Brooches

  • Liner

    Carolee Friedman started Carolee in 1972 after training as an architect. The story goes she set up her business on her kitchen table in Connecticut. Interestingly, she created her jewellery not just to buy and wear but also to collect. In the early 1970s collecting costume jewellery was not seen as mainstream. Today, of course,…

  • Tiger

    I bought this brooch at the Athelstan Museum in Malmesbury. It is made of felt and was made by hand in Nepal.  He/She is adorable, and I couldn’t resist.  My collection has brooches made of a wide variety of materials, but there are not many made from fabric.  Felt making is an ancient technique which…

  • Penny Farthing

    This novelty brooch depicting a Penny Farthing is by Zentall.  Robert Zentall set up Robert Zentall Inc. in 1952 with his wife Betty.  Robert was born in 1905 in Germany and his wife Betty was born in Hungary in 1915.  Betty’s brother Etienne Aigner was the luxury bag designer and founder of Aigner, which can…

  • Sail Boat

    This silver brooch is smaller than my usual brooches.  But the reason I have it in my collection is the simplicity of the design which conveys perfectly the image and idea of a sail boat.  In the design there are just two shapes, one smooth (the sail) and one textured (the boat hull), together they…

  • Cat Face

    This colourful brooch is made of hundreds of tiny seed glass beads.  It is made by the talented craftswoman Yana Tselinsky who comes from Ramat Gan, (near Tel Aviv) in Israel.  Yana explains she started crafting when she was taught to knit at three years old.  Over the years she has added to her crafting…

  • Heart

    This is a small heart shaped brooch to celebrate Valentines.  Was it given as a love token?  I don’t know.  But I like to imagine a young man presenting the brooch to his sweetheart on St Valentine’s day. It is not valuable, the stones are just glass and are mounted in brass.  But care has…

  • Lady Walking Dog

    There are various versions of this brooch around.  The brooches date from the 1930s and were ‘give aways’ in Vogue if you signed up for an annual subscription.  They are not particularly sophisticated in construction, basically each brooch is pressed out from sheet metal with a simple pin attached.  Original ones have no decoration but…

  • Christmas Pudding

    This Christmas Pudding brooch is made of felt by Lexys Utopia who is based in Nantwich.  Lexys specialises in making felt jewellery, mainly brooches.  This particular brooch was first used as part of the TubeFlash project I did with Transport for London between 2013 and 2015.  It was the brooch for Monument Tube Station. Since…

  • Circle

    This large and impressive Givenchy brooch is from the 1970s.  The brooch is made of metal and glass and is all about texture.  The metal rim has what appears to be a series of embossed links and then there is an inner ring of violet glass and in the centre smoky grey faceted glass.  The…

  • Mackintosh Square

    This is, for me a small brooch.  I usually go for more statement impactful designs.  But this little brooch has a pleasing design, and it came with matching earrings.  I do like a matching set.  I know these days it is seen as not on trend, but who wants to be a slave to the…