Claire Hammon: Playing with my mother’s beautiful diamond rings is a strong memory for me, she had a lot of vintage pieces handed down to her—lots of diamonds and rubies and emeralds.
Greg Fromont: My mother had various pieces of jewellery too. She had a particular anchor brooch, made of jade I think, but with a gold top and bottom piece.

There really is no other gift that lasts for generations. I [also] think, because we often wear a piