The Secret World of Jewellery: Sara Prentice
In her new three part series The Secret World of Jewellery, Melanie Grant delves behind-the-scenes of the jewellery industry to share the secret ways and wisdom of its pioneers. For the second episode in the series, British designer maker Sara Prentice tells the story of her journey from The Kent Institute of Art and Design to becoming the Creative Director of Garrard, via Cartier, Graff and Faberge, of making jewels fit for royals and rock stars, and the enduring importance of good design.
Garrard Couture Northern Lights Collection - Necklace in 18ct White Gold with Opals, Sapphires, Tsavorites, Diamonds and Mother of Pearl; Earrings in 18ct White Gold with Sapphires, Tsavorites, Diamonds and Mother of Pearl; Bracelet in 18ct White Gold with Sapphires, Tsavorites, Diamonds and Mother of Pearl; Cocktail Ring in 18ct White Gold with Opal, Sapphires, Tsavorites, Diamonds and Mother of Pearl.
Lost & Found
Like everyone when I was at school, I got to the age of 16 and thought “what the hell am I going to do?”. I stayed on to do A-Levels in fashion, textiles, art and photography as I knew I wanted to do something creative, but I didn’t know what. I thought it might be fashion, so I applied to all the fashion colleges, and found myself going for an interview at The Kent Institute of Art and Design (KIAD). I was wandering around lost in the halls with my portfolio when I stumbled across the jewellery department and a man called Brian Hill gave me directions. He asked if I was there to attend an interview and if I had ever considered doing jewellery which I hadn’t at all. He then showed me round an exhibition they were having and invited me back so during the interview, in the back of my mind I was mulling over the idea of jewellery because I had never considered it before. On my return he looked at my portfolio and told me I had a place if I wanted it and that was the beginning. My Dad was aghast and demanded to know where and how I was going to get a job doing jewellery in the UK because it was bad enough that I was doing art, let alone jewellery. Nowadays, universities offer it as an established subject of study and it’s much more of an accepted career path, but I hadn’t come from a wealthy family and we didn’t have any jewels in our family. My mum had a gold wedding band but didn’t even have an engagement ring, so jewellery was absolutely not in my universe and finding it was a revelation.
I went on to formally train in jewellery design, silversmithing and making for 4 years at the bench. One of the most important skillsets I have acquired is learning to make what I design and in all the places I’ve ever worked, there has been an in-house workshop I’ve connected with on a deeper level. Once you’ve been trained at the bench, you never lose the appreciation for that skill. My mentality is that everything can be done. There is a way around any problem even if it isn’t initially apparent or if a compromise has to be made with a tweak here and there but generally, it can always be done if you communicate with your craftspeople in the right way. Every year the college would encourage us to enter The Goldsmiths’ Crafts and Design Awards and at the time The KIAD held the record for winning the most cups. In my final year I won a prize and at the same time Cartier were looking for a designer to replace someone who was retiring after 40 years. They sponsored part of the awards and Terry Davidson the Director came to the college and asked Brian if he had any students he could recommend for the role. I and another student were put forward.
From Kent to Cartier
It was 1993, I was 22 at the time and going from Kent to Cartier for the interview was mind-boggling. I’d been fiddling around with silver, agate and fossils up to that point and even though I’d been studying jewellery, high jewellery wasn’t at all where I thought I would end up so when I walked down Bond Street that first time I was blown away. I was asked to sit with a designer for two weeks as was the other candidate and after a long process they finally chose me. Then I met the force of nature that was Managing Director Arnaud Bamberger. He offered me the job and told me I’d be known from then on as ‘Sara-Louise’ (Louise my middle name and a double barrel name was definitely fancier than Sara) and then promptly dispatched me to Paris for approval. I spent a beautiful day with the Creative Director and then I officially accepted the job. For my training I spent 3 months in London and 1 year in Paris and I learnt more in that year in Paris than all the time on my course in Kent. It was intense, and I feel that I was incredibly lucky to be in the right place at the right time for the best possible start. I was at Cartier for 12 years.
