Based in London, designer Jacqueline Cullen incorporates a unique and interesting material into her designs: Whitby jet, 182 million-year-old fossilized wood found only in Whitby, England.
Cullen uses silver and 18-karat gold for her “electroformed” pieces, a process that utilizes electrodeposition, or a metal deposit produced by electrolysis. Black and champagne diamonds also are incorporated into many of her designs.
Cullen is a debuting Couture exhibitor this year, and will be showcasing her pieces as part of Stephen Webster’s Rock Vault.
Read on to find out how she became a designer, how nature plays into her inspiration for design and who she admires in the jewelry world.
Q: How did you become a jewelry designer? Jacqueline Cullen: I originally tried working in theater and sculpture, but I always had an urge in the back of my mind to try jewelry.
I taught myself to make basic silver chunky rings, and eventually I went to Central Saint Martins (in London), where I was creating conceptual sculptural and unwearable pieces. When I discovered Whitby jet my work changed and became wearable, and has developed into high-end fine jewelry pieces.
Jet originally was used as Victorian mourning jewelry, started by Queen Victoria in response to the death of Prince Albert. Cullen said her use of this material is what makes her work “very unusual.”
Q: What do you like about designing jewelry? JC: I’ve always been drawn to it intuitively. I didn’t think, Now I’m going to become a jeweler. It’s something I had to do.
Cullen’s Whitby jet and 18-karat gold rings
Q: Where do you find your inspiration for your designs? JC: The reason I’m inspired to use jet is because I love the black and gold combination. It’s a timeless, classic combination that will never go out of style. The jet is a soft and sensual black, it’s inviting, so I’m inspired to use it for its aesthetics.
I’ve also always been inspired by dramatic acts of nature, like volcanic eruptions, lightning storms that rip open the sky, crevices in the earth, erosion, things like that. I like pure and simple form that is broken and cut up in some way, and the contrast of a smooth surface with a broken edge.
“I make strong jewelry with a strong statement, but not something that overpowers the wearer,” Cullen said.
Q: Do you ever struggle to come up with new ideas for designs? If so, what do you do? JC: I’ve always got underlying, constant inspiration, and it branches off slightly.
I’m not a fashion jeweler, so I don’t change my designs seasonally.
My new collection is in the beginning sample stage, but the inspiration is icicles or ice where the sun is shining and you get pinpricks of white light. So I have this technique that looks like melting metal.
Q: If you weren’t designing jewelry, what would you be doing? JC: I would definitely be doing something creative. It would be a hands-on creativity, I have to make things, so I suppose sculpture or art. Or I might have carried on working in a theater as a performer.
Cullen said her Whitby jet supplier scours the outside of diffused jet mines to collect remnants of the material.
Q: Who is your favorite jewelry designer and why? JC: I don’t have a particular favorite … I like bits and pieces from lots of people. I like people who are doing something a little bit different.
I designer I do really like in some ways is Shaun Leane. I used to love what he did on the catwalk with Alexander McQueen, and the ability he has to create a dramatic impact with another designer’s vision.
