DINNY HALL
DINNY HALL
Dinny Hall has been making jewellery since she graduated from Central St Martins in 1983. Her flagship store in Westbourne Grove,London first opened in 1992 and there's a second branch in Upper Street, Islington. She has collaborated with fashion designers Rifat Ozbeck, Isaac Mizrahi and Bruce Oldfield and is one of Britain's most well known jewellery designers. Her collections are available in the worlds best stores including Liberty London, Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys, New York.
Dinny Hall talks to Little bird, Westbourne Grove, London. 2007
Where does your inspiration come from, do you have themes or motifs that you keep returning to?
There is a motif that I return to and that is the Lotus Flower. That came about from sketching the stylized form from old manuscripts and sculptures from the far east. Then I have developed it by stretching and pulling it in all sorts of ways.
So you still draw?
Every idea begins in the sketchbook, If I start to be inspired by something I start by drawing maybe because I’m art school trained. Drawing is the backbone of the design.
From looking at your work it seems that the stones are very much at the heart of your jewellery , is that right?
You’re dead right about the stones, because that’s possibly why I went into jewellery design in the first place. It was a very early love of gem stones. Started about the age of three, I was a Magpie.
A whole collection may be based on the cut of a stone. I now have them specially cut for me.
They are cut so beautifully that that you appear to be working with light, transforming a physical object into something ephemeral,
something intangible rather than solid matter.
I’m glad you can see that.
Do you have a favourite stone?
Yes, my favourite is probably the Sapphire
So there is not just one shade?
Stones have an extraordinary palette. Like plants they have different qualities depending on where they grow. So an Aquamarine from Madagascar will be very different from one from Afganistan or Brasil and sapphires from Australia differ from those from Sri Lanka, which are the best cornflower blue.
When your sourcing them do you see them uncut?
No, The very expensive ones are already cut but they’re usually beautifully cut and ready to work with, because the lapiderists are artists themselves.
Where do you get the stones from?
Sometimes in London. But there’s a big cutting centre in Germany,
Idar-Oberstein. The whole town is devoted to cutting Gem stones, then there’s Hong Kong and India. Amsterdam is the big Diamond centre and also Switzerland.
Do they use Computers and Lasers to cut the stones?
They do, it has become a very high tech procedure. You have to be very skilled to do it .But it still requires the expertise and experience of man not machine, You have to have geological knowledge and a very deep understanding of how the stone is formed.
Is there any part of the process that allows for a happy accident, Something that occurs during the process ,something out of your control that may contribute to the final piece or inspire you to explore a new direction ?Or is this not possible because of the nature of the materials you work with.
Hardly ever, I wish it would, but the process of making the pieces is all about precision, I can’t think of any time that has happened ,although ideas can come that way. I based a whole collection around a walk in the woods ,after seeing But with me it is not literal, it is always based on Nature and Architecture, but stylized.
Tell me something about the Sancy pieces, because I’d like to use the photos to illustrate our conversation.
Well, I fell in love with the Sancy diamond, it’s the most incredible diamond, but it’s really the cut that I love, its so unusual, it’s a star . A 55 carat diamond with an amazing history. Originating it’s believed in India it first belonged to a Great Mughal ,then it went through many European Royal Houses over the centuries including Elizabeth 1 and Louis XV1 of France. It was finally bought by the Astor Family at the beginning of the 20th Century and is now in the Louvre, Paris.
So you have recreated the cut.
Yes and I have set it very simply, so the stone and cut are the real focus.
Yes its really very beautiful.
For more information about Dinny Hall visit her website at www.dinnyhall.com
