Goldsmith Kerry Seaton has been designing precious jewellery for Toast for sometime now. As part of our workspace series, her small Farringdon workshop, just a stone throw away fromLondon's Jewellery Quarter, immediately sprung to mind.
Tell us about your art form
Jewellery has been synonymous with romance since Romans used rings as a sign of betrothal to one another. This traditional notion of jewellery as a symbol of love and commitment appeals to me strongly. Some of my most personally rewarding experiences as a jeweller have come from making wedding rings, engagement rings and gifts from one lover to another.
I love working on such a small, intimate scale. Ultimately in each piece I aim to achieve visual balance, a certain elegance that is somewhat modest.
Describe your workspace
I have had my workshop at The Goldsmiths' Centre, in Farringdon for three years. I started occupying the space immediately after I finished my MA in Goldsmithing at the RCA. It is a really calm environment, very tiny but with everything I need. It has a mixture of tools that I have collected over the years, all my sketchbooks, inspiration books and objects. My favourite objects that surround me are a picture of my Mum and Dad outside their first house together, a black silver dog my boyfriend made me, and some tiny bits of gold that I panned for in Scotland a few years ago, plus various precious stones that I don't want to sell! My certificate awarded to me after my five-year jewellery apprenticeship from The Goldsmiths' Company hangs above my work bench.
The most striking thing about the workshop is all the light from the huge window, and the jeweller's cut out in the bench, from which hangs a leather which captures all the lemel' fine dust from each piece.
Kerry Seaton's certificate from The Goldsmiths' Company
Kerry's workspace featuring her Outline Earrings with Moonstone
How does your work reflect your surroundings?
Everything just looks like one, to me it's all the same language and things I believe in; process, simplicity, sentiment, balance and refinement are all shown in my work and in the environment I create around myself.
Do you work better in chaos or order?
Order, everything is in neat rows and fairly organised. I can work in chaos (I also share a workshop at home with my partner Sam Le Prevost and this workshop is the total opposite from my London surroundings), but I do prefer some form of order.
Kerry's shared workshop at home with partner Sam Le Prevost
Silence or sound?
Sound I mostly listen to BBC 6 Music, Tom Ravenscroft, and Jarvis Cocker are my favourites to listen to.
If I choose to put on some music, my current favourites would be Ata Kak, Jose Gonzalez and Caribou.
Another artist / goldsmith you would like to meet
I would have liked to have met the Egyptian goldsmiths to see their way of working, I would have really liked to see their tools and general working environments. I do wonder how ancient goldsmiths knew so much about working with gold.
Shop Kerry Seaton's jewellery on our website here
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