• TRAVEL
    • THREE PERFECT DAYS
    • WHERE TO STAY
    • WHAT TO DO
    • ADVENTURE
  • FOOD + DRINK
    • RESTAURANTS
    • BARS + COCKTAILS
    • WINE + BEER
  • CULTURE
    • THE HEMI Q+A
    • TV + FILM
    • MUSIC
    • THEATER
    • SPORTS
    • STYLE + DESIGN
  • Watch
Menu
  • TRAVEL
    • THREE PERFECT DAYS
    • WHERE TO STAY
    • WHAT TO DO
    • ADVENTURE
  • FOOD + DRINK
    • RESTAURANTS
    • BARS + COCKTAILS
    • WINE + BEER
  • CULTURE
    • THE HEMI Q+A
    • TV + FILM
    • MUSIC
    • THEATER
    • SPORTS
    • STYLE + DESIGN
  • Watch
Search
Close
Home > CULTURE > STYLE + DESIGN > Jewelry

She Breaks It, You Buy It

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on pinterest
Share on email
  • by Yvonne Gordon
  • November 1, 2018

PHOTO BY TRISTAN HUTCHINSON

Dublin-based designer Julie Swan can trace her Forgotten China jewelry collection to a fateful gust of wind. She was selling up-cycled china teacup candles and cake stands at an outdoor market when blustery weather knocked over her merchandise. Faced with a pile of smashed ceramics, she put the scraps to use by creating a line of earrings, cuff links, pendants, and rings.

Now, Swan makes her pieces out of vintage plates, cups, and bowls she rescues from auction rooms and charity shops, never painting them or touching them up with color. “I use pieces that are old and discarded, chipped or cracked,” she explains. “Each piece is slightly different; each tells a story.” Particularly popular are Irish-made china patterns, such as a delicate floral motifs from Galway’s Royal Tara (pictured) or County Wicklow’s defunct Arklow Pottery. “It’s lovely when people recognize the pieces or say, ‘I remember when Granny had something like that,’” Swan says.

Once she selects a scrap to use, Swan shapes it with a 45,000 PSI water jet cutter, then files it to size, sets it in silver, and finishes it with a touch of resin. The pieces are available at design shops and handicraft boutiques across Ireland—they make for popular anniversary gifts, as tradition dictates giving china to celebrate 20 years of marriage—or you can pick one up from the artist herself at the weekly People’s Park seaside market in Dún Laoghaire, a coastal suburb of Dublin. Swan also makes bespoke pieces on commission. “People give me their mum’s favorite teacup or their granny’s pottery,” she says. “I often get tears when I give them back.” From $52, with free shipping worldwide, forgottenchina.ie

Need a little extra wanderlust in your inbox?
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

You May Also Like

Ireland’s Adare Manor is Fit for an Earl

The Shelbourne Brings 2 More Bars to Dublin's Nightlife Scene

The Day Off: Dublin

  • Art, Design, Dishes, Dublin, Hemispheres, Ireland, Jewelry, Style
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on pinterest
Share on email

Recommended

Where to Stay

Ireland’s Adare Manor is Fit for an Earl

  • BY Ellen Carpenter
Bars + Cocktails

The Shelbourne Brings 2 More Bars to Dublin’s Nightlife Scene

  • BY Ellen Carpenter
What To Do

The Day Off: Dublin

  • BY Ellen Carpenter
Hemispheres United Airlines

Hemispheres is the award-winning onboard magazine for United Airlines. The magazine is published by Ink and produced by a dedicated staff of media professionals out of an Ink satellite office in Brooklyn, New York.

Instagram Twitter Facebook-f Youtube

Content

  • Travel
  • Food + Drink
  • Culture
  • Watch

About

  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Advertising
  • Writers Guidelines

Legal

  • Terms + Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Anti-bribery & corruption policy
united_4p_h_w_r.png

© 2020 Ink for United Airlines. All rights reserved