Gouache illustration of necklace by Sara Prentice for Cartier
I was a bespoke designer and I absolutely loved meeting the clients. I was also based in the London workshop which was the only place outside Paris at the time that had a Cartier workshop and we worked very closely with Paris. Everything we did had to be approved by them which was often a complex bureaucratic process. I got involved with Cartier tradition, and we did a big antiques project which involved me buying pieces at auction in Berlin such as Jade sculptures and turning them into jewellery, after which they became part of the Cartier collection. Cartier was an amazing place to work but after 12 years I was ready for a new challenge and then Laurence Graff approached me in 2005 but I didn’t know who he was. He had around 6 stores at the time, and I thought to myself, “I’ve made it. I’m at Cartier, why would I leave?” It took about a year, but Graff pursued me and, in the end, they got me and I worked for them for 7 years in what was a very different design experience. At Cartier my design ability was fine-tuned, it was about the balance of materials and proportion leading to harmony. At Graff it was all about the stone and while so many of the stones were absolutely magnificent, after a while I felt like I was just laying out dazzling stones in different configurations. I doubt I will ever see such beautiful stones again but as a designer, the pure joy of creativity was missing for me.
A series of Gouache illustrations by Sara Prentice for Graff
Then completely out of the blue, I got an offer to go to Faberge. They had been bought by Pallinghurst Resources for $38M and they were looking to do their very first high jewellery collection and first high jewellery eggs. After a year of negotiation, I went there for two years and the creativity was extreme. There were no rules, it was hugely fun but when Graff asked me to go back to head up the team for them, I did as they were doing an IPO in Hong Kong and financially I couldn’t say no. It was short lived however as the IPO didn’t happen and then Stephen Webster called me up saying he was leaving Garrard as Creative Director to concentrate on his own brand and I joined the team. That was 11 years ago.
The Voice of Diana
I came in as Head of Design and after a year and a half became Creative Director. Everything is very hands on here and we’re a small team so having a background which includes practical skills has given me a huge amount of knowledge within my design. I know my craft inside out. If I’m designing a new collection then we have an off-site design day where we brainstorm, mood board and thrust ourselves into Pinterest. When I first came to Garrard I decided to keep only two collections out of everything. Wings, originally by Jade jagger which is 20 years old this year but had various evolutions and Entanglement which has since been phased out. The CEO gave me free reign. Every collection that I've designed since joining touches history via the archives. Our recent Blaze collection is the one I’m most proud of because it has been born out of my passion for Garrard and Diana, Princess of Wales. We have made great heritage pieces such as The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara which inspires our modern-day Albemarle collection or the 1735 collection which is the Sapphire and diamond cluster series inspired by Diana's ring. Blaze is in homage to Diana and her values. She chose her own engagement ring. She was bold. She made strong statements and I wanted this to be a real reflection of that and not just a literal interpretation of the original design. We took away the centre, put the cluster on the outside and decided to be brave with colour and composition. It’s a compete departure to anything Garrard have done to date in both design and approach. Diana expressed herself subliminally with jewellery and in our 1735 campaign we channel her style from the 1980s. She wore tiaras to state banquets but also diamonds with sweatshirts and when she left the Royal family, she came back to Garrard and brought for herself. She commissioned a Swan Lake necklace from us, and it was one of the last grand jewels she wore. She commissioned matching earrings but by the time they were ready she was gone which is incredibly sad.
Garrard Diamond and South Sea Pearl “Swan Lake” necklace, designed by Princess Diana in collaboration with Garrard president David Thomas, Gouache illustration. The custom necklace features 178 diamonds (51 carats in total) and five perfect South Sea pearls. It was worn by Princess Diana to a performance of Swan Lake by the English National Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall, in June 1997.
