Machi de Waard

My name is Machi and I’m a jeweller. I make modernist pieces in silver and gold, sometimes using gemstones. I make my jewellery at my studio in Reading, Berkshire, where I’ve been working for more than 10 years. From January 2010 to December 2011, I was Jeweller in Residence at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell. I currently teach for Buckinghamshire Adult Learning in Chesham and at Maiden Erlegh School in Reading. I also teach private lessons in my studio in Reading. I’m a big fan of abstract expressionism and minimalism, so work by artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Yves Klein inspire me. I also find inspiration from the shapes and clean lines in the work of sculptors Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Jean Arp and Constantin Brancusi. Closer to home, though, my whole family is artistic so I can also see creativity in my sister’s knitting or my mom’s painting or my grandmother’s tapestries. I love how you can give the same material to a hundred people to make something and they will all come up with something totally different. My signature style rotates around simple shapes such as circles, spheres and ovals. I like the perfection and simplicity of a circle. A circle is a minimal shape – it encloses the maximum amount of space with the minimum circumference – which makes it a very neat, efficient shape. In my designs, the gold (or sometimes silver) sphere provides a sense of tension or playfulness by balancing on the curve or peeking out from behind the silver.