of, design and develop a new product range for this small jewellery workshop in the Shetland Islands.
Robert was inspired by a visit to the Shetland Museum, where he saw a chess set, turned from cotton reels into simple shapes. The result was a collection of serving pieces that combined the practicality of Robert Welch’s design capabilities with the jewellery skills of the Shetland workshop. Each piece had a bronze finial, and Shetland Silvercraft were to cast and finish the bronze additions.
This leaflet shows part of the range of serving pieces, the finials were available in solid bronze or silver plate.
As Donald McFall commented in 1986: “(Its) no good producing a beautifully balanced work of art that’s too expensive and nobody’s going to buy, or too difficult to make with the restricted facilities on Shetland. I’ve known Bob, I forget how long, it’s an awful long time (and) I knew he was the man for the job, absolutely no doubt. (He has) a spirit of excitement, a spirit of adventure if you like.”
Later Robert would design a range of jewellery for Shetland Silvercraft, some pieces of which they continue to make for us today. And the relationship continues with this newest range from Kit, who hopes to visit the Shetland Jewellery workshop in the New Year:
“It will be great to get a sense of place and to really understand where these designs are being produced. Robert always spoke about needing to come back to Chipping Campden to organise his thoughts on a project, but I think for myself, actually visiting the Shetlands will lead me to be inspired in new and unexpected ways so I am excited.”
Kit deBretton Gordon, Head of Design
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