I was born on New Year's night in Tallinn, Estonia. A place with which all my childhood memories are connected. It was there I received art school education and met many amazing friends and colleagues.
I also owe a great deal to my mum, my grandmother and my sister. These women, apart from teaching me how to live, taught me how to knit, to sew, to embroider. All these techniques helped me so much during my years at university.
Since I can remember myself, I've always been doing different forms of art whether that was making ceramic dishes, playing piano, drawing big posters for school parties, performing, or designing costumes for children's opera. When I was the tender age of five I used to pick up small stones in the street and take them home. I'd paint them let them dry and put the stones back into the street. I genuinely believed that this would make the world a brighter place. After heavy rains, the paint on the stones would wash away, this made me sad. To me the world was now a duller place.
Art and design helped me to see the world with more colour. I wanted to create. For this reason I would continue my education in this field.
On moving to London, I studied an art foundation at the London College of Fashion. During the time following, while studying a BA (Hons) in Jewellery, I experimented with materials, shapes, concepts and worked through different ideas. I had the opportunity to develop my professional practice by working in various areas of the jewellery industry. I volunteered to art exhibitions. I worked as a courier in Hatton Garden. A workshop assistant with Scott Wilson and studio assistant with Shaun Leane. I worked on stunning catwalk pieces for London Fashion weeks. I learned the nature of workshop life and yes, I still chose to be in the industry.
In my fourth year of university, I had to listen to myself carefully and understand what I wanted in my final collection. This would be my proposal into the competitive world of fashion. I'm very gratefull to my tutors, especially to Caroline Broadhead, Pierre Degen, Colin Smith and Ros Conway. They helped me to understand the field of jewellery. Since I was a child, I've always had an obsession with finding and collecting curious, lost objects. I kept them and marvelled at my own little treasures. I kept them in a shoe box. Then two. Then a container. Then two containers. I already had a concept to work with. Fascinated by big cites, by skyscrapers, by the abundance of people, the colours and all the information. London is all about theses things and I loved to collect my small objects in these crowded places. I started making sketches into a materialised dream. The positive feedback I received from the press, both commercial and independent, gave me the confidence to utilise my passion. Walking through city streets, I constantly scan pavements with my eyes, looking for new 'material'. I often get funny looks or an accidental kick on the back when stopping to pick up objects in a crowded place. This is all part of my recycling of rejected, small scale rubbish, into glimmering treasure for adults.
Sincerely yours,
Alina Jessipovich