The Boulder set is influenced by the windblown rocks of Valle della Luna in Sardinia. Styled by Izabella Balikoti. Photo: Andrew O’Ciardubháin

Silver Loom fuelled by passion

As you may know jewellery is my absolute passion. Yes I love styling and clothing but jewellery will always have a special place in my heart.

From chunky statement pieces in bold colour and design to simpler pieces in gold or silver, nothing finishes off a look more than a well chosen piece of jewellery.

Jewellery is the perfect gift to mark a special occasion or as a treat to yourself. Buying a piece of jewellery for someone else can be tricky as it’s such a personal thing but when doing so try and get a feel for what that person already wears and take that as your cue.

The Silver Loom is a jewellery design studio which I love, and they are back with a new contemporary collection called Erosion. The designers Izabella and Andrew grew up in Cork and the studio is based in West Cork.

Fuelled by a passion to create, they integrate traditional handcrafting and silversmithing techniques to cast and hand finish each piece with a variety of contemporary design and prototyping exploration to interrogate the possibilities within their design process. The Silver Loom is a proud member the Design and Craft Council of Ireland.

The Silver Loom aims to weave a fresh new perspective into the landscape of Irish jewellery design. A visual language based on elegant, sculptural forms and sensual lines. The studio was launched in June 2020 by Izabella Balikoti and Andrew O’Ciardubháin, 2 designers with backgrounds in and fashion design, architecture and furniture design respectively.

They decided to combine their two voices and experiences to create a dynamic design language with which to explore the possibilities of form, line and shadow in contemporary jewellery. A mutual creative vision for emotive lines that flow between the pieces and the wearer drive each sculptural silver series.

This new collection explores the delicate balance of nature’s feminine qualities: resilience and yielding. The hand carved forms inspired by the effects of wind and water erosion on stone landscapes evoke boulders, pebbles and islands with smooth hollows and rolling curves.

The pieces are lost-wax cast in sterling silver and satin finished with eye-catching contrasts of high polish. Sculptural and sensual, the Silver Loom collections represent the power of embracing femininity. The series consists of two sets, Boulder and Stack. Each featuring a pair of earrings, rings and a pendant.

The Boulder set is influenced by the windblown rocks of Valle della Luna in Sardinia. Monolith sandstone coast line moulded by wind and time. The pieces in this set suggest a weight and the effect of the elements through softly moulded cavities. The smaller of the two necklaces in this set is Pebble, a little memento stowed away to be layered with other talismans in your collection.

Stack features a statement necklace, a smooth highly polished crater, reflective like a drop of water on one side, while the other side is carved like a stone island smoothed by waters, and satin finished to a more muted lustre. The rings and earrings are slim minimal half hoops, carved like sea stacks with sharp highly polished highlights, are ideal for stacking back to back or as an eyecatching highlight on their own. With Christmas coming I know I’d love to find one of these special pieces in my Christmas stocking!