Inside the school of hard rocks: the college driving jewellery innovation

At Central Saint Martins — the London college of art and design known for its catwalk events and its star alumni — fashion always seems to steal the show. But graduates of the BA Jewellery Design and MA Design — which spans ceramics, furniture and jewellery — are now in demand just as much as their fashion peers.

“Recent graduates have gained roles in the design and creative departments at brands including Louis Vuitton, Chaumet, Cartier, and Van Cleef & Arpels,” says former BA Jewellery Design course leader Giles Last, who recently handed the baton to Sally Collins.

Alumni who are now fine jewellers with internationally recognised brands include Alice Cicolini, Noor Fares, Capucine Huguet (Capucine H), and Fernando Jorge. Many credit CSM with honing their voice and setting them on the road to success. “The focus is on design and pushing [jewellery]-making into new places,” says Cicolini, a graduate of the MA. “The experience instils a determination to establish and refine your unique voice and contribution. It’s not enough just to be a great maker in the international jewellery industry.”

Each year, there are 50-60 students studying jewellery across the BA and MA. The MA is two years long, while the BA takes three, or four if the student spends a placement year in industry. Supported by teaching staff and technicians, they undertake projects that invite experimentation and can serve as a stepping stone to the industry.

Scott Armstrong won the CSM Chaumet Design Competition in 2017 while studying for his BA, and now works at Fendi after a long stint at Chaumet. “It’s a great example of a particularly successful live student-sponsored project across MA and BA,” says Last. “The winner goes on to be offered an internship and then a job.”

Asked if she considered attending a jewellery school in her native Italy, graduate Bea Bongiasca shakes her head. “I always wanted to go to CSM because it is the best art school in Europe,” she says. Bongiasca attended summer schools, took an art foundation and then opted for jewellery. The designer, who now has a flagship in Milan, graduated with a BA in 2013. “We were a small class, very close. We had to be at college in the work­shops all the time because these weren’t tasks you could carry out at home.”

London-based Tomasz Donocik followed a similar trajectory, leaving Vienna for an art foundation course followed by the BA Jewellery Design. “It is highly creative and allows its students to explore different avenues and materials,” he says. “I have seen students sent to CSM by their parents who have their own jewellery business back home. Therefore, I would assume they rate the course and want their children to come back with fresh ideas to inject into their own businesses. So, I think those who know, know.”

At the University of the Arts London (UAL), of which CSM is a part, students are set projects that are often in collaboration with brands. Underlying this, the university has a framework for climate, racial and social justice in its teaching.

The experience instils a determination to establish and refine your unique voice and contribution

London-based brand Missoma — which has an annual turnover of £33mn from selling brass and silver jewellery plated with gold — donated £300,000 worth of product to MA students to chop up and experiment with. Another collaboration with CSM involved fashion designer Stella McCartney and computer maker Lenovo.

“The energy at CSM is a very special sort of nuclear fission,” says MA course leader Simon Fraser. “We work hard to make sure that what we’re teaching is current. We listen to our friends and colleagues in the industry and beyond, about the way the world is changing and reshaping itself, and bring this information in.”

One way this happens is through guest lectures.

Hannah Martin, for example — known for distinctive rock ’n’ roll jewellery designs — is a longstanding visiting lecturer on the BA. “Simon is the king of ‘Why?’,” says graduate Ellis Mhairi Cameron of Fraser. “Simon interrogated my reasoning until we reached the point where my narrative felt bulletproof.”

Fernando Jorge, who studied at CSM for an MA after working in the jewellery industry in Brazil, keeps in contact with a CSM network that includes Fraser. “I loved my experience at CSM but had a very difficult culture shock at first,” says Jorge. “The tutors helped me look back at Brazil as my source of originality. I had skills in designing jewellery, but I think this course gave me a sharpness of understanding of what it is you’re trying to say with every collection, with every move, with every creative expression.”

This year’s graduate work from the BA and MA was unveiled at the college in King’s Cross last month. London-based pearl specialist Winterson, the Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers, and jewellers Annoushka and Theo Fennell were some of those who sponsored BA final-year awards at the prize-giving, while Louis Vuitton and Cartier awarded internships and prizes to second-years. Cicolini, on behalf of Winterson, for which she is a consultant, named student Rosa Lusvardi as its award winner.

In 2022, jeweller Theo Fennell was so impressed by the innovative use of scrimshaw — a technique traditionally used to carve designs into ivory or bone — demonstrated by BA student Tabitha Charlton that the two collaborated on a collection of four one-of-a-kind designs featuring scrimshaw on pearls, retailing from £2,950.

The jeweller’s 2022 award for best technical achievement went to Kathy Chan, who devised a drilling technique for rice. The result was a collection entitled Cultured Rice that included earrings, bangles and necklaces incorporating rice, both long grain and risotto.

This course gave me a sharpness of understanding of what it is that you’re trying to say with every collection

“The wider jewellery industry needs to celebrate more the fact that students from all over the world want to come to the UK to take advantage of our brilliant creative university courses — CSM, in particular — because they are so good,” says Fennell. This year, he named Richard Farbey, who also received the Swarovski Foundation Scholarship, as the latest winner of his award.

“We are the jewellery industry,” says Fraser, half-joking. “There’s been an explosion in jewellery schools, so what I am very proud of, and I know Giles is too, is that when you look around the world, people still can see the value of what we offer in terms of jewellery education. It’s not a cookie-cutter process — central to what we do is help the student with the articulation of their personal voice.”