Charlotte Verity is the winner of the annual T H March ‘Make Your Mark’ competition for up and coming jewellery designer makers.
The 33 year old, who has a first class BA (Hons) degree and BDes in Three Dimensional Design from Manchester Metropolitan University (followed by further courses at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Goldsmiths Company), says she can’t remember a time when she wasn’t fascinated by design. Certainly whilst still at school she recalls a day when her Grandmother gave her £20 - which was promptly spent on beads! Today Charlotte’s work has developed into something rather more sophisticated and her beautiful designs are brought to life by combining precious metals, silver and gold, handmade glass components, faceted stones and more recently, vitreous enamels.
She says:“Light is the main inspiration for my work; my jewellery reflects or refracts light from external sources, or can emit its own light through fluorescence or phosphorescence. Other pieces are inspired by vibrant city lights at night”.
Her work is often abstract, combining shapes, colours, textures, movement and sounds. Unusually she uses glass-blowing techniques to blow miniature hollow components; spherical bubbles or straight drops before combining them with handmade precious metal elements. This was how she fashioned her winning competition entry. “I named the piece ‘Aventurine Green Bubble Multilink Necklace’ as ‘aventurine’ glass is one of the types of glass that I used to make the lampworked bubbles in the piece. Aventurine glass has microscopic particles of metal oxides through the glass, providing a scintillating effect; green aventurine has chromium oxide crystals.”
T H March’s Chairman, Mark Smith said:
“Charlotte is clearly very talented and passionate about what she does. It is pleasing to know that this will help to attract further attention to her work. Our competition for up and coming Jewellery Designer Makers is now in its second year and it is just one of the ways that T H March, as specialist insurance brokers to the jewellery trade, can invest in the future of the industry.”
Mark presented Charlotte with her prize and certificate at T H March’s stand at IJL London, Olympia on Monday, 7th September.