Is Oversized Statement Jewellery For Everyday And For You?
It’s true, statement jewellery can sometimes be a little intimidating. Perhaps you feel you simply ‘can’t pull it off’, perhaps the scale is ‘just not you’? Well, I wanted to write a blog post to show you that really it could be, because even the designers that design these crazy jewellery objects (me included!), feel the same things some days!
Now as you know I’m a jewellery designer, sure … Saloukee is my baby and most people assume that designers are usually the most confident of beings?! They’re the ones who can ‘pull off’ colour and are ballsy enough to wear the the outlandish hat and the enormous, out of this world shoes? … right?! … Of course that is sometimes the case, but if I’m honest that simply isn’t me, most of the time! Though I admit I love large scale, independent brand, jewellery (I’d be in the wrong game if I didn’t!), unusual boutique-made accessories (especially minimalist in design) and handmade home-wares (beautiful quality Danish stuff is my fave), I can’t say I’m one of those ‘look at me’ kinda gals.
Jewellery doesn’t have to be about shouting loudly all the time or shoving things in people’s faces, I see it as more of a reflection of what I’m about and an appreciation of someone’s handmade craft. If I ever meet anyone for the first time and they ask what I do, of course their response to my trade is, ‘Oh, so what you’re wearing today, did you make it?’ … sometimes the answer is ‘yes’ but sometimes it may also be, ‘no, this is a friends jewellery’, ‘no, this is the work of a student I used to lecture’ or ‘no, I bought this at an exhibition I attended the other day’.
In the last few years, I’ve lost count of the amount of times people have said to me ‘you really should always wear your own jewellery’, and though I appreciate and understand their reasoning and sentiment, there will always be a side of me who is a little coy of what I do and really I’m just not ‘a show-er-off-er’. If you met me, I wouldn’t tell you about the things I make, unless you asked me specifically and in the same way I don’t always want to show my wares. It’s not that I’m embarrassed or not proud of what I do, but so often it feels more natural to be a little more unassuming. Of course I’m sure the panel on Dragon’s Den would be up in arms to hear that I’m not ‘selling’ what I do in every moment of my waking day, but that simply will never be what I’m about and if it were, I’m pretty sure it would kill the passion I have to create pretty quickly!
For me the honour in what I do is more about seeing someone else wear my jewellery. To see their face when they try it on and to watch their change in body language as they realise how it makes them feel. What drew me to jewellery in the first place was the practical skills I can use, the touch of the materials through my hands and how I can manipulate made and found objects, morphing to something new, with just with my fingers tips. Some may find it actually ridiculous that I could feel that about an inanimate object, but when you go through the intimate process of designing jewellery collections, get to the bottom of materials working as one, making the jewellery, one by one and then selling them, by the end of it all, it actually is like giving away a little piece of what you’re about.
So in wearing my jewellery, I am saying something. Perhaps I’m reflecting my mood on waking, perhaps the colour or texture of the piece goes with the outfit I had planned, perhaps I am meeting someone later on that day who I think would like to see me showcasing my British-made products? All these are part of the story that we all tell everyday in putting on what we do and representing ourselves to the outside world, in the way we choose to. I just wanted to reassure readers, customers new and old, those who stumble upon my creative ramblings, that some days it is a statement jewellery kinda day, maybe oversized jewellery is your everyday staple, but I’m reckoning more often than not for many of us, we choose it on a day when we feel it right and for the other days, something more subdued will suffice also. It’s a balance, the same with everything right? … so what does today represent for you … what will you choose before walking out the front door … feeling brave? …
