About Alison
Alison graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a 1st class
honours degree in Jewellery and Silversmithing. Now based in
Glasgow, her work has been exhibited all over the country, and in
New York and Krakow. Her designs are also available in galleries
from Exeter to Orkney, Australia to Japan.
Alison’s vision
The aesthetic of Alison’s jewellery was initially informed by
her photographs and abstract drawings of Edinburgh junk shops, and
these ideas have fuelled her ever since.
‘I love to imagine the stories connected to each discarded
artefact,’ she explains. ‘The mysterious narratives of people’s
pasts are suggested by the dents and scratches on each piece. The
junk shop becomes a museum of memories.’
Jewellery has traditionally been used to keep the memory of a
loved one close to the heart, with keepsakes passed down through
the generations. Through her use of traditional shapes such as the
cameo, Alison references the significance of jewellery and its
intrinsic connection to memories.
Adopting a wide range of materials, techniques and images, she
conveys the eclectic nature of her subject matter in an original
way. Silver wire finely soldered into clusters celebrates the
intense decoration found in Victorian jewellery, saturated with
tiny curios of different textures and colours, like objects in a
junk shop.
echniques such as wax casting, sheet silver piercing,
reticulation, stone setting and bead stringing allow Alison to
combine silver and gold with semi-precious stones and found objects
to create thought provoking pieces.
Photo gallery
Photography by Shannon Tofts.