Shortlisted as ‘New Designer of the Year’ at the UK Jewellery Awards in 2012, Smith/Grey is a London based jewellery brand creating high quality, handmade objects inspired by memories, stories and traditions.
Founded by jewellery designer Birgit Marie Schmidt and creative strategist Sofus Graae, their designs are an expression of their Central European and Scandinavian background in combination with their British education and lifestyle.

Their AW collection, Bulls & Roses, is now available on their website and Twin spoke to the team behind the brand about inspiration and goals for the near future.

What was your initial idea with Smith/Grey?
Jewellery for us is a wonderful medium to communicate in as it merges the refined technical skills of a craftsman with the abstract ideas of an artist or designer. Jewellery also has the potential to carry a lot of sentiment and personal meaning (just think of a wedding ring for example) which you won’t find in any other design medium. It seemed like the perfect platform for us to exercise our desire to create and manifest ideas inspired by the world’s big and small wonders. We just jumped in and it kind of snowballed from there.

What signifies your design?
Our designs derive from a place of critical curiosity and the need to shape an idea into a physical object. We want all of our designs to tell a story, be it a surreal recreation of a memory. We also love to create unexpected juxtapositions of the wild and the romantic, the animalistic and the cultivated which you can find when viewing our textured Ivy Noir signet rings or our latest Bulls&Roses collection.

Where do you generally find inspiration?
Our inspiration has no static home – it is often a colourful mix of cultural observations, art, cinema and adventures that through time merge into new concrete ideas which we base our collections on. Coming from completely different backgrounds also allows us to look at things through the eye of an architect or graphic designer instead of being constrained to only one view of the jewellery design world.

Who is your typical customer?
Someone who looks for something special, someone who has an eye for detail and appreciates to be challenged.

What are you working on at the moment?
We have been fortunate to gain some new exciting international stockists which we are finishing orders for at the moment. It is a thrilling thought to know that our designs will be available in some of the most beautiful and exciting stores around the world.

We are also working hard on updating our website which is something that is really important to us. Of course we are also in the early days of getting together a new collection which will be very exciting as well so make sure to check back regularly!

smithgrey.co.uk