Natural muses

• • Romilly's first love was book binding
• • Her sources of inspiration are objects from history, nature and sea
• • She buys metal detected finds as well as some precious stones on eBay

The word Newfoundland has become a metaphor for all Romilly Saumarez Smith’s work, along with the making of it. “It seems to be an uplifting word, three words, each one with its distinct meaning. The actual island is an extraordinary place, remote but abundant in the small wilderness landscapes that inspire me”. At the beginning, London born and based Romilly Saumarez Smith was fascinated by book-binding, then, almost by accident, she discovered “the power and beauty of metal” and swapped book-binding for jewellery making. As her hands don’t work anymore, she works through her “translators”, assistants that translate her vision into beautiful objects. Beautiful, but that might not be perfect, because “it must feel absolutely right which is hard to describe but is dependent on the eye of the maker”.