Ever since Sarah Meredith was young she has enjoyed making things, She made her first
piece of silver jewellery at sixth form and went onto achieve a first class degree in designed metal work and jewellery.
Upon graduating Sarah went to live in London and secured a position with Solange Azagury-Partridge in Notting Hill. She worked there for seven years and had some fantastic opportunities. Solange was then creative director of the prestigious French jewellery house ‘Boucheron’ with Gucci’s Tom Ford at the helm so trips to Paris were frequent. During her time there Sarah also set up a ‘Designer of the year’ exhibition at the Design Museum in London and assisted in designing a limited edition collection for H&M. She worked her way up through the company until she could take it no more and, in February 2008, moved to Brighton for a less stressful life and set up www.rockcakes.com
The ‘Proverbial Collection’ started things off – the ‘in one ear…’ arrow earrings and the ‘every cloud…’ necklace. Then came the ‘Cupcake’ ‘I felt that Rock Cakes needed a cake and I loved the idea of using enamel to achieve the bright colours’ says Sarah ‘this is where the ‘Tuck Shop’ collection began. I wanted my jewellery to be fun but still precious. If you walk into a jewellers most of the jewellery is the same old thing, shop to shop, very safe and very boring’. Having said that Sarah explains she didn’t want to close the door on more sensible jewellery and says: ‘Every girl needs a pair of basic diamond studs and I love pearls so I created the ‘Grown Up’ collection.’ ‘I designed and made a 20ct black diamond ring for a lady last year which was a great project – I didn’t want to hand the ring over!’
Sarah says she’d ideally like to work in 18ct yellow gold but the prices can be crazy. Her ‘Birdbrain’ ring in silver is £120 but works out at £1,200 in gold!
’My inspiration is literally from every day life such as the things we say – like every
cloud has a silver lining - and things I see. The ice creams are quite Brightony and I like birds so there are the little bird pieces’
Sarah’s work is available from the website www.rockcakes.com, at Baroque in the South Laines and she is taking part in her first open house this May. Follow her blog:
http://www.rockcakes.com/blog
By Helen Ruff
