Jewellery designer Corrinne Eira Evans makes luxurious, ethically focused pieces inspired by the beauty of Dartmoor. Words by Mercedes Smith.
At her Okehampton gallery on a cold winter’s day, Corrinne Eira Evans opens a glass display case with her key and lets me slide a spectacular sapphire and gold ring onto my finger. My Wednesdays don’t usually involve this kind of luxury experience, and I have never worn a ring so beautiful or so valuable before. I try to prolong the moment, stretching my arm out and admiring the ring with genuine longing as it sparkles with warmth in the cool November light. Titled Sunset Over Dartmoor, it is a unique work of art, hand crafted using 18 carat Single Mine Origin gold, and 1.5 carats of ethically mined pink Madagascan sapphire. Corrinne makes bridal, bespoke and handcrafted collections of jewellery inspired by the colours and textures of Dartmoor.
Using textile-based techniques, her work is defined by silken fabrics of woven gold and silver, intricately linked in a fine chainmail that moves fluidly against the skin. “I love the way something as solid as precious metal can be made to drape so beautifully, to make an everlasting fabric,” she says.
Corrinne was born in Liskeard, Cornwall, and had her first taste of jewellery making on a work experience week, aged fourteen. “I worked for a bespoke jeweller,” says Corrinne, “and he instilled so much confidence in me. He gave me projects to complete in real gold, so his trust in me was amazing. I fell in love with jewellery right there.”
Among her GCSEs at Liskeard Community College she studied Textile Art, developing a fascination with fabric techniques, and then joined a six-week summer school programme at Plymouth College of Art. “We were encouraged to try all manner of jewellery techniques there,” she tells me, “I learned so much.” She went on to study Applied Arts at Plymouth, followed by Jewellery and Silversmithing at the famous Birmingham School of Jewellery in the heart of the city’s Jewellery Quarter, “making everything from silver teapots to fine diamond rings,” says Corrinne. Jewellery students are expected to source and pay for their own materials, so she quickly developed an understanding of the gem market. “Studying in the Jewellery Quarter taught me much more than creative and technical things. We were regularly sent to buy gemstones from dealers, which meant pressing doorbells to request access, giving ID for security, and then passing through numerous locked doors into rooms full of sapphires and rubies. It was thrilling!”
LEFT - Corrinne Eira Evans sketching on Dartmoor
CENTRE - One Of A Kind Ring Collection | Image Credit: Beth Cath Key Photography RIGHT - One Of A Kind Collection. 18ct yellow and white SMO gold & natural sapphires
From Birmingham, she went on to Falmouth University and graduated with a BA Hons in Contemporary Craft, but then, like so many young art graduates, felt locked out of the seemingly inaccessible world of professional art and design. “I didn’t know how to approach galleries or market myself at all,” says Corrinne. “Degree courses just don’t seem to teach you those essential skills. I applied to shows and craft fairs, but I had to do part time jobs to make ends meet, and for a while I just felt lost.” What came next though, altered hers and all our lives. “It was the pandemic that changed everything,” she says simply. “Like a lot of people, I thought ‘what if I don’t survive this, without ever having done what I really wanted to?’ Before lockdown I had been working in jewellery workshops, making commissions under someone else’s brand, and I suddenly thought, ‘why am I doing this?’ I realised I could do it better under my own name. It was an epiphany moment. I think a lot of people felt that way in the pandemic. It was a clarifying experience. I had always known I was on the right path, I just needed to commit, to really go for it.”
This makes sense to me, I tell her. Whenever I lecture, I tell students that success in the arts is almost entirely down to commitment: artists who succeed are those who decide to succeed, who commit to plan A and drop any thought of a plan B. Corrinne began by using lockdown to make a complete jewellery collection inspired by the landscape of Dartmoor, for London’s annual Goldsmiths Fair, which showcases work by the UK’s best jewellers and silversmiths. “I refocused on the beauty of the moor and on making drawings, taking shapes and patterns from the landscape and working them into my jewellery designs,” says Corrinne. Back in her studio, she worked with gold for summer sunlight on the hills, silver for starlight and winter frosts, and titanium for the grey black of Dartmoor and granite, creating flowing designs in draped precious metals. “I made fifty pieces of jewellery,” says Corrinne, “necklaces, rings, earrings and bangles – and I applied and was accepted for Goldsmiths’ 2022 exhibition.”
