GOLDEN Jewellery Store | Behind the Brand: Frances Kirk Interview – Golden

Small sustainable brand, Frances Kirk was founded by Bristol based designer, Annie Welch in 2020 to encourage slow fashion & conscious buying. Each piece of jewellery is handmade uniquely taking inspiration from talismans picked up in different places as well as organic forms and nature. All her designs are full of stunning texture and are true modern heirlooms that can be worn for years to come. Learn more about Annie's inspirations and some insights into life inside her studio.

Tell us the story behind your brand. How did you first start making jewellery, and what pushed you to turn it into a business? My jewellery making journey started with an accident! I was working in the art world but was craving a more hands on outlet for my creativity. The treadmill of life though meant I was quite stuck where I was. I was involved in an accident in a café involving some boiling water and my lap (I will spare the gruesome details…!) but the silver lining was a small public liability payout. I wanted to do something positive with the money to turn something nasty into something happy – and decided to enrol in a silversmithing diploma. I never looked back! I was still working full time while making commissions for friends etc on the side and very slowly Frances Kirk grew into the brand it is today.

What inspires your designs most? It sounds cliché to say but I am mainly inspired by nature. I am someone whose happy place is my garden in springtime, a secluded cliff walk, a mossy woodland or a sprawling lakeside. I think often people try to sterilise an aesthetic when it comes to fashion or accessories and for me the aim is the opposite. I like to make earrings that don’t quite match, wonky pendants and textured pieces that remind me of the bark of a tree or a rocky outcrop. Nature isn’t often symmetrical, and I personally believe more natural shapes suit most people better. Wearing wonky shapes bring out our glorious differences.

Can you walk us through how your pieces are made, from idea to finished piece? I mainly use a wax casting technique, where pieces are sculpted in wax and then cast in recycled silver or gold. When I started making jewellery though I was frustrated by the lack of malleability in traditional jeweller’s wax, so started using beeswax instead. Lots of the shapes you see in my work were initially moulded in beeswax! I also use beeswax when making my initialled pendants – each one is made from scratch, so each one is a slightly different shape which I love. Some of my pieces, like the Theia studs, I pour molten metal onto sand to get the desired texture. I then set the gemstone by pushing them into the centre of the pooling gold. There isn’t even a term for that as it’s not a traditional technique at ALL but they’re some of my favourite pieces to make.

If you weren’t making jewellery, what do you think you’d be doing instead? As I said, my garden is my happy place – my mum is a florist and I’ve helped her with weddings before and LOVED it. I think I’d like to work with plants somehow.

What jewellery do you wear every day? And what do you reach for when you’re dressing up or going out? I wear my mini knot drop hoops every day pretty much, they are the easiest earrings to style! When I’m going out, I tend to reach for chunkier pieces like my beeswax hoops (a staple) or a talisman pendant. I allllways have a selection of molten stacking rings in whatever bag I’m using in case I want to make a ring stack chunkier!