Arrabella Giles

Long before I became a silversmith, I had a passion for jewellery. Walk into a gallery and, like a magpie, I’d head straight to the shiny jewellery cabinets before looking at anything else. Admiring beautiful handmade jewellery is a pleasure in itself. But then you spot a piece that makes your eyes widen, your smile broaden and you can’t bear the thought of leaving without it. Now as a jeweller myself, I want you to feel the same joy and desire when one of my designs catches your eye.

My jewellery is all about rich colours, subtle patterns and clean design. All handmade in my garden studio in rural Dorset, I hand print my anodised aluminium or use gorgeous, luminous sea glass to create each distinctive piece. Think traditional silversmithing meets contemporary metalsmithing.

It’s amazing how such an everyday industrial material as aluminium can be transformed into a little wearable piece of art. Inspired by nature and textures, I experiment with different colour combinations and prints. The hand dyeing process is always unpredictable, with the happy result that no two pieces will ever look the same, creating endless possibilities of patterns and colour.

And who doesn’t love sea glass? Not just the incredible colours but how each irregular shape and pitted surface hides the mystery of what it originally was and how it came to be this way. What stories it could tell.

The final element of my work is the subtle soft grey of the silver. It frames and contains the colour perfectly, allowing it to sing without letting it overpower the design. And in so doing, creates something bold, individual and uplifting.