Cut Out Brooch – Pidgeons CDLT7

Clare de la Torre Jeweller

After completing a four year degree in Jewellery and Silversmithing, Clare de la Torre spent ten years in London working for herself and other jewellers.  Finally drawn from the Big City, Clare moved to Herefordshire in 1989 to run Collections Gallery in Ledbury followed by a period as Tinsmiths PR and website extraordinaire. Working from her Stoke Lacy studio, Clare has focused on her making practice full-time since 2019.

“When someone asks , “What sort of jewellery do you make?”, I never have a direct response. A failing, I know, but an understandable one. For one thing, the focus of my design is not static, it moves on and for another an almost entirely visual reply is required. Saying for example, ” Oh, I make silver jewellery” helps very little. I can say that I make jewellery which is never flat and shiny, which can be worn everyday in a quiet way and that is fairly ‘grown up’. The most pleasing comment I can hear from customers is how frequently they wear my designs.

I love to add texture to the surfaces and often like to make baskets and boxes part of my work. Following an inspirational visit to The Museum of London’s Cheapside Hoard, I became interested in precious and semi-precious stones. Of these, the imperfect, cloudy, blotchy examples appeal the most and therefore in my collections you can expect to see Jaspers, Carnelians, Serpentines, Kyanites and Agate stones. I hope you’ll like them.” Clare de la Torre