Sarah Palmer Designs

General information

Having grown up in Cambridge and studied Industrial Design at de Montfort University (graduating in 1988 with honors) I then travelled throughout India and Asia. On my return I established my first studio in 1991 and now work from my family home in Barrington, Cambridge.

I am particularly interested in the inherent properties of silver and the effects produced on the metal by heat (reticulating) and hammering or forging. With both these techniques I force the metals to their extremes. In the reticulated jewellery I have experimented with juxtaposing contrasting textures, and gold and silver. Also using the technique on flat and three dimensional surfaces. The work results in strong lines and distinctive surfaces.

At school I studied calligraphy and have incorporated the use of movement (changing plane) and strong lines in my designs. This particularly lends itself to the hammering and forging techniques.

The work is the result of more than 25 years of experimenting with these techniques and design concepts. As you can see in the jewellery collections, I now overlap these ideas.

As these techniques are “ spontaneous”, some designs are the result of the intuitive knowledge of the processes, materials and technique. A design may be triggered off by the process itself (only needing structural modifications) and not beginning with fully developed design sketches.

In my recent work I have developed the theme of versatile jewellery, pieces that can be taken apart and worn separately or in a different format or by adding elements such as clip pendants. One of my long necklace designs (42”) can be worn in fourteen different ways!

In the first ten years of my designs I concentrated on the techniques and materials using the tones of silver, gold and diamonds. I now also work with pearls and semi-precious stones such as aquamarine and labradorite.