Estyn Hulbert

"Following the thread of an idea leads me from one design to the next, frequently in an unanticipated direction, always learning from the making itself."

When building a piece of jewelry from pearls and wire, Estyn Hulbert describes the process as working with single units, adding and subtracting them to create shapes, the materials providing a palette of textures and contrasts. She thinks in terms of the architecture of a piece, striving for structural integrity and a seamlessness between the material and the form.

Each piece is built using hand tools to shape and secure the wire. Chain is used to link beaded elements or to create a fringe, trimmed to outline a geometric form. Meticulous attention is paid to the proportions of the beads selected in order to achieve the final shape desired.

Born in Scotland, Estyn Hulbert spent her early childhood in France and Switzerland before returning to Edinburgh where she studied photography, graphic design and animation. In 2000 she moved to New York where she became assistant to her aunt, jewelry designer Jessica Rose. The next five years were her jewelry apprenticeship, an immersion course in the materials and language of exquisite wearable art, leading to the launch of her own jewelry line.

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