STORIES FROM THE ATELIER: YOUR LIRI
today on SFA, i’m delighted to welcome natalie, the designer and founder of liri bespoke jewelry.
working from south wales, natalie creates sleek, contemporary jewelry with a wonderful sense of individuality.
she also has a particular talent for giving existing pieces a completely new life.
inspired by ideas of freedom, personal transformation, and the beautiful landscape around her, natalie’s work is as much about the meaning we attach to jewelry as it is about the pieces themselves.
i’m very happy to have her here today to tell us a little more about her journey and the world of liri - which is actually the albanian word for freedom.
My name is Natalie Williams and I am the founder of Liri jewelry. I am originally from South Wales in the UK, lived for 5 years in Mauritius and am now based in the north east of Scotland.
I am a jeweler obsessed with softness and curves, which have become a key feature of my designs over the years. Sketching and designing are my moments of calm, a feeling I want to translate into my jewelry; and there is nothing more soothing than graceful curves. When worn as a ring, a curved design is instantly tactile and the rhythm of idly following that curve with your finger, is instantly calming.
I am a self-taught jeweler and I use a range of techniques to bring my designs to life - whichever method can translate the essence of the sketch into the jewel. This includes handmaking, wax carving and CAD design. It never ceases to amaze me how each technique has its own 'feel', so it's important to choose the correct one or the life and personality you want to give to your piece can be lost.
Most of my work is redesigning other people's jewelry, which is the most challenging creative process as you always have to work around the materials you are given. I also create limited edition collections, but to experience total creative freedom, I love nothing more than designing one-of-a-kind pieces where i marry bold gems with statement design.
