Thomas Heatherwick

We stayed up last Friday night to watch the Olympic ceremony and we were very impressed with the cauldron designed by Thomas Heatherwick. It features 204 copper petals, each representing one of the competing nations. After being ignited the flames spread from one petal to the next. Once all the petals were ablaze they rose upwards to combine as one. It was truly amazing to watch!


When the Games finished, the Olympic cauldron will be divided once more and each country can take home its own copper petal. The cauldron will cease to exist - "Like a flower that only blooms for the duration of the competition, it is a temporary representation of the extraordinary transitory togetherness that is an Olympic Games." - Thomas Heatherwick. 

One of the other things we particularly like by the British designer is his Twisted Cabinet. Made using twisted oak - when the doors are opened halfway, the bottoms of the doors look as if they are nearly open, while the tops look almost closed. Heatherwick has a solo exhibition at London's V&A Museum on right now where you can see this cabinet. It is a fantastic exhibition packed with innovative design and well worth a visit.

Ute Decker

We have a new maker in the gallery, German born artist-jeweller Ute Decker. Ute is actively engaged in campaigning for ethical 'good practice' in jewellery from mine to jewellery box. She uses fairtrade gold, 100% recycled silver and recycled packaging materials. It's interesting to see a jeweller explore the complex relationship beween ethics and aesthetics.

Piece of the week - Ruth Tomlinson studs

We have decided to start doing a piece of the week feature. Every week we will highlight a piece of jewellery or textiles which we have in the gallery. It might be a new piece we have just received, one that is getting a lot of attention or just something that we think it especially great! 

We are starting with Ruth Tomlinsons Sphere stud earrings from her Sketch collection. We have this oxidised silver pair in the gallery and an 18ct gold pair.Yesterday somebody bought the silver version as a gift for their daughter.

Ruth says: "I am driven by my passion for the magic of minutiae, tiny intricacies, small oddities and the search for preciousness within the world. I always search for beauty within objects; this might be found in the inherent value of a piece, the rarity of the material or in a curiosity of nature".

Michael Berger

On the opening night of COLLECT and during the weekend we were lucky enough to have some of the artists there with us, chatting to people about their work. Both Micheal Berger and Micheal Becker flew over from Germany especially. We have a special stand for Michaels jewellery, were you can turn the red balls which twists the rings around and makes them move. Lots of people stopped to play with them! 

Michael Berger creates Kinetic Jewellery from precious metals and precious and semi- precious stones. Individual elements can rotate, be turned or can swing, inspired by the kinetic energy of the body. Berger follows in the footsteps of his mentor, the master craftsman Friedrich Becker who was the first maker to begin making kinetic jewellery in the 1960's.