Spotlight on: Stephanie Robinson

Irish maker Stephanie Robinson has been showing with DesignYard since graduating from The London Metropolitan University in 2009. High time to catch up with her and find out more about her.

With an Irish mom and American father, her life has been split between New Hampshire and Dublin. Last summer she made the decision to settle in Dublin and now works from her bright and spacious garden studio.

Over coffee she tells us how she started making jewellery with a bead loom, developing native American Indian style beaded pieces. Her first foray into metalwork came from a portfolio class she took at Liberties College in Dublin, under the tutelage of Irish maker Kathleen Holland. Bitten by the bug she went on to study jewellery making.

When she was graduating, prices for gold and silver were at an all time high, and the global economic downturn forced her to think hard about where to set up her studio. As the US seemed to be recovering faster she started in New Hampshire where she joined one of the oldest guilds in the USA – The league of New Hampshire Craftsmen. Over time she started spending the winter months in Dublin, until the pandemic finally forced the decision to move to Dublin permanently.

Stephanie designs jewellery in silver and gold, but her first love is the gems. She likes to seek out lesser known gems in strong colours and patterns and their properties often drive the design of her jewellery.

The gems will sit on her bench – sometimes for months – while she figures out what it is meant to be. In the process, the design often moves from something fantastical and voluminous to a more wearable scale. In the end she pares the design back to its essence as she wants her design to be a beautiful and well-made piece of jewellery that can be worn any day of the week.

This spring she has created a range of jewellery exclusive to DesignYard. It is characterised by interesting gems and often asymmetric designs. The most unusual is probably the clear enhydro quartz – a clear quartz gem that formed with a little bubble of water trapped inside the gem.

We particularly like her lagoon-like lavender turquoise pieces, where she gets to use her favourite setting type: a reverse-set bezel. She loves it because it allows her to create a crisp frame to protect and show off the gem. It also allows her to show the earthy raw side of the turquoise.

What does she miss most about New Hampshire? Probably her motorbike and touring the New Hampshire mountains and lakes at the weekends. She has a long standing love affair with motorbikes that probably started with her father picking her up from school on the back of his bike.

To see the exclusive Stephanie Robinson designs, book your appointment here.