This week’s LDNER is a five time NEWGEN Award winner, 2011 jewellery designer of the year and has even designed for Beyoncé, Rihanna and Florence Welch. Meet Dominic Jones.
Where in London do you live and what do you love about the area?
I live in Bethnal Green in a little muse near V&A Museum of Childhood. For me it’s perfect, it’s a 5 min walk from my door to Victoria Park and 20 minutes on the tube to central. It has a good balance of city and green.
How did you get into jewellery design?
When I was little my uncle had a long term girlfriend who was a jeweller. I think that put it in my head as a job option at a young age. My list was monkey tamer, astronaut and jeweller. I was too lazy to be an astronaut and not brave enough to be a monkey tamer… so here we are.
You’ve just done a collab with Water For People and Absolut Elyx, how did you get involved with this?
I’ve worked with Absolut Elyx on lots of occasions, they’ve always kindly supported my events. One of the most memorable was my LC:M presentation where the models were playing a live poker match. It was that presentation that inspired the launch event for this collaboration.
Does living in London inspire your jewellery designs?
Yes but not in a literal sense. I have a team of friends around me that are all incredible. I feed off their influence and work with them on projects. I’m also inspired by natures beauty which is in its diversity, its oddity and deformity. The most appealing things are 80% beautiful 20% ugly. Otherwise you might as well just stare at an image of the Fibonacci golden ratio on a computer screen.
What would your perfect day in London be?
My perfect day in London would be spent visiting my favourite London attractions, the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons by Holborn, Borough Market and Eltham Palace. Or just spending day in the sun shine in the long grass in Hampstead Heath, surrounded with friends and good food. My favourite hidden gem in London is an old, abandoned Victorian train line where my friends and I all end up at the end of a night to watch the sunset. We call it “the end of the world” as it is really post-apocalyptic. Miles of derelict landscape is juxtaposed with the metropolis skyline in the distance. The late 19th century tracks are surrounded by overgrown trees and bushes and random junk, it’s a place of true escapism and kind of romantic to me.