Harriet Kelsall
Style
Harriet's work is characterised by her own combination of "classic and contemporary", being particularly interested in reworking traditional ideas in new and interesting ways. The popularity of invisibly set small stones - in ring shoulders in eternity and wedding bands - owes much to her and she is well known for her use of coloured stones, particularly unusual shades of sapphires.
Harriet is a great believer in practical and wearable design and prefers to see simple, often unique designs that say as much about the wearer as they do about Harriet and this un-egocentric approach to design is what could be termed as uniquely Harriet Kelsall.
Career
Harriet was born and bred in St Albans in Hertfordshire. Her father is a jeweller and her passion for the craft began at the tender age of 4 years old when she made her first silver ring under his supervision!
Coming from a long family line of architects and well known artists was obviously very influential on Harriet who, having achieved excellent grades in school, went on to take a B.Sc (Hons) in Industrial Design at Brunel University. The course was very demanding and varied, grounding her in many practical and theoretical disciplines including, on the one hand, metalworking and silversmithing and on the other, design history and physics. She achieved a first class degree and the prestigious University Prize for the highest marks that year. She was later to find out that she had achieved the highest marks that the University had ever seen.
Computers had played a large part in her choice of major project at University and she went on to join Logica and then to use her creative design skills in user-interface design at Lightworks Film Editing Systems where she finished up as an Engineering Manager. Throughout this period Harriet was still developing her jewellery skills, taking on mainly commissioned engagement rings but wedding rings, eternity rings and dress jewellery as well and from friends and then friends of friends, until she was able to make jewellery design her full time career. So in 1998, she left Lightworks and founded her company in a spare room in the house. Awards followed awards and the company is now a successful organisation with an international reputation and thousands of commissioned engagement ring customers across the world.
Click here to view designer jewellery by Harriet Kelsall.
