Every piece of jewellery has a story – a reason that makes it precious beyond the materials it’s made from. For the owner, that story usually begins from the moment it was purchased or gifted. But to the designer who crafted it, that silver ring on your index finger, or St Christopher around your neck, had a life long before you.
The pieces you hold most dear might have started their lives from a random, found object (a shell, a piece of glass, a beer cap), or been moulded into shape with the help of rocks, fossils or wax. In 2025, jewellery design and its methods are more creative than ever before, as proven at Dover Street Market, where a new crop of emerging jewellers are currently displaying their work.
With its new initiative, Jewellery Market, DSM is giving a platform to the silver and goldsmiths of tomorrow, showcasing their work across the ground floor of the London store until August 5. Also available online, you’ll be pleased to discover that prices are pretty reasonable too, so if you’re in the market for a new keepsake, you know where to go. To celebrate the initiative, we get to know eight of the designers currently on show – scroll on to meet them.
When did you first start making jewellery?
Kristina Merchant: I first fell in love with creating jewellery during an artist residency on the Isle of Skye in 2021. Inspired by land artists like Andy Goldsworthy, I began working with natural materials and found objects – seaweed, rocks, and discarded bits from the landscape. I’d gradually transitioned them into jewellery, and in 2022 I began studying my degree of silversmithing and jewellery at the Glasgow School of Art.
How would you describe the style of your work?
Kristina Merchant: I’d describe my style as conceptual and performative. I’m drawn to both land art and the urban environment, as well as to memories of my family’s heritage of pub landladies. I gather research like cigarette butts, chewing gum, and beer caps, those often-overlooked, temporary fragments that hover between waste and relic.
What’s one piece of jewellery you’d love to own?
Kristina Merchant: I’ve been completely enamoured with Gisbert Stach’s ‘fish finger’ brooch, an iconic piece where amber is sculpted into a literal fish finger.
When did you first start making jewellery?
Roanne Sanchez-Watts: I first started making jewellery during my foundation at Central Saint Martins. Until then, my art education and ignorance had me believe that ‘art’ meant 2D. The big, beautiful 3D world opened up, and I found my hands taking to objects fondly.
How would you describe the style of your work?
Roanne Sanchez-Watts: I’d describe the style of my work as sensitive, sometimes almost whispering. There’s emotion there, passion too, under the simple and sleek shapes of rings. I find inspiration through observing the human condition – our connections to one another, the spaces we fill and our ideas of faith. Making is meditative, pieces are prayers.
What’s one piece of jewellery you’d love to own?
Roanne Sanchez-Watts: A sizeable, Lucie Gledhill gold necklace!
When did you first start making jewellery?
Ayesha Sureya: I grew up wearing lots of jewellery, with women in my family adorned head to toe. The idea of making it came when I decided to study it at university. I’m curious about the human condition of adorning our relationships with preciousness.
How would you describe the style of your work?
Ayesha Sureya: My design language is defined by spiritual and sensual journeys, figurative forms repeating themselves. [My work is] an ode to the expressive potential of our personal and collective consciousness. The solidity of the work shows its presence, the pieces want to be seen and want to be felt.
What’s one piece of jewellery you’d love to own?
Ayesha Sureya: I like old things with past lives. I’d like to wear all the beautiful Indian jewellery the women in my family have but never allowed themselves to wear, for fun.
When did you first start making jewellery?
Iona Hindmarch Bisset: I started making jewellery back in 2016 whilst on my foundation course at Central Saint Martins. It was initially an unexpected interest, but I loved it so much I haven’t stopped since.
How would you describe the style of your work?
Iona Hindmarch Bisset: I find faces and expressions really intriguing. This has become the basis of what informs a lot of my designs. I create work that feels truly genderless, which is just a natural reflection of myself and my community.
What’s one piece of jewellery you’d love to own?
Iona Hindmarch Bisset: I rarely yearn for a piece of jewellery for very long because as soon as I want something, I just make it. But recently I’ve been trying to step up my carabiner game – I think a stupidly over the top, solid gold carabiner would do nicely.
When did you first start making jewellery?
Cameron and Breen: We studied jewellery and silversmithing together at the University of Ulster and in 2018 we became a goldsmithing collaboration. Martin [Cameron] started making jewellery as a medium for creative expression whilst also using precious materials. For Laura [Breen], it was the joy of creating small objects and wearable heirlooms using precious metal and vibrant gemstones that will outlive its maker.
How would you describe the style of your work?
Cameron and Breen: Our jewellery is a contemporary exploration into ancient jewellery design.
What’s one piece of jewellery you’d love to own?
Cameron and Breen: Martin would love to own a piece of jewellery from a Bronze Age hoard. Laura would love to own an ancient Egyptian gold scarab ring.
When did you first start making jewellery?
Emily Frances Barrett: I’ve made forms of jewellery since I was about nine or 10 years old, mostly with found materials like shells from the beach and tiny glass beads. I first started making jewellery in silver after completing my MA at Central Saint Martins. I had a light bulb moment whilst writing my dissertation and decided to focus on jewellery and hone my skills. Once I had a studio – courtesy of my Sarabande residency – I invested in some tools and started teaching myself silversmithing.
How would you describe the style of your work?
Emily Frances Barrett: My style is in a constant state of evolution, which is most freeing and full of potential – exactly how I like it.
What’s one piece of jewellery you’d love to own?
Emily Frances Barrett: Probably something I’ve yet to dream up or acquire the skills to execute. But there’s nothing more motivating than the magic of a vision you only hold in your mind’s eye.
When did you first start making jewellery?
Joey Zhong: It wasn’t until I started my studies in jewellery design at Central Saint Martins that I made my first pieces of jewellery. I felt an immediate connection with the tactility and intimacy of the medium and became fascinated with methods of jewellery construction. In many ways, it feels as though jewellery found me.
How would you describe the style of your work?
Joey Zhong: Bold, sculptural and poetic. I am intrigued by objects that act as metaphors for paths travelled, migration and memory. My pieces feature experimental stone setting techniques informed by basketry and traditional methods of packaging. Gemstones and pearls are symbolic dispersed ‘seeds’ that are delicately woven, wrapped and bound.
What’s one piece of jewellery you’d love to own?
Joey Zhong: There is a piece by Jacqueline Rabun that I keep coming back to, her ‘A Beautiful Life’ ring. This piece has held a space in my mind, and I find myself referring back to it time and time again.
When did you first start making jewellery?
Miya Kumo: I first started making jewellery in 2017, just out of interest.
How would you describe the style of your work?
Miya Kumo: I would describe the style of my work as somewhat naive. I find inspiration in gentle creatures.
What’s one piece of jewellery you’d personally love to own?
Miya Kumo: Shaun Leane’s diamond evening glove, Contra Mundum.