“Jewellery has many uses in life. There are pieces that lift your spirit, fill you with feeling – and those that interest your mind.” So writes artist jeweller Shaun Leane in his foreword to Evolution of a Goldsmith, a new book by the Mayo-based jeweller Nigel O’Reilly, which will be launched next week by author Dana Thomas at New York Jewellery Week. “You can see in it a childlike bravery and love of play,” adds Leane. “His designs transcend time.”
From Claremorris in Co Mayo, the third son of a cattle farmer and a primary schoolteacher, O’Reilly’s career as a master goldsmith began as a 22-year-old precision toolmaker creating moulds for vascular surgery.
A turning point came when he met Tracy Sweeney in Galway, a fine art student from Castlebar. He made a few pieces for her – two rings and a pendant carved from hardwood and inlaid with aluminium. They impressed her so much that she suggested he pursue jewellery-making as a career. And he did. And he married her too.
Studying under Jane Huston in Kilkenny and later apprenticing with gemstone cutter and master goldsmith Erwin Springbrunn and designer Rudolf Heltzel, he took a job in Stockholm as a diamond setter and worked there for nearly three years, crafting pieces for top brands such as Garrard, Boodles and Fabergé before setting up his own studio in Castlebar with Tracy, then an award-winning artist. He quickly became known for his engagement and wedding rings.
Since being spotted by Frank Everett, vice-chairman of Sotheby’s in New York, and having two of his rings selected (and later sold) for the house’s Important Jewels collection in 2020, O’Reilly hasn’t looked back. His jewellery is now worn by Saoirse Ronan, Maya Hawke and Julianne Moore, among others.
His biggest customers are art collectors at home and abroad. “A lot of businesswomen are buyers, and I love giving women empowerment,” he told the Desert Island Dress podcast recently. One woman who bought a huge emerald ring told him that at board meetings, “I always silence them when I wear it.”
[ ‘I was called an idiot for wanting to set up a jewellery business in Mayo’Opens in new window ]
O’Reilly has long cited Alexander McQueen as his biggest influence: he has a pure love of gemstones, a graceful play with colour, and an extraordinary free-form approach to composition. Alongside this, he also has a great passion for the land around him.
That connection to the land is also integral to the work of some of his peers, including Shaun Leane who, at 54, marks his 40th year at the goldsmith’s bench. Leane lives and works in a restored 250-year-old cottage in the shadow of the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks, which has given a new impetus to his work. In London he learned the importance of a traditional training in Hatton Garden, but Ireland inspired what has been described as his fiercely romantic, nature-led designs.
Another jeweller who finds great inspiration in the landscape around her is the multi-award-winning, Sligo-based jeweller Martina Hamilton, founder of The Cat and The Moon in Sligo and the Hamilton Gallery. With her team of 25 goldsmiths, her initial training as a sculptor informs her hands-on approach to making and modelling.
An inveterate beachcomber, her collections have always been inspired by the Atlantic coastal landscape where she lives, and more recently by the discovery of an ancestral link to Dernish Island close to the Sligo shore under the gaze of Ben Bulben. “I always find something there that will start the process [of design] in my mind,” she says.
Celebrating her 35th year as a goldsmith, her latest collection is called Eiru and it takes its inspiration from the mythical goddess of the Tuatha De Danann who gave her name as Eire and Erin to the island of Ireland. In silver and gold, the pieces, in diadem-like formations, represent the concept of mother earth drawn from Irish mythology.
Like Hamilton, Natasha Heaslip, the Galway-based fine jeweller studied sculpture initially before going on to establish a very successful career in London and living in Kuwait, Lebanon and the UAE. She also spent some time in Tanzania teaching Masai women jewellery-making and design skills. Selected for the Goldsmiths’ Fair in London for six years, she was one of the few chosen to show across the two weeks of the fair.
“I always wanted to come home. I missed the quieter pace of life, the light, seeing my family. I have a huge connection to Connemara and the Burren and am quite a spiritual person, so the connection to the land is strong. I could hear the wild Atlantic calling me,” she says.
Though her transition took about two years, her life is now very different. She has a two-minute commute to her studio in the back garden in Salthill from which she can see the sea, where she often takes breaks. “I find great inspiration watching the rhythm of the waves and I feel this can be seen in some of my collections – Swirled Spike, Embrace and in the Conch sculptural pieces.”
She also works in a different way now in comparison to her time in London where collectors buy jewellery as art, as sculpture. “Here I focus on bespoke commissions, for special occasions, upcycling of old jewels into new creations and designing and making my one-of-a-kind collections.”
A recent commission, the Midnight Nebula pendant, involved taking apart a crucifix and inserting the new circular form with diamonds. “It was a symbolic letting go of the Catholic Church, so there was a strong emotional connection with the customer,” she says. “The right people seem to find me and seem to love the whole experience. I feel my move back to the west of Ireland has allowed me more space, time and freedom.”