TOP LEFT - ‘Wild Gorse’ chainmail SMO 18ct gold and Australian natural green sapphire ring | TOP RIGHT - ‘SunRay’ Earrings, Australian Parti Sapphires, Antique diamonds and 18ct SMO gold BOTTOM LEFT - ‘Sunlit Tors’ Bangle Bracelet, Recycled silver, 18ct yellow gold and titanium | BOTTOM RIGHT - ‘Sunset Over Dartmoor’ Chainmail Ring, Pink Sapphire & 18ct gold
Her talent and commitment were instantly rewarded: “Goldsmiths chose one of my bangles to promote that 2022, 40th Anniversary Fair, and British Vogue chose one of my brooches for their magazine, which really raised my profile.” Encouraged by such prestigious recognition, Corrinne applied to Goldsmiths Fair again the following year, presenting work that included gemstones for the very first time. “That first gemstone ring was created using a Salt and Pepper diamond, which has lots of inclusions,” she says of the tiny flaws that might once have been considered undesirable in the jewellery market. “Authentic, naturally flawed gems are becoming more popular because they are incredibly beautiful, and because our attitude to gemstones is changing. The jewellery industry sees beauty in different ways now, and we have changed our attitude to what is rare and precious in the world.” This is most obvious in the recent proliferation of lab grown diamond marketing, by an industry that is listening to the ethical concerns of its clientele. “I use antique diamonds though,” says Corrinne, “which are lovely, and were originally hand cut to sparkle in candlelight.” She occasionally uses ethically mined diamonds, but works mostly with sapphires, “because they are a really hard gem, so for practicality and wear they match diamonds, and they come in so many beautiful colours, from soft pastels to vibrant blues, greens, yellows, pinks, purples and whites.”
Keeping ethical concerns at the forefront of her practice, Corrinne only uses fully traceable, Single Mine Origin gold and silver, and existing or ethically sourced gemstones, and every piece she makes is SMO hallmarked alongside her official Assay Office maker’s mark. “I had always worked with recycled gold and silver,” says Corrinne, “but over time I began to understand that industry recycled metals were not as ethical as we had been led to believe, because so many chemicals are involved. That’s when I committed to recycling in-house, simply smelting metals down cleanly without chemicals, and investing in ethically mined metals. Gold and silver will always be mined for industries like computer tech, so supporting ethical mines feels right, because it helps fund environmentally focused practices and infrastructure. I also source my gemstones from a Canadian company who only use ethical and environmentally friendly mines.” For Corrinne’s clients, that makes buying or commissioning jewellery an entirely ‘feel good’ experience. “Jewellery is a very personal acquisition, and I think the idea of it as an heirloom is always a consideration,” says Corrinne.
“People think carefully about where a jewel has come from and who it will go to next. When jewellery is passed down, a story is passed down with it, of how and why it was created. My buyers are aware of my ethical approach, and I get to know all my clients personally, especially if they commission a bespoke piece, and there is meaning in that. Investing in jewellery is very much about trust, these are precious items, given to mark engagements, special birthdays, marriages, or to celebrate the arrival of children. They are incredibly special, and are always, always tokens of love to last a lifetime.”
LEFT - Corrinne selecting gemstones for new designs | Image Credit: Beth Kath Key Photography CENTRE - ‘Dartmoor At Dusk’ Ring and ‘Moorland Glow’ bracelet | Image Credit: Beth Cath Key Photography RIGHT - ‘Moorland Glow’ chainmail bangle bracelet handcrafted from SMO 18ct yellow & white gold
See Corrinne‘s work at corrinneeiraevans.com, or visit her studio gallery Moon & Moor at 19 The Victorian Arcade, Okehampton EX20 1EX. All images © Beth Kath Key Photography.