Claire Allain
Claire has been making lovely pieces of wearable art since graduating from the Birmingham School of Jewellery in 1998. Her love of creation has travelled with her as far as New Zealand and back. Claire is very deliberate with her use of materials, opting to use recycled, fair-trade and eco-metals only. After recently attending a class, Claire has started experimenting with enamel. She loves the element of unpredictability that accompanies the firing process. Every piece she makes is dusted, painted and fired individually, giving each a unique history. The results are little abstract pictures or wearable sculptures, rich with colour, texture and pattern.
Art to Wear is back for it's fifth year! Here at Lily Luna we're passionate about showcasing as many talented, creative and artistic designers as we can. To that end, we have invited seven new designers to join our 28 resident designers for our Art to Wear event. All 35 designers will have a number of mesmerising pieces on display for you to browse during the Fringe Festival. Meet our seven new designers here:
Jade Mellor
Influenced deeply by her maker father, and growing up in a house filled with antiques, curios and niche tools, Jade feels most comfortable in museums and workshops. Jade’s first studio in Manchester birthed her first collection, inspired by the raw beauty of minerals, meteorites and Iceland’s dramatic landscape. She aims to capture the thrill of opening a secret drawer or a glimpse through a microscope. Jade’s newest collection is equally unique, exploring the combination of the caddis fly and our yearning for ancient buried treasure. Jade finds connections between nature and our own inherent need to adorn ourselves and our homes. She explores both aesthetically and symbolically, creating jewellery which feels personal, protective and powerful.
Karolina Baines
Karolina Baines is a jewellery designer and maker based in Edinburgh. Her designs combine vibrant colours with a sense of movement to create sculptural jewellery that embodies an elegant yet playful character. She uses rich colours and tactile elements to further develop an emotional connection between her jewellery and its wearer. Her collections reflect a diverse array of influences, from the bold geometric patterns of mosaics, through the traditions of basketry and weaving, to the graceful movement implicit in Japanese textiles. Karolina explores these inspirations first through sketchbook and printmaking processes, before realising them in precious metals, using etching, enamelling and folding techniques. The results are unique works infused with rich visual and tactile values and a stirring sense of movement.
Natalie Baker
Natalie Baker is an Australian jewellery designer living in Scotland. Working from her studio in Glasgow, she produces sculptural but eminently wearable jewellery. Her work is handmade from silver, often combined with unusual materials such as hand cut glass, polished concrete and Jesmonite. Working with materials usually associated with construction, Natalie likens the process to alchemy. She enjoys transforming these basic elements into something beautiful and unique. She is intrigued by the basic elemental quality of these materials; often considered modern but actually quite ancient. She has a keen interest in structural composition and material process, and combines this with the visual language of abstract art, demonstrating a passion for colour, form and line.
Romany Starrs
Romany’s obsession with jewellery began when she was taken to India at 14. The colourful jewellery she brought home was broken up and reassembled into her own designs. She has been a designer for 20 years, and years of experience at the bench enable her to make her own designs by hand as well. Influenced by an early fascination with the Bauhaus movement, her work examines the connection between colour and shape. She loves to explore the idea that certain colours and shapes can communicate a specific idea or emotion to the wearer. Utilising both traditional and new technologies, Romany creates beautiful collections in gold, silver and precious gemstones that showcase craftsmanship and passion for good design.
Roo Bannister
Roo’s jewellery is a deep dive into the intricacies of the ancient world, drawing on original artefacts for design inspiration. She uses the millennia-old production method of lost-wax-casting to create most of her work. She finds the sculpting process therapeutic; it’s messy, chaotic, and somewhat controlled. She gets lost in the play, and spends hours manipulating wax into wearable miniature worlds. Roo is inspired by the incredible workmanship showcased in ancient jewellery, and loves to explore the role of jewellery in ancient cultures. As well as being beautiful to look at, Roo uses her jewellery to share her love of the ancient world and encourage wearers to learn something new about the past.
Copenhagen Enamel
Enamel Copenhagen is a Danish jewellery brand founded in 2012 by designer Marie Rantzau. Marie’s love for jewellery blossomed when she travelled the world and discovered many unique jewellery materials. It was being inspired by, and using, these materials that prompted her to make her first collections. Marie has a strong love for colour, and aims to create jewellery that is the perfect mix of colourful, playful and elegant. Her jewellery is made from 18 carat gold plated sterling silver, crafted with harmony and balance in mind. Above all, Marie wants her jewellery to inspire joy in its wearer.
Quinta Essenza
Quinta Essenza was started by Roberta Pederzoli, after being hit by inspiration whilst making daisy chain necklaces and little crowns with her daughter. She realised that she wanted to learn how to make jewellery. Roberta designs tactile and textured jewellery, infusing her pieces with a fairy-tale sense of elegance and enchantment. Her creations are influenced by an intertwining of Italian culture and Scottish environment, and a love for organic shapes. She believes nature to be an endless source of inspiration, and enjoys finding beauty where it is not always appreciated. She likes her jewellery to spring into life, showing vulnerability and transformation, and developing with the passing of time.
