Elizabeth Gage Collections Click image to enlarge   The British jeweller talks to Town&Country about 50 years in the business, her V&A recognition and what's next for her luxury brand Elizabeth Gage is one of the most influential and creative jewellery designers of the last five decades. Using jewels and gold instead of paint and canvas she has become an acclaimed and highly regarded artist. Gardens, paintings, architecture and animals, Elizabeth takes her inspiration from her surroundings, all of which influence her work and together they help her formulate design ideas. It has always been her philosophy that fine and exquisite jewellery can be worn ‘day into night’, and she was the first to coin this phrase. Having trained for six years as a goldsmith, her first major commission was for Cartier, New York in 1968. A resounding success, she went on to win many accolades including the prestigious Queens Award for Export, British Jewellery Designer of the Year and the coveted De Beers Diamond Award for her Agincourt ring which was described as an engineering masterpiece. Elizabeth is a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Elizabeth’s approach to design is as unique and avant-garde as the jewels themselves. She combines different elements in her work which she chooses for their individual beauty; exquisite stones, ancient bronzes, beautiful carvings, baroque pearls, in fact anything where the shape and colour inspire her. She uses these as an artist would use their palette, combining them with brightly coloured enamel and detailed goldwork to create individual and highly personal jewels. Collected and worn by women and men throughout the world, her jewellery is admired for its imaginative use of colour and gemstones. Her close attention to detail together with her highly skilled goldsmiths, bring to life Elizabeth’s extraordinary designs. Elizabeth Gage is not governed by tradition, her jewels are an unorthodox expression of her unique creativity. Elizabeth’s journey to jewellery design started when as a child she was bedridden for long periods of time and had to amuse herself making dolls' clothes, houses and other items to play with, and this manual dexterity has stayed with her all her life. She also travelled with her family, and especially her Grandmother, in Europe and the USA which gave her an interest in history and the natural world. After completing a course at the Chelsea School of Art in the early 1960’s she was offered a ring by a friend but could not find a design she liked. Elizabeth instead designed a ring for herself, however, unable to find anyone to make it, she enrolled at the Sir John Cass College [now part of London Metropolitan University]. Initially she joined the silver department because the jewellery department was still being completed and this is where she made her first jewel. The butterfly shape came straight from a book yet is already recognisably an Elizabeth Gage piece, with the stone settings and its attention to detail. The silver department was a very formative part of Elizabeth’s education, and the butterfly and similar projects taught her about cutting and forming metal. Once she had mastered the basic techniques Elizabeth’s tutor, Mr Oliver, allowed her to work exclusively on her own designs, for which she needed to formulate her own techniques. A gift of an ounce of gold from her mother enabled Elizabeth to start making and selling her jewellery and she slowly started to build her business. The year she left college in 1968 she received a commission from Cartier in New York to create a special collection for their new catalogue, a great accolade for a young woman in an industry which at that time was dominated by male designers. Elizabeth loved working with 18 ct gold and was constantly researching new ways to create different finishes and textures, still a key feature of her designs. To further expand her gold working experience she also travelled to Crete to find out more about the ancient methods used on the island. Whilst there she was given a set of steatite Minoan Seals and using five she created the very first Kiss pin, a piece she still owns and wears. This unique style has become a signature design, every one is different and yet they all share the same basic construction. This is where she became interested in the art of granulation, another technique she has taken and used in her own unique way, with swirls of fine wirework and scattered beads which is referred to as her wire and granulation finish. By now Elizabeth had stopped working at the bench and employed goldsmiths to create her exclusive designs so she could dedicate herself to her design work and her business. In 2008 in her 40th year of jewellery design, Elizabeth was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by leading Jewellery magazine, Retail Jeweller. The Lifetime Achievement Award is not something that Retail Jeweller present every year. It is only awarded when someone is recognised as having made a major contribution to the UK’s jewellery industry. After working in both the UK and the USA Elizabeth finally settled into a charming studio in Beauchamp Place in 1979 and in 1984 a growing business moved her to Albemarle Street, where she occupied first No. 20 and then at No. 18. Most recently she has moved to an elegant town house at 5 West Halkin Street, in the heart of Belgravia where finally she was able to fulfil her dream of both her production team and sales team being under the one roof. Where clients can drop by, without an appointment, and view all of Elizabeth’s latest pieces. She still designs every piece that bears her name. Elizabeth is always delighted to create special, unique pieces for her clients. Her imagination knows no bounds, and with her team of loyal goldsmiths, setters and enamellers she is able to design and make very personal jewellery. She also enjoys the challenge of working with stones and other items belonging to her clients, breathing new life to unworn jewels by designing something new and different, and often working with inherited pieces to enable them to be worn in a contemporary way without losing their sentimental importance.