Freya Alder

I'm Freya and I spend my days merrily making jewellery from my wee studio in Glasgow, Scotland!

I work in mostly brass and make simple identifiable yet naive forms that are then made into earrings, necklaces and pins.

I am always doodling. I find it so pleasing how just with the placing of a nose, eyes and mouth one can create a sort of character and in the same way a few wiggly lines can quickly represent the human form. I work mostly with sheet material and use a piercing saw to cut out the details of each face, bum and boob without a stencil making each is unique. Piercing sheet metal is a brilliantly limiting medium of positive and negative space. It forces me to distill my ideas and drawings to their most essential parts.

Why brass? Lots of the materials found in the jewellery industry are a bit problematic. Precious stones and metals, especially higher value ones, can have cloudy origins. Brass is a wonderful material, it’s an alloy typically made from recycled metals and its cost allows for an expressive approach to making.
Keeping my work somewhat accessible in price is really important to me and using brass also happens to mean I can charge a bit less for my pieces so its a win win win! :)