Sue designs subtle, pure and minimal contemporary jewellery with clean lines and a soft finish. Her designs are punctuated with diamonds and coloured stones while incorporating matt and polished finishes to highlight colour contrasts when combining different coloured metals.
Read on to find out a little bit more about Sue and her jewellery.
Describe your work in 3 words?
Modern, classic, timeless.
What inspires you/your work?
I am inspired by lines, shape, detail and proportion of everyday life. Landscapes, people and objects; the things I see everyday. I live and work in rural Herefordshire, so that impacts my work enormously. The softness of the landscape, the position of a tree on the horizon, the ethos of the rural lifestyle where things should have a purpose. The need for things to be practical but a joy to use. I am always sketching or jotting down in notebooks, and paper has always been a material I love. At university, 20 years ago, I made a collection of objects and jewellery in paper. Today I make all my models and samples in paper. I use paper to add texture to the surface of metal. I fold and shape metal much like I used to with paper. Experimenting with materials and techniques inspires me.
What made you decide to be a jewellery designer?
Scale. I can visualise, think and work on a small scale. I can’t do the same on a larger scale. This combined with the love of how metals can so quickly be manipulated, cut, constructed, soldered, dismantled, adjusted, soldered again and manipulated further and further. Precious metals are kind to work with while always retaining value and simple beauty. Over the years I have worked more and more with clients who are getting engaged and married. This has reminded me of the sentiment we as humans attach to jewellery, and how when a ring leaves the studio it evolves with time into an object with enormous sentiment, attachment and value to it’s owner. My involvement in that process is one I treasure and enjoy.
If you weren’t a jewellery designer what do you think you would be?
My answer as a 7 year old was to be a weather girl. I think that stemmed from my upbringing in a farming community where your day, week and sometimes your year was determined by the weather. With hindsight I also know it was my farming background that effected the way I viewed my future career. As a child, the majority of adults I knew, including my family, were self-employed or ran their own businesses. Running my own business seemed the only way forward, and I never doubted it was what I would do too.
What’s the most exciting piece you have ever made?
Wow, that’s a hard question. It could be my husband’s wedding ring. Or it could be a ring I made recently for a client with an incredible, very large old cut diamond. For some reason, that diamond talked to me.
What tool can you not live without?
The kettle! It welcomes me to the workshop first thing in the morning. It’s there to calm me before I do a very tricky soldering job. It’s there to delay doing my tax return. It’s there to help welcome clients or students to the studio and help break the ice. It’s there in the moment of need, for when someone is upset, sad or emotional, because jewellery brings out all sorts of emotions!
What do you love most about being a jeweller?
I love being able to live and earn a living it a beautiful rural area, doing something I love and have always loved, and to see the joy of what I create with my own hands brings to people.
If you could choose anyone to wear your jewellery, who would it be?
Another tough question. I can only say I would choose anyone to wear my jewellery if they truly love it, treasure it, value it and enjoy it. I’m sorry I can’t name a name!
What is your favourite piece on lovedazzle?
I have to say Round Pearl Ring by Marianne Anderson. I adore this ring and love Marianne’s work because it is so different to my own. I love oxidised jewellery and her choice of coloured stones.
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