DUALITY Peruvian Opal Earrings by Lucy Spink
Stunning blue Peruvian opals wrapped in a 9ct gold rub-over setting with reticulated oxidised silver studs.
"My work plays with the marriage of contrasting materials and textures and celebrates the difference in each hand made piece of jewellery. The nature of crafting by hand is accentuated by allowing each pair of earrings to look similar but with subtle differences making them unique. The contrast of oxidised silver and rich yellow gold is one I love, it gives a raw elegance to the pieces which is inspired by ancient rocky formations and seams of bright yellow xanthoria lichens.
Reticulation is a beautiful textural finish created by heating and cooling sterling silver and allowing the alloys to separate. The pure silver comes to the surface and melts at a lower temperature to the alloys so as it cools, it forms ridges and valleys, distinct and unusual in each iteration."
Earring length 2.5cm
The Designer
Lucy’s work manifests her sympathy with nature and her understanding of its fragility. It is beautifully handcrafted, textured jewellery which speaks of the details of our natural environment and the deeply rooted human connection to landscape. Each piece feels as precious as that pebble you curl your hand around and slip into your pocket as a reminder.
Using her Granddad’s old workshop tools, each piece she makes shows the marks of process and the beauty of form, reflecting the patterns of nature – the outline shapes of rocky outcrops, the surface patterns made by hammers like the texture of stone, small spurs of silver and gold to replicate the growth patterns of lichens.
