Maya Selway

With the heart of an artist and the observations of a poet, Maya Selway is a jeweller marked apart by an approach led by ideas rather than technique. Ideas always underpinned by exacting craftsmanship. She emerged into art school when everybody was telling her that conceptual art was the thing, that grit under the fingernails and simple materials were outmoded and backward looking. That’s when the thousand-yard stare helped her out, because being Maya she wanted to have both. To live and breathe in a workshop, at the same time as rigorously, nurturing her thoughts and feelings into a conceptual framework that would sustain her work for a lifetime.

From an artistic family and after creative explorations in prop making, silversmithing and sculpture she has come to settle on jewellery for its ability to relate to human experience. And so her art has found its way, not into the confines of the gallery but into the universal language of precious jewels.