Karen Morrison

Interview with Karen Morrison

- Can you tell us a little bit about yourself as a jewellery designer/maker and your brand?

K: I’m a London based designer/maker.  I’m a fairly new company, doing pretty much everything myself, apart from getting outworkers to help when I’ve got big orders in.  I design and make the jewellery, do the photography, business and have built my own website. A lot of the things I do are self-taught, you learn as you go on. I design and make two or three collections a season gathering inspiration from the catwalk, fashion magazines and my natural environment.  I buy quite a lot of semi-precious beads, I have drawers full of them, and I mix and match different colours to see which ones compliment each other. My collections are quite similar to previous ones but are ever evolving.

- What actually made you get into jewellery designing? 

K: As a child I loved making things especially jewellery. I would give my mum little boxes of jewellery I’d made and get her to take them to work to sell for me. At school I had a keen interest in the arts so I went on to college to do a Fashion Technology course, which covered topics like fashion designing, pattern cutting, photography and jewellery. After I completed my course I moved to London and was a fashion model for seven years. I then gave up modelling and decided to go back to my first love, jewellery. I took some night classes in silversmithing, and then did a diploma in Jewellery.

- How would you describe your style?

K: I’m very into the twenties and thirties flapper style, so a lot of my inspiration comes from there.

I like to keep my designs up to date but also to have a classic timeless appeal. You could say the combinations of colour I use define my style.

- What were your initial concepts for your latest collection?

K: I had been on a camping trip to Kent and found these flower seed pods all over the ground. I thought they had a very interesting shape so decided to get them made into wax then cast into silver. This is where my autumn/winter 09 collection ‘Pods’ grew from.

- What/who would you say is your strongest source of inspiration?

K: Nature and my natural surroundings, especially my homeland Scotland.

Fashion and landscape photography, architecture, going to galleries, music, the Art Deco period and London street style and culture.

- What is the most important facet to pay attention to in your jewellery?

K: The mix of colour I use within my gemstone combinations and the different chains that I use.  All my collections are based around semi-precious beads and pearls and I mix these with sterling silver, gold vermeil chains, blackened silver and 9ct gold.

- Do you have any favourite materials and special techniques you enjoy using?

K: I adore working with precious and semi-precious gemstones and I’ve just started casting pieces from wax.

- What are your opinions on the current European jewellery/fashion scenes?

K: Germans are very good technically but can be a bit hard edged for me. I like French classic and traditional fine jewellery. But for me London is by far the most fashionable, trend setting and forward thinking.

- What are your plans and goals for the near and distant future?

K: I’d like to learn CAD (computer aided design) as with that the possibilities are endless. I’m also interested in applying my design skills for a big brand company.  I’ve just designed a new headband range so I’d like to expand that more. Last month I put on a pop-up shop for a week and it was very successful so I’d like to hire more temporary retail spaces and sell direct to the public.

I was recently nominated in the Vogue sponsored Scottish Fashion Awards for jewellery designer of the year 2009 and hope to build on that high level recognition.

- Do you have some words of wisdom for any young designers and our readers?

K: Work hard and be prepared to work all hours.  Don’t let mishaps put you off, just deal with them, learn from them and move on. Believe in yourself and follow your passion. Enjoy what you do.

Website : www.karenmorrisonjewellery.co.uk

Written by Nashrin Azad