Meet the Maker

A Glorious Obsession

For Eimear, crafting with precious metal is an irresistible impulse.  Enjoying its willingness to be transformed, both in shape and texture, she creates beautiful jewellery that resonates emotionally with the wearer, to uplift and empower them each time they interact with it. 
Working from her studio just outside the beautiful historic village of Inistioge in County Kilkenny, Ireland, the award-winning jeweller hand-makes each piece using a range of techniques, including traditional goldsmithing, lost wax casting, wire crochet and weaving with precious metal. She derives great artistic satisfaction from meticulous attention to detail and harmony of material and design. 
Eimear's mission as a designer and maker of jewellery is to enhance a person’s unique individuality through a careful selection of materials, design choices and fabrication processes - this results in jewellery that will stand the test of time as statements of personality and aesthetic choice. 
This is not fast fashion, this is timeless style. 

Eimear Vize jewellery designer and maker
Eimear Vize at the bench hand piercing silver
Custom jewellery studio kilkenny
Ben visiting Eimear garden studio

Gemstone specialist

Gemstones feature prominently in Eimear's work, often providing pivotal design elements. As an amature Gemologist and gemstone collector of three decades, she has a vast assortment and knowledge of the many different types of gems, including unusual and striking stones that are not typically available in jewellery stores, or indeed other jewellery designer/makers. "These wild and weird gemstones are Nature's art; each one is perfectly unique. While I love the precious gems we are all familiar with, there's something special about wrapping an equally beautiful but off-beat gem in gold and elevating it so it can properly admired by everyone."
green chrysoprase
Green chrysoprase
Maligano Jasper
Maligano Jasper
African sunstone
African sunstone
Vesuvianites
Vesuvianites

Sustainable jewellery movement

All of the packaging used by Eimear - from the tissue paper to the pretty branded jewellery boxes, as well as her postal boxes - is 100% recyclable and FSC certified. The FSC® mark  guarantees that all materials come from an FSC® forest, where no more wood is cut down than the forest can reproduce. This means better protection of the animal and plant life, and all foresters have proper training, safety equipment and a decent wage. 
Eimear is also proud to state that all of the gold and silver used in her jewellery is 100% recycled, making it more sustainable and ethically sourced. To avoid an excessive carbon footprint, all bullion, chain, findings, packaging and materials are sourced from Ireland and Europe.
She also strives to purchase gemstones that are ethically sourced, and where possible from small family-run mines. In recent years, she has cultivated a small group of artisanal lapidary artists in India and Indonesia who locally source and shape the gems themselves.
Eimear hand-makes everything in her own workshop at home, using artisanal methods which are non-toxic so no heavy polluting industry involved. Eimear's work is the antithesis of fast fashion - trends come and go but Eimear's unique design ethos means that each piece is an investment, a piece of art, designed to last lifetimes.

Winner of the Kilkenny Chamber Crafts Business Award 2022
Shortlisted by the Institute Designers Ireland for the IDI 2022 Design Awards
Finalist in the 2022 Irish Made awards
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