How the magic starts…

Author’s Bio - Angela Benjamin of Ange B Designs, is a London-based jewellery artist.

She describes her work as being ‘architectural adornment’. Ange does all of her creating and teaches jewellery making workshops for beginners, in her cosy garden studio.

I’m always interested to know where other creatives get their inspiration, but I often find myself blurting out an unintelligible word salad when I’m asked the same question. On a conscious level, I know that I LOVE asymmetric geometry and Brutalist architecture but there are so many other things that inspire my jewellery practice.

Childhood memories of my piano teacher’s wrists jingling with silver bracelets is an enduring image, and probably had a strong subliminal influence on my jewellery style. She was an elderly but very stylish Jamaican lady who always wore several rings, alongside an armful of silver bangles. There is a particular style of silver bangle which can be found on many of the Caribbean islands, with each island having a slightly different iteration. I was 18 when I was given a set of three such bangles by my Grenadian godmother.

Clothes have always been a big thing for me: my mum made a lot of my wardrobe as a little kid and I believe that how we wear what we wear, is an extension of one’s personality and can significantly influence one’s mood. Although I’m never far from a pair of jeans, I have an affinity with structured garments. I’m excited by the way designers such as Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake and Hussein Chalayan ‘engineer’ fabric into wearable architecture - stunning clothes that don’t conform to the natural contours of the body, but have enduring style. Many of my creations are not what I’d call conventional in shape, but I strive to make work that has a timeless element.

Places and travel also inform my jewellery designs - urban city breaks are always great for igniting my creative fuse: from architecture (I LOVE a door) to local graffti to beach flotsam. I’m particularly drawn to places and spaces that appear slightly “off”, and I have a pathological obsession with negative space! I always take loads of photos both home and away, and now get them printed…like the good ol’ days!

So how do I put all of these seemingly abstract elements together to create a pair of earrings or a brooch?? Over the past year, I’ve been ‘training’ myself to engage with a more formal design process (yes, a jewellery maker that doesn’t design? Who knew?!?) Despite a stint at art school and being ‘ok’ at drawing, I have never been one to sit down and sketch out ideas before making things. My tools have tended to be the first thing I reached for - not pen and paper!

For ages I felt like a fraud about this - could I really call myself a “designer” if I wasn’t designing?? After some lovely chats with other creatives and mentors, I now understand that there are NO rules! Newsflash: you can do it however you want to! That said, I’m now finding joy in doing some planning and designing. Last year, I set myself the goal of sketching for thirty minutes every day - it didn’t have to be ‘perfect’ or anything special, it was simply a means of engaging with my creative side in a different way. Today, I can actually say that enjoy drawing and have started incorporating my photos, as part of my design process.

Whilst I still struggle to succinctly convey the inspiration for my aesthetic identity, I am getting much better at owning it - I’m confident in the things that I love and how they are expressed through my creative practice. I’m loathed to use the word ‘journey’, but my process of making a piece of jewellery definitely follows its own path!