We now put a tiny blue sapphire inside all engagement rings which represents the ‘something blue’ as gifted to Queen Victoria by Albert on her wedding day. Diana’s ring echoed Victoria’s. There was a young trainee to the Crown jeweller based at our showroom and offices over on Regent Street in 1981 when Diana got engaged and it was his job every day to put all the high jewellery out on display. One morning the Crown Jeweller came in and silently began choosing pieces and the trainee surmised he had been summoned to the palace. A terrific buzz began because the other staff guessed it was for Charles and Diana, and that night it was all returned with this one sapphire and diamond ring missing and the rest is history. What is interesting is that I find there is no difference designing for a royal or non-royal. Everyone is equal and each client is treated according to their individual needs for bespoke commissions. If I truly consider the weight of the 300 years of Garrard history, there is pressure but I’m just pushing the boundaries during my time here to move the legacy forward. We use the big four traditionally in our high jewellery - sapphires, diamonds, emeralds, rubies but recently we’ve been experimenting with semi-precious stones mixing colour and texture with innovative thinking to express our creativity. The new category called COUTURE and the Northern Lights collection is part of and every year it will be evolving with new experimental designs and ideas.
Garrard Couture Northern Lights Collection - Necklace in 18ct White Gold with Opals, Sapphires, Tsavorites, Diamonds and Mother of Pearl; Earrings in 18ct White Gold with Sapphires, Tsavorites, Diamonds and Mother of Pearl; Bracelet in 18ct White Gold with Sapphires, Tsavorites, Diamonds and Mother of Pearl; Cocktail Ring in 18ct White Gold with Opal, Sapphires, Tsavorites, Diamonds and Mother of Pearl.
All the Queens
I think our clients are more open to new things now but Garrard will always embody classic design and we need to keep that in mind and operate within the boundaries of our design DNA. We’re the ultimate British jewellery heritage brand but at the same time we're kind of a little bit unknown and that makes us exclusive. People come here, and then the stories of history and culture unfold so that they feel the connection as part of us. The archives are a living breathing entity shaping our future. Before Garrard were appointed the first Crown Jeweller in 1843 by Queen Victoria, the title didn’t exist. Prince Albert loved design and if we look back through the royal ledgers, there are a lot of pieces that he commissioned himself to be made for Victoria so perhaps it was his love of jewellery that resulted in our appointment. We have served every successive monarch since 1843 and held the title of Crown Jeweller for 164 years. We continue to hold the Royal Warrant for the former Prince of Wales. We have signature collections which have evolved from heritage pieces such as the Sovereign Sceptre, which is the setting on the top of the Cullinan one. We have what we call our Windsor motif which is the diamond and dot motif on the bottom of The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara. These feature in many collections and bespoke jewels and as little hints or recognisable elements which link our history to the present day. Some Queen’s and Princesses really brought our pieces to life and if you go back through our archives, literally on every other page Queen Mary is wearing some incredible jewellery which she somehow has reinvented by reusing stones or restyling how pieces were worn. She was a huge jewellery fan and she wasn’t scared to pile it high - collars, chokers, brooches, earrings, tiaras. She wore it all. That was maximalism I think to its fullest extreme.
Queen Mary wearing the “Cambridge and Delhi Dunbar Parure” - a complete suite of emerald jewellery, which includes an emerald and diamond tiara. The “Cambridge and Delhi Dunbar Parure” was designed and crafted by Garrard, in anticipation of the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in June 1911, and their subsequent proclamation as the Emperor and Empress of India, at a special Durbar organised for this purpose in Delhi, in December 1911.
These women inspire me and I’ve never had designer’s block here. For me, the best part of designing is that initial pen to paper moment when my design flows freely. We have a certain process here which entails sketching first and then putting everything into the computer. Some of the younger designers prefer to go straight to the computer as their world is digital but I say no! Get your pen and paper out because I feel you lose some of the sensitivity if you go straight to the computer because then everything is based on numbers and you’re not really seeing it. Diana’s ring back then wasn’t understood to have the importance it does now, but over time it has fuelled a massive rise in the popularity of coloured gemstones, especially for engagement rings. There was a ‘Diana effect’ and that happened again when William proposed to Catherine with Diana’s ring and we see that through Katherine now. It was a defining moment for blue sapphires and for Garrard.
