Grainne Morton and her Irish Tale

Northern Irish folklore, music, fairytales, legends, nature, architecture and atmospheres. Grainne Morton’s childhood was an authentic full immersion into the culture of her country, particularly thanks to her parents who always made aesthetics and traditional values a focal point in their life. With this kind of background, the next step came naturally: in the late 1980s, Grainne moved to Scotland to complete her studies at the Edinburgh College of Art. The picture was complete: from then on, her love for collecting, for studying an object and curious details, soon became her profession. Jewelry with a soul, with a worth that goes beyond the intrinsic value of the raw material, are created from found and Curiosity Cabinet objects. Vintage and contemporary, partly spontaneous and partly calculated, precious and non-precious, everything blends into often asymmetric shapes, in pieces that seem to nd a balance only when worn. «Jewelry tends to play quite an important role in our lives: whether it is an engagement ring, a gift for a special event or an item received from a friend, what we wear becomes part of us, of our story, and it is able to capture something that we didn’t even know we needed. A thought, an emo- tion, a memory.» What Grainne creates is a fascinating microcosm, to be read between the lines, engraved just as easily on a gem or on a coral as on a simple antique button that becomes the main feature of a ring or brooch, or on one single earring to match with something just as re ned. Similar, yet different. Unique. Items whose size is almost never imposing while it is the personality that they reveal which is striking, a sign of the character of a cultured and curious hand. The “Cult of Smallness”, as Grainne calls it, is a constant incentive to always look for new plastic solutions among daring combinations and shapes that are never mundane nor catalogable.