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Alison’s distinctive precious metal and gemstone jewellery is designed and hand crafted using traditional techniques in her studio, located in the Orkney harbour town of Stromness.
Alison’s work reflects her own personal style and she aims to create unique pieces that are understated, timeless yet utterly contemporary. Her work is elegant, with simple yet distinctively clean lines. Gems add touches of colour, light and sparkle. Her sought-after jewellery is refreshingly pure, and most certainly to be treasured.
Alison has a lifelong passion for gemstones, art and design, and following her first visit to Orkney in 2009 where she fell in love with islands, she endeavoured to follow her passion as more than just an all consuming pastime.
Over the years Alison has built up a sizeable collection of stunning minerals, mostly secreted away from view. ''It dawned on me that jewellery is the ideal platform on which to display the beauty of my treasures. Designing and producing jewellery has given me the opportunity to be creative working with them and wearing them, and of course it was a great excuse to expand my collection.”
Orkney provides the most amazing inspiration for Alison's work. One of her earliest designs, the Pebble collection was inspired by the sea tumbled pebbles washed up on the shores at Skaill, just a pebbles throw away from her home.
And her latest collection, Seaweed, celebrates her two greatest passions – geology and the ocean - with the unique, natural patterns hidden within dendritic agates skilfully revealed to represent the rich variety of seaweed found in Orkney waters.
Situated on an archipelago in the northern isles of Scotland, it comes as no surprise that Alison loves the ocean and cares passionately about its conservation.
“As an avid diver, I’ve been heartbroken to see the huge amount of plastic that’s washed up on our shores every day,” she says. So this year, she has made it her mission to reduce the amount of plastic the business uses. “We’ve recently changed our packaging to consist of recyclable and/or ethically sourced materials,” she explains.
She has also offered a returns service on plastic ring sizers. “This bothered me, as I was contributing to the single-use plastic problem. Our solution was to sell the sizers and offer a full refund if they were returned to us for re-use. This seems to have been a truly popular scheme that we’re really proud of,” she says.
Her diving antics have resulted in a passion for underwater photography, and Alison launching her own homeware & accessories.
Whilst diverse and distinctive, all of her collections are connected by the themes of purity and practicality, reflecting a desire to create pieces that are simple, wearable and affordable.
As timeless as it is contemporary, Alison’s jewellery subtly reflects the character of its creator, while at once becoming part of your own life story.
VISIT US
Come and see us at our shop in Stromness, Orkney where you can peer through the window of our workshop and often see Alison at her workbench and purchase work directly.