Handmade Jewellery
Sydney jeweller Nicky Burles has spent more than 25 years making jewellery by hand. Working from his Sydney studio, Nicky designs and makes one-of-a-kind pieces in platinum and gold, using natural diamonds, sapphires, tourmalines and other exceptional coloured gemstones.
Nicky’s work comes from a long tradition of jewellery making. He begins with raw metal at the bench, forming each component through forging, rolling, drawing, cutting, soldering, filing and shaping. The piece develops gradually in his hands.
What Handmade Means
The word handmade is often used loosely. A piece is sometimes described as handcrafted because cast components have been assembled, set and polished by hand. However, these pieces are commonly designed on a computer and sent offsite for printing, casting and production. Increasingly, even bespoke pieces are machine-made.
When jewellery is truly handmade, it begins with precious metal at the bench. Rather than assembling pre-made or cast components, the jeweller forms and builds the individual parts through forging, rolling, drawing, cutting, soldering, filing and shaping.
Jewellery with the Hand of its Maker
A handmade piece is not perfectly uniform in the way a machine-produced object is. Its small variations come from forming and finishing each component individually.
This human element gives jewellery much of its beauty. The finished piece contains the gemstone, the story behind the commission and the time spent making it. It has a rhythm that cannot be produced through machine manufacturing.
When jewellery is handmade, the jeweller responds to the stone as the piece develops. Each component must be shaped and adjusted until it finds the right balance with those around it. As each piece is made, one side may need to be softened, or a curve altered by a fraction. The jeweller moves back and forth between the individual components and the piece as a whole until the proportions feel right.
This is also where Nicky’s hidden details take shape. A hand-pierced gallery, a pattern beneath a setting or a small gemstone tucked out of sight can be worked into the structure as the piece is built.
The design is not simply reproduced mechanically in metal. It is interpreted through the act of making. Like the brushstrokes in a painting, the jeweller’s hand can be seen in each element that makes up the finished piece.
What the wearer ultimately sees is the balance achieved through that process. The many adjustments disappear into the whole, and the quiet dance between the stone, the metal and the maker remains.
Quality Built into the Piece
Much of today’s jewellery is produced very differently from Nicky’s handmade work. The design and manufacture may be divided between several people and businesses, sometimes across different countries. The people drawing or producing the components may not have the years of bench experience needed to understand how a piece will behave once it is worn.
Dimensions that look acceptable on a screen may leave very little metal around a stone or in an area exposed to regular wear. Claws, settings and bands are often made extremely fine to reduce weight. The piece may look beautiful when it is new but lack the strength needed to withstand years of wear.
Through his repair work, Nicky sees the consequences of this. Stones come loose, fine claws wear away and settings fail earlier than they should. Sometimes there is not enough metal left to rebuild the piece securely, or the surrounding structure is too light to support a lasting repair.
Hand construction gives the jeweller direct control over the internal structure of a piece. Metal can be placed where strength is needed, with enough material allowed for wear, maintenance and future repair. Beneath the lightness of a delicate handmade piece is a structure made to endure. This is quality that reveals itself over a lifetime of wear.
From the First Conversation to the Finished Piece
When commissioning a handmade piece with Nicky, the client works directly with him from the first meeting through to the design and making of the piece. Nicky spends time with the client to understand their ideas and develops the design with them.
That understanding then travels with Nicky to the bench. Nothing is lost through handovers between salespeople, designers and manufacturers. He knows why each decision was made, which details matter to the client and how the finished piece should feel. The vision shaped during those early conversations remains in his hands through to the final polish.
Clients looking for handmade jewellery in Sydney can meet with Nicky by appointment. Phone consultations can also be arranged for interstate and international clients.
Contact Nicky to discuss a jewellery commission.