Gabriella del Valle

Artist Statement
 

I first started making jewellery about ten years ago. I signed up for an evening class at Coleridge Community College. I wanted to be so good at it from the start, but I wasn’t! Working with silver is a skill to be learnt and nurtured over time. It’s tricky, fiddly: you have to be absolutely precise with measurements and preparation. 

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When I first started I would have an idea of what I wanted to make but I didn’t have the skill, and so would end up with something different, equally as lovely. You start with some silver wire; you work with it, solder it, shape it, hammer it: and you have a black piece of something. Then you polish it, and all of a sudden, it is beautiful (and very shiny)! 

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When I first started, and wore the pieces I had created out and about, I would get compliments from people. One night I wore a ring I had made to the pub and one of my friends said: that is special, can I buy it? I was bowled over by the idea that someone liked what I had made enough to buy it from me. Since then I’ve sold necklaces from my neck and bracelets from my arm to a sales assistant at Russell and Bromley. 

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I didn’t ever think I was creative. My mother was an artist and my brother is a photographer. I couldn’t draw or paint really, but I was pushed down the academic route, which was absolutely not what I wanted to do; then again, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. 

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I have realised since that everyone has a creative streak and it’s not necessarily in drawing and painting. I am a creative cook – I cooked for a living – and I’m creative in what I wear, and in my house decoration. 

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When I began selling in a more structured way, I found myself making what I thought people wanted to buy. That was a big mistake and now I make what inspires me. Shape inspires me. I have a pot full of offcuts or half finished pieces and sometimes I will get some out and a new design springs to life. There is no wastage with working with silver. 

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I now appreciate that the creative process is tiring, but my workshop is my happy place. Every now and again I find it difficult to go in and make, and find myself walking past in favour of doing the washing, or some other household chore. Once I get in and do something I’m off and running. 

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I am loving being part of Cambridge Open Studios and the opportunity to meet and work with an inspiring group of artists across all different types of media.