Search Speakers: Jewellery Designer

“My goal is to design jewellery that is so distinctive to the individual, that even if they are not wearing it, one could know who it belongs to”.

Ruudt Peters was born in Naaldwijk, The Netherlands. He defines himself as a philosopher and an alchemist, his pieces of jewellery being extensions of a person. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Acdemie in Amsterdam, after which he worked as a teacher at the High School of the Arts Constantijn Huygens.

Trained in Hatton Garden, London’s Jewellery Quarter, Shaun Leane is now a member of the Institute of Professional Goldsmiths. He was awarded Jewellery Designer of the Year in 2004 and 2005 and is internationally celebrated for pushing the boundaries of jewellery design.

Based in London, Lara Bohinc is one of the most innovative and exciting jewellers working in fashion today. She has designed fine jewellery for Cartier in Paris, Gucci, Lanvin, Exte, Guy Laroche, Julien McDonald and Costume National. She is also the creative director of her own fast-growing company.

Johan Louw was born in Paarl, just outside Cape Town, South Africa, in 1956. At Stellenbosch University he studied Fine Art (specialising in jewellery design and manufacturing) under Larry Scully and Dieter Dill. By graduation in 1980, he had also obtained a qualification in gemmology (from the Gemmological Association of Great Britain).

Chris de Beer started his studies at Technikon Natal and went on to obtain a Masters in Fine Art, majoring in jewellery, from the University of Stellenbosch. Since 1994 he has headed up the Jewellery Department at Technikon Natal, now the Durban Institute of Technology (DIT).

Born in 1975 in Zagreb, Croatia, Ivana Kalafatic’s tendencies were always on the more international and eccentric side of things.

GianCarlo Montebello’s interest in interior decoration dates back to the early 1960s where his Milanese exhibition space allowed him to meet a number of key architects. Later, his attention shifted to other fields and he opened a goldsmith workshop, GEM, dedicated to working with and producing for artists.

Geraldine Fenn is a South African jeweller who received her national higher certificate in jewellery design and manufacture from the Natal Technikon in 1998. She also has qualifications in archaeology, classics, art history and fine art from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Beverley Price is a jewellery artist who lives in Johannesburg. She trained as a jeweller in Israel and London (with Sir John Cass), and completed her post-graduate fine arts studies at Wits University.