Mini silver and gold heart stud earrings. Handmade by Stuart Cairns in Co. Down, Northern Ireland.

Small sterling silver square with 18ct gold heart. Hallmarked. Approximate size; length 5mm, width 5mm.

About the maker:

“I’ve always made things.  As a kid  I made things from collected shells on the beach in Donegal, or  bows and arrows in the woods near my home in North Down in Northern Ireland. As an artist now I am driven by a similar love of making, translating the simple beauty in the everyday and the accidental into the shapes and forms of silversmithing objects, jewellery forms, artefacts and pure drawings.

My inspiration comes from frequent walks -the landscape acting as a place of imagination and inspiration. The works I create are a response to this, to capture that sense of time, of being- a sense of presence in a place.

I work in mixed media, often combining precious metals with found objects and alternative materials. Pieces are either one-off works created in series or small batches forming collections, each one individual with its own accents of marks and variations of form.”