Why Geometry Works So Well With the Body
Jewellery is sculpture, only it's viewed while in motion.
Unlike sculpture or architecture, jewellery is rarely viewed statically. It’s seen while someone moves, gestures, disappears into a crowd. Pieces are often noticed quickly and from a distance rather than studied up close, except for the lucky few.
This is where geometry in jewellery design becomes powerful. Strong shapes remain visually clearer even through movement and in the smaller scale. A bold line or an angle is easier for the eye to recognise than surface detail or ornament.
When I’m walking through a city, I often catch myself imagining buildings as pieces of jewellery. A staircase becomes an earring. A facade becomes a ring. The reverse is often true as well — many of my pieces feel like structures waiting to become buildings. And in the design process, pieces often begin almost as small sculptures.
The form needs to work visually on its own first. But jewellery ultimately exists on the body, not on a plinth, so the real test is always how the piece sits, moves and interacts once worn.
Once I find the core form, I usually tweak and refine it repeatedly to see how it behaves in different positions on the body. I often wear prototypes several times myself to make sure they work practically as well as visually, because comfort matters just as much as form.
The relationship between the geometry of a piece and the natural movement of the body is what makes jewellery interesting to me. Straight lines crossing curved forms. Negative space appearing between fingers. Angles shifting slightly as the body moves.
That contrast creates moments where the jewellery becomes alive.
The Stone-Dash Statement Ring explores this through a cube and linear bar that appear detached from one another on the finger. As the hand moves, the relationship between the two forms shifts slightly, and wearing with the bar going up or down the finger also changes the perspective.
The TRIAD double triangle earrings work in a similar way. The geometric forms can be worn in multiple ways, changing how they interact with the ear and altering the overall perception of shape. These 3 images are all the same earring, just placed in the ear slightly differently.
A piece can work perfectly on the bench and still fail as jewellery. The real test is always the body. How it sits, how it moves, how it changes through wear.
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