Meet the maker Anja

This won't be a bio in the traditional sense, because that simply isn't me... After all every girl/dormouse likes to maintain a little air of mystery - not that I'm very mysterious, of course...I also pretty much agree with Holden Caulfield's inimitable views on the matter at the beginning of TCITR.

So all I'm going to say here is that my name is Anja and I live and work in London and what is to follow will hopefully express in a small way what me and my jewellery are all about.

I have always been fascinated by jewellery from how people wear it,to how jewellery has changed(and in some ways not changed) throughout the ages. Going to museums and crafts fairs and looking at everything from Roman&Celtic jewellery through to items crafted by contemporary designers made me appreciate the skill and creativity that goes into making a piece of jewellery,now and 2000 years ago.

I try to encapsulate a little bit of this history in the items I make, as well as all my other sources of inspiration.But what I REALLY want my jewellery to be is quirky. 'Quirky' is one of the main criteria by which I judge pretty much everything, especially people... It also happens to be one of my most over-used words, so I try not to use it again in this piece... The way it applies to my designs is that I like to use quite traditional materials but in a slightly unconventional way.

I would also like to mention my grandmother as one of my earliest sources of inspiration. She really, really loved her jewellery and always wore something weird and wonderful, well sometimes veering more towards the slightly weird - but never ever anything boring. So I'm hoping that she would have approved of this, had she lived to see it, because she was 'quirky' too! Sorry about using that word again...

That's it!

Love,

Anja x