Anything as Long as it’s a Tiara
Garrard Garland High Jewellery Diamond and Pearl Tiara in 18ct white gold with diamonds and freshwater pearls (one GIA certified 0.52 carat D VS1 pear shape diamond, four GIA certified pear shape diamonds totalling 1.62 carats, 1,094 round diamonds totalling 13.59cts, 26 round white cultured freshwater pearls, diameter 4.1mm to 5.6mm, total diamond weight 15.73) carats Gouache illustration and product photography
Tiaras also play a key part in our design language. I’ve mentioned The Girls of Great Britain, and Ireland tiara which was Queen Mary’s and gifted to Queen Elizabeth II. It has two parts and in her younger years, you always see Elizabeth wearing the top part without the bandeau but apparently it wasn't until later on in her life that she realised that actually the bandeau belonged to the top part and reinstated it. It's on our currency and our stamps. It’s truly iconic. I also love the Lover’s Knot tiara because it has swinging pearls and on a lot of tiaras everything is very static because of the way they're constructed. I’ve designed many tiaras while I’ve been here and I think they represent a form of escapism as the ultimate jewel, like icing on a cake. Tiaras are not crowns but they do make you feel like a princess and in modern times it’s the closest many of us will ever get to being royal. In lockdown we upped our online presence and one of the first things we sold was a Princess Tiara to someone in America in the middle of the pandemic which is nuts because they couldn’t even go out to wear it. We regularly create bespoke tiaras and we like to keep a couple in stock. We introduced them in 2017 because we were getting more and more inquiries for smaller tiaras that were more wearable. There are about five designs within the Princess Tiara collection and each one has a detachable centre element that you can take out and either wear as a pendant or a necklace.
Garrard Catherine Pearl Tiara in 18 carat white gold with 11 pearls and 6.50 carats of diamonds
Our tiaras start at £58,000 for the Charlotte tiara and when buying one, the Middle East and China are our most enthusiastic collectors. In the Middle East, it’s the bigger the better and in China, smaller and more delicate tiaras are popular but generally anything goes. I've just designed a tiara for a client who used to collect tea pots. She wanted to include images of tea pots in her tiara so she now has a Tea Pot tiara and while that may sound strange, if it goes on your head, it’s officially a tiara. The Queen Mother had a soft spot for the Lotus Tiara and wore it one way and now Catherine wears it another but as everyone's head is a different shape the position of them varies. Because of that they can be tricky to make unlike earrings, necklaces, or rings so again I go back to balanced proportions. The Queen leaned towards The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara but it’s hard to say which her favourite was in the royal collection. If I were to be remembered for any Garrard jewel it would be the 118 88 carat Blue Jubilee sapphire brooch. The sapphire was stunning, and I’ve seen a few stones in my time. It was a cushion-cut unheated Burmese sapphire weighing 118.88cts and so big that in my mind, this was the only piece it could have been for. We incorporated the Sovereign motif design into it as I needed it to have balance and not just a copy of the original with diamonds around it. It was sold and currently sits in a private collection.
Gouache illustration by Sara Prentice | Photograph of 118.88ct Burmese Sapphire | Photograph of 118.88ct Garrard Jubilee Sapphire brooch
Not long after I joined in 2012, we had a number of pieces in the workshop being finished and while I was down in the showroom an American gentleman came in and told me he was Beyoncé’s stylist. Then he asked to see our crowns. I told him we didn’t have any crowns but I could show him some fantastic jewellery. As he looked around, I ran up to the workshop and found something that wasn't quite finished, brought it down and he said “Can we can borrow it?”
Garrard Marguerite diamond, pearl, and sapphire necklace worn by Beyoncé in the promotional photoshoot and video for the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour, 2013
Beyoncé wore it on her Mrs. Carter Show promotional video. and it was a seminal moment for me. I've always worked for brands and rarely got to interact directly with clients and then suddenly Beyoncé’s was wearing me and wearing us and it was a wonderful moment.
The piece sold unsurprisingly and will be forever known as the Beyoncé necklace. Tiaras and crowns aside, I would have loved to have been around to design the Cullinan I. Can you imagine, making that mark on history and being part of the actual crown jewels? And to think, all this started in Kent.
Written by Melanie Grant for Goldsmiths’ Stories.
Images/illustrations provided by Sara Prentice, and used with permission of Cartier, Graff and Garrard. Queen Mary and Mrs. Carter Show World Tour photographs used under creative commons licensing for non commercial purposes.