Rock Vault graduates two, adds two

London--The doors to the Vault have opened for two new jewelry designers. 

The British Fashion Council (BFC) announced Tuesday that while Fernando Jorge and Melanie Georgacopoulos have graduated from the Rock Vault, the showcase created to give young British fine jewelry designers exposure to retailers and media from around the world, two new designers have entered: Beth Gilmour and Shimell and Madden. 

These two will exhibit their spring/summer 2015 collections alongside existing Rock Vault designers--Alice Cicolini, Hannah Martin, Imogen Belfield, Jacqueline Cullen, Jo Hayes Ward, Ornella Iannuzzi, Tomasz Donocik and Yunus & Eliza--during London Fashion Week, Sept. 12 to 16. 

Gilmour is a graduate of Central Saint Martin’s and the Royal College of Art, where earned her master’s in goldsmithing, silversmithing, metalwork and jewelry in 2005. After school, she worked as a freelance designer for many well-known brands, eventually opening her own studio in Bloomsbury in London.

There, she designs and makes her own pieces, which are defined by her use of color-change gemstones with precious metals. Gilmour’s won a number of awards for her work, and has exhibited at the New York Gift Fair, the Goldsmiths Fair in London and Inhorgenta in Munich. Stores in the United Kingdom, Europe and North American stock her pieces. 

Shimell and Madden is the work of Emma Madden and Luke Shimell, who have been working together in their London studio since 2010. Their hand-crafted jewelry is a combination of craft, art and fashion that explores the themes of science, nature and time. 

Madden’s expertise is in craft and conceptual design, inspired by the universality of mathematics, while Shimell has extensive experience as a goldsmith. The pair form their ideas by first constructing 3-D models of their pieces, which allows them to work through structuring, joining and finishing techniques. 

British jewelry designer Stephen Webster curates the Rock Vault and brings the Vault’s designers to the Couture show in Las Vegas, where they exhibit within his ballroom. 

During London Fashion Week, the Rock Vault will be open all five days, with the jewelry designers attending both Rock Vault and Open House events.