The Gabriella del Valle Story

1. How did you come to art?

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I’ve always been creative, but I never thought I was artistic. I started making jewellery because I didn’t particularly like the stuff on the high street, and I’d been making for about a year when I first got involved with Cambridge Open Studios. I went round a few jewellery studios with a friend and thought, I might be able to do that! Now I’ve been making for nine years. 

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When I first started selling, I fell into the trap of trying to make things I thought people wanted to buy. That was the wrong way round: and it was so boring! I’m a lot more confident in my work now. I make what I love, and I hope other people love it too.

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If you like what you’re making, then you’ll make it better.
 

2. What drives you to create?

 

I don’t make every day. I know creatives say they get a block; sometimes I’ll be walking past my studio thinking, I can’t go in there, it’s so messy! But then I think, I’ll just go in and do this… and I get involved. 

 

I have a pot of odds and ends, and sometimes I’ll just put some bits together and think, actually, that could become something really nice. And then it kind of just happens: for me, that’s the best way. But deadlines – like Open Studios! – will get me creative as well.

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3. What inspires you?

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Shape and form inspire me. In fact, the necklace I’m wearing today was inspired by Isabelle Davies’ leaf sculpture, 'Red for courage, green for long cherished ambitions'! Filigree has been an inspiration in the past: I quite enjoy a different take on traditional techniques. My work might be an interpretation of something else, but I don’t copy.

 

Another recent inspiration: in July, we had one visitor with severe arthritis in her fingers, and she told me she loved rings, ‘but I’ll never be able to wear one.’ I had brought some of my adjustable rings, so I found one for her. It had big blue topazes in it, which slightly drew the attention away from her knuckle. 

 

She was so happy. I went away and made about fifteen of those rings! I thought, wow, I’m actually able to help people with this design.

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4. What do you need to make your art?

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Well: silver! Then it’s all about the tools: the better the tools, the better the finished result. Christmas presents for me used to be clothes; now it’s ‘Can you buy me a pendant drill?’ or ‘Can you buy me saw blades?’ And patience. A lot of patience. It’s an art form in which there are no shortcuts at all: you have to be absolutely precise with it, right from the foundations.
 

5. What is the process by which you make your work?

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Cut, solder, shape, hammer, file, polish: there are quite a few processes involved! I definitely get absorbed while I’m making, it’s my happy place. Although of course sometimes things go wrong – maybe the solder gods aren’t with me, the pieces won’t solder properly – so it can be incredibly frustrating, and it can be a joy. It’s both, really.

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6. How is your art influenced by the space in which you create it?

 

I used to just work on top of a bookcase, but now I have a studio that my husband built for me, with a desk and all the proper tools. Although, when I think back to what I had before, I made it work, so I don’t need much space; in fact, the more space you’ve got, the more untidy it can get. Sometimes when I’m working I’ll put a pair of tweezers down on my bench, turn away, turn back: and they’ve disappeared! 

 

But it’s a pleasure to work there. I’ve got a window that looks out onto the green, so I can see people passing by with their dogs, and I’ll have my radio on, and I’ll sit there hammering, sawing, filing, polishing: that’s when I know I’m really in that zen state.

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7. How do you respond to limitations and constraints?

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Tiredness can be a limitation, and that does frustrate me. I have to concentrate extremely hard, so I can’t make all day: I can probably do three hours at a time.

 

Sometimes I get cramp in my hands – from gripping tiny bits of silver for ages – and then I just have to accept that I need to walk away and come back to it.

 

It’s quite a physical activity. I’ve got a slight problem with my shoulder, so I can’t hammer for very long, because it hurts: and jewellery-making involves a lot of hammering. Sometimes it hurts to saw as well. You talk to a lot of jewellers and it’s the same. 

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8. What does being in a community like COS mean for you?

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I am passionate about COS and what it stands for: I was on the Management Team for seven years! It’s made me better at what I do, because you have to have something of quality to participate; you have to make it meaningful for the people who come and visit you. 

 

Art is incredibly diverse, and COS takes that very seriously: it’s about valuing and promoting all those different media, that diversity. I didn’t consider myself an artist when I first started making, but now I do think of my work as art.

9. What is art for? 

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For enjoyment. For the people looking at it, and for the people making the art, who are unleashing creativity. We don’t need it, but we do: we need it to be able to appreciate the world around us, form and colour, all kinds of things. Everything.

 

Art is joyful. We’ve seen so many people walk by and actually smile at the sculptures, at the bikini. Sometimes people come up to me and tell me they love my work, they love the designs, ‘I’m just not buying today.’ It doesn’t matter, as long as it brings you joy! 

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Based on an interview between Gabriella del Valle and Georgia Short on 7 August 2026.

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Gabriella del Valle runs the independent studio Elemental Jewellery Design.​

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