Niobium: The award-winning Yorkshire jeweller using an unusual metal in her work

“Our parents were really good at encouraging us to do what we wanted. We went hiking a lot and I would pick up rocks on the beach. I always liked what you could reveal – hidden treasure,” says Alice.

Visits to the Blue John Caves in Derbyshire, in particular, left a lasting impression on Alice.

“I love how you can go in places, these unassuming hills, and get this purply crystal. I have always been interested in rock formations, history and science. I did want to be an archaeologist – now I am creating treasure you can pick up instead. It’s a combination of all those things. I wanted to create work that was not picking things out of the ground but fantasy gemstones that are inspired by geology – your own personal rock that you wear.”

Alice’s early interest in jewellery was producing a pair of pipe cleaner ear-rings for her mum. Then, at 15, came a chance opportunity to spend time with a working jeweller while on holiday with her parents.

“I walked into a jeweller’s shop on the Canary Islands. He was someone with his own workshop in the middle of nowhere. My dad loves making things and using his hands and he asked him if he would be able to teach me. I spent a day ring making with him and I loved it,” recalls Alice.

The skills and techniques Alice uses through her namesake business, launched after graduating, are a fusion of her studies for her Silversmithing and Jewellery Design degree at The Glasgow School of Art, and training at Bishopsland Educational Trust alongside Brian Eburah, one of the few jewellery makers in the country working with Niobium. “He encouraged me to get into it and I thought ‘this is so me.’ He explained about the chemistry and because I had done A’ level chemistry all of it was perfect for me.”

Producing an image on her phone, Alice chats about the process of her first piece using Niobium, a rare, lightweight and durable metal. The stunning colour spectrum on the love heart pendant is a result of adonising. This colour changing chemical process uses an electrolyte comprising water and bicarbonate of soda. Varying the voltages determine the colours as Alice explains.

“It was my first piece and I was in awe of the colours – the magic behind it.”

Niobium is submerged in electrolyte. Using a rectifier, Alice controls the electricity coming through by gradually building up the voltage to create the stunning colour effects.

“Niobium is an element. It has a melting temperature of 2,477 degrees Celsius. The higher the voltage the thicker the Niobium oxide surface layer,” explains Alice. The transparent Niobium oxide refracts and reflects the light passing through it.

“It is structural colourisation, like oil on water or butterfly wings. It is so iridescent and it is 3D colours, it dances in the light. It’s almost colour changing. I can set the voltage exactly so I can see the colour I am getting. I tend to stick to blues and purples because they are vibrant against the silver. Blue is the most popular colour because we are naturally attracted to water,” says Alice.

The composition of Niobium, and the chemical process it goes through, creates a long-lasting piece of jewellery that won’t tarnish, according to Alice.

Chasing and Repousse is the hammered finishing technique Alice uses on her pieces. “This technique has been used for thousands of years and, supposedly, Tutankhamun’s mask was made in the same way.”

The flat sheet of metal is manipulated into a 3D form by pushing the metal using some of the specialist tools adorning the pots standing on the surfaces around her studio in The Sculpture Lounge, within Holmbridge Mill, a former textile mill in Holmfirth.

Alice believes she may be the only jeweller in the world using Niobium in her Chasing and Repousse style.

“I do deep relief chasing in a more sculptural way and nobody else has used it in this way, as far as I can see. But I don’t want to make things that people have made before. I want to make something original which is really hard to do.”

Raising is another technique Alice has learned along the way with some of the UK’s leading silversmiths.

Holding the beautiful gilding metal cup in her hands, she demonstrates the slow process of compressing metal with specialist stakes described as specially shaped steel formers.

Beakers, cups and soup spoons are among the range of pieces she produces for her website, along with trinket boxes, ear-rings and pendants. Commissions are another element of her business.

“I always wanted to be an independent designer maker with my own designs.” Participating in ‘MAD about Jewelry’ in New York in 2022 gave her the opportunity to showcase some of her pieces in the States.

“It was a great experience, and I got a commission for a big choker neck piece based on a tiara I had made,” says Alice.

She admits she isn’t a follower of fashion. “That isn’t what my business is about. I am making completely original work.”

In terms of the popularity of her pieces, Alice says brooches are making a comeback.

“I think people are much more open to expressing themselves which is nice to see. Lots of men are also getting engagement rings and I do think my work is unisex. I get a lot of men and women interested which is really nice. I like to think it is limitless as to who my customers may be. I attract people who like to be different and like to express themselves.”

A regular at Goldsmiths, the contemporary jewellery and silversmithing fair in London, has brought Alice’s work under the global gaze of jewellery collectors. Two of her pieces, including a tiara, were purchased by a collector for a museum in America. Handing me the ornately detailed ‘Geode Celebration Box,’ Alice explains the intricate process involved.

“Back in 2022 I applied for the Contemporary British Silversmiths Industry Award. I had to submit a design and a drawing for the piece I wanted to make with 1kg of silver. I won and got the 1kg of silver to make that piece and won the award,” says Alice proudly. She explains the brief was to design an interpretation of a celebration. “I wanted to re-create the natural world in metal, the natural geological forms in metal. The process I was using is a really tricky form but I wanted to see how far I could push myself, push the metal and I managed to do it in the end.

“The shape I wanted was to be slightly elongated. I did a squiggle of a shape because rocks are so randomly chaotic. I like to think of them as beautiful chaos. It’s kind of chemistry and maths unleashed and I wanted it to be natural from formed rock. I wanted to make it multi-functional, ornamental and decorative as well.”

Alice’s ‘Geode Celebration Box’ will be on view at The Goldsmiths’ Craft & Design Council Awards Exhibition 2024 at Atrium, The Goldsmiths’ Centre, London, from Wednesday July 3 to Thursday September 12 2024.

“I love when I am making pieces for people. They are such individual pieces that people will love forever and it can be passed down the generations and, possibly, creates the archaeology of the future.”