Jewellery designer and maker Melanie Lucas has been working in the crafts industry for sometime now; as part of a collaborative to establish a pottery school, teaching marketing and design through storytelling at the UCA in Farnham and Rochester and working with the Crafts Study Centre and other crafts organisations and makers.

A chance encounter a few years ago led her to pick up her silversmithing tools again and what started out as a hobby, making one off pieces for gifts and commissions, turned into something more. Melanie has been selling her jewellery at the Crafts Study Centre since 2017 and remains a favourite amongst visitors and staff.  

Here she tells us about her craft and what inspires her. 

I have never been a big jewellery wearer - really never loving highly polished and finely made jewellery on me. I never thought it looked right and I’m not a ‘polished’ person, so I think that is why I have always been drawn to more artisanal pieces. I am a romantic and love the notion of giving jewellery as a symbol of love, but I also believe that jewellery should be something that we want to gift to ourselves too. And that is what I really want from those who buy my pieces - that they are something affordable and something we want to wear every day, not tucked away in a jewellery box for special occasions. 

In March 2019 I moved into a small ‘shedio’ - a small but beautifully lit space that is part of a small artists garden at ‘Little Acres’ just outside of Farnham. Its a very calm environment and I feel safe and able to switch off and become absorbed in what I am making.  Whilst being small, I don’t need much space. I don’t have any fancy equipment and could pretty much survive with a really basic kit; a saw for piercing - thats cutting out - the metal, my trusty collection of hefty beach pebbles I use for texturising the metal, files and paper and my soldering equipment being the key items. I also love my bow-drill that my parents bought me. They were a bit baffled that I was turning down the opportunity of a swanky pillar drill, but I love the slow process of using more traditional tools. I might change in the future, but thats where I am right now. I blame my tutor for that - she taught me to use what you have around you.  

No two pieces I make are identical. Each having been cut and textured by hand. I like the organic, earthy feel - I like it that some of my pieces look like they’ve been found in an often ploughed field. I know some people don’t like my work, and when I say I am really ok with that, I often get confused looks. I remember the first time I sold a pair of earrings to a lady who looked exactly like my ideal customer - she really was the person I made those for, I just cant explain that feeling, but it spurred me on to make more and have confidence in my work. 

I really am in the infancy of my jewellery making journey, and every time I pick up a tool or a piece of metal, I know I am going to learn something new. Always an admirer of Guy Royle, I have always wanted to learn chasing and repousse - an ancient technique of manipulating the metal with hammers on a pitch base to essentially to create reliefs and embossing on the metal - I love the stories that can be made into the metal and again, the really simple tools required. That is next on my list to learn.  I would love to go back to the Roman and medieval times to see the tools and techniques used in those days.

Images by Melanie Lucas