Halt an iron railing, a dead links of london beetle, two shark's teeth and Dad's old cuff links are among the cache of links of london jewellery objets links of london trouves that are scattered around Atelier's jewellery workshop in King's Cross.
Flanked by a porn shop and a chiropodist, Julian Brogden and Cathi Jordan work in the kind of creative chaos that didn't much impress their bank manager when he links of london sale paid a visit last year. 'He was disgusted with our filing system,' says Julian Brogden. 'I gave him a carrier bag full of receipts and said: 'This is how much we've made.'
It added up to a respectable amount; the bank manager backed off and now they run a links of london jewellery successful, if haphazard, business, making jewellery and hats under their own label and also collaborating with Vivienne Links of London Necklaces , Ally Cappellino, Jasper Conran and Christine Ahrens in making pieces to complement their collections.
Atelier is links of london charms characteristically breezy about the impending destruction of their premises when work starts on the King's Cross Channel Tunnel terminal. Their workshop is due to be unceremoniously transformed into the bottom left-hand corner of a 16 platform underground block. This may links of london bracelets be an opportune time, muses Cathi Jordan, to start looking for their first retail premises.
She studied fashion at Batley College of Design but Julian Brogden's unorthodox entry into the links london jewellery trade explodes the myth that only college-trained designers succeed in the fashion business. In between smuggling M & S underwear to Cairo and completing a history degree, he did a stint in a solicitors' office before becoming a links of london stores builder. 'Then I got really fed up with wading around in wet cement,' he says and he began carving intricate patterns into unsuspecting bannisters and F Charm .
Atelier started four years ago, operating their business from Metropolitan Works, a disused hospital in Hackney. The shambling, labyrinthine workshops wete occupied by such successful accessory designers as Judy links of london charm Blame, Christine Ahrens and Slim Barratt. The generosity with which they pooled their talents extended to picking over each other's rubbish at night. Discarded junk would frequently re-emerge a few days later as a new piece of jewellery, a hat or a sculpture.
It is Atelier's 'complete lack of respect' for traditional materials and their love of the tactile and sculptural in design (although Cathi's sound commercial sense links of london bangle tempers Julian's sometimes impractical approach; she cut his Brancusi phase short telling him it belonged on the mantlepiece) that has produced some unique fashion jewellery.
The demise of precious metal as the only kind that has any credence in the jewellery world has encouraged some fine new designers over the last few years. A throwaway approach has meant that jewellery is discarded and replaced as frequently as fashion.
Atelier maintains a disregard for jewellery design students and traditional teaching Links of London Chain methods. 'Most of the students we've met have been complete disasters. They only want to work in silver or gold and make 'proper' jewellery. They have this kind of 'crafty' attitude; they think that if a piece is made from silver or gold and it's very carefully worked, then it's got a right to exist.'
The idea for the 'armour' jewellery they made to complement Vivienne Westwood's last collection stemmed from Julian's interest in making something that would cover a finger or elbow joint and move with it. A subsequent crystal ball Links London Necklaces theme adhered to the brief: 'the Queen's string of pearls gone completely bonkers' - which later developed into three-dimensional versions of Westwood's trademark orb. An expanding wardrobe of Westwood clothes bears witness to their admiration for the designer. They are paid-up subscribers to the Westwood cult ('to own a jacket is to be in the club') and they admire her skill in perverting the Royal Family's Links London Rings sartorical style to produce camp pastiches of the twinset and pearls, velvet and ermine look. Westwood, in Fairy Godmother Charm , would no doubt congratulate them on their fastidious research when collaborating with her; Links London Watch the Crown Jewels came in for some close scrutiny in Atelier's efforts to achieve a suitably regal look.
