DUBLIN — At a bench in his atelier within the metropolis heart, Sam Lafford hooked up a floral headdress to a small cranium he had carved from Siberian jet. The flowers had been lower from classic items of blue chalcedony, kyanite, citrine, topaz and carnelian. And the muse was Frida Kahlo, the Mexican artist recognized for her elaborate flowery crowns.
The piece was a piece in progress after we spoke. Subsequent, he deliberate to set two demantoid garnets, every 2.5 millimeters broad, because the eyes. After which he would connect the cranium to an enameled Artwork Nouveau-style pendant, about 4 inches lengthy and 1 inch broad, embellished with diamonds hooked up to a lattice so they’d look as in the event that they have been floating.
“She’s known as Frida Rogerette and when she’s completed will in all probability price round 25,000 euros,” or $25,685, Mr. Lafford stated.
The pendant can be a part of the jeweler’s second Jolly Rodger assortment, named after the dying’s head on the normal pirate flag. The primary assortment — 9 unisex lapel pins, brooches and pendants of what he known as “whimsical, rock ’n’ roll” characters like Hipster Rodger, Dr. Rodger and Punk Rodger — bought out at costs from €1,800 to €24,000.
From Auto Instruments to Diamonds
Mr. Lafford, 46, was born in Zimbabwe and moved to South Africa along with his household when he was 7. As an adolescent, he went to a technical secondary faculty and began making jewellery for his mom. “I made earrings, pendants and bracelets from feathers, beads and something I discovered — which she very sweetly wore,” he recalled.
After he graduated, Mr. Lafford adopted within the footsteps of his father and grandfather. “I did a standard apprenticeship,” he stated, qualifying as a instrument, jig and die maker after which producing customized components and instruments for racecars till he left South Africa for Eire in 2001.
“At first, I took a gross sales job in a {hardware} firm, simply to do any job,” however then he noticed an commercial for a yearlong jewellery coaching program run by an Irish authorities company in collaboration with the Firm of Goldsmiths of Dublin.
He signed up for the category of 2003 and spent the primary weeks studying the fundamentals — submitting, piercing, soldering, engraving, casting and forming — from the course teacher, Tony Lee.
“Sam stood out,” Mr. Lee stated. “It was an enormous assist that he already had hand abilities and data of working with steel. It’s no shock to me that he’s very profitable now.”
By evening, Mr. Lafford stated, he pored over jewellery approach books by consultants like Oppi Untracht, Jinks McGrath and Erhard Brepohl. And 6 months into this system, DesignYard, a trendy Dublin jewellery retailer, agreed to promote a set of silver chain mail earrings and bracelets that he had designed and made.
Half two of the course was a piece placement at ESL Jewelry in Dublin, doing what Mr. Lafford described as “melting gold, shaping rings and bangles, slowly stepping into restore.” He labored there for 4 years, then briefly at a luxurious Dublin jewellery retailer earlier than the 2008 Celtic Tiger financial crash pushed him into going freelance.
In 2009, he started accepting commissions to revive and create items for John Farrington Antiques, a jewellery specialist. “That’s once I realized how little I knew about jewellery,” Mr. Lafford stated, describing how he drew on his coaching to grasp classic strategies, even inventing new instruments. “I discovered a lot pleasure in determining how the outdated masters assembled this stuff,” he stated. “There was plenty of trial and terror.”
Quick ahead to 2014, when Sabina Higgins, the spouse of President Michael D. Higgins of Eire, wore a daisy cluster necklace and earrings commissioned by Farrington and created by Mr. Lafford to a state banquet at Windsor Citadel.
“The necklace was handmade in platinum and vintage diamonds. It took three weeks to make, together with doing all my very own setting,” he recalled. “The earrings, vintage diamonds and sapphires, have been additionally mine.”
As of late Mr. Lafford works independently, working from his workshop, Studio Lafford, and sells his jewellery straight or by way of DesignYard. And whereas he primarily works alone, “in 10 years, I’ve skilled 9 jewelers,” he stated. “I’m in opposition to holding onto data and abilities. We have to preserve the cycle going.”
Beginning With Stones
Mr. Lafford describes himself as a “fashion chameleon,” adapting to no matter can be greatest for the vintage gems that he has collected over the previous 12 years.
“Each creation begins with a stone,” he stated. “Vintage stones have been lower to glitter in candlelight; they’re much more dazzling below fashionable lighting. They have been hand-cut so every stone has extra character.”
His present collections embrace the Up to date Quattro vary: rings, earrings and pendants (from €2,500 to €10,000) that includes vintage diamonds, rubies and sapphires in settings impressed by the quatrefoil symmetry of Arabian and Victorian kinds.
The Lizbeth assortment — which Mr. Lafford describes as “my tackle the cutdown setting of the Victorian interval,” a method that makes use of virtually no steel alongside the perimeters of the gems — features a 4.14-carat blue Ceylon sapphire ring for €28,680.
And his Hand vary is a sequence of sculpted arms worn as pendants — accessible in silver, 18-karat gold or platinum, beginning at €230 — conceived in the course of the early days of the pandemic. “Psychological well being is a vital problem for me,” he stated, “and I needed this jewellery to convey the thought of a serving to hand.”
Mr. Lafford additionally remodels vintage jewellery, just like the vintage ruby and diamond ring that Grace O’Riordan, a retired pilot, purchased within the South of France. “I cherished the stones however not the design,” she stated.
He prompt incorporating a reminder of Ms. O’Riordan’s 27-year flying profession into the ring’s design, so the completed piece options the unique ruby, surrounded by vintage diamonds from Tiffany & Firm, but additionally options Artwork Deco-style wings engraved in platinum on the ring’s below facet.
“It’s a showstopper,” Ms. O’Riordan stated. “At first, I wasn’t positive I might pull it off. Now I put on it each day! ”
Róisín Ní Mhórdha is the actions director for Foster Provide Hospitality, a resort and restaurant group in upstate New York, who described herself as a “lifelong collector of knickknack.” She found Mr. Lafford’s work by way of the Irish designer Peter O’Brien — who, she stated, was an aficionado of Mr. Lafford’s Rodger assortment.
Ms. Ní Mhórdha’s first buy from Mr. Lafford was a blackened silver pendant from the Hand vary. She then commissioned a gold bangle studded with 25 azure-cut diamonds and a diamond inside a heart-shaped azure lower on the underside of the band. “Sam goes over and past your expectations,” she stated. “He combines distinctive technical talent with distinctive visible creativity. His consideration to element is impeccable.”
She has since commissioned one other Hand pendant, 5 rings, a pair of Tahitian pearl earrings and nonetheless has “an eye fixed on many extra gems” in his assortment. “I joke with Sam that I’d as effectively simply hand over my paycheck,” she stated with amusing.
