When I was growing up I always thought you were either a silver or a gold person. It was a choice. Like are you a dog or cat person. I was firmly a silver person (and cat person, if you’re curious).
This belief continued into my twenties. Then my sister (also a strictly silver person) got engaged and her engagement ring was GOLD. Two things happened that day, I fell in love with antique jewellery and I realised that maybe you could be a gold AND silver person. Or for that matter, a copper, brass, titanium person.
I wasn’t a jeweller at this point, just a keen collector and admirer. I then began to collect mixed metal jewellery, brass bracelets here and gold highlighted necklaces there.
These days I wear gold, silver, copper, brass and even some mokume-gane all jumbled together. I love the mix of colours, textures and styles.
You don’t have to look far on my website to see my love of mixed metal designs seeping into my work.
It liberated me to realise you don’t have to choose between gold and silver, but I’m still going to choose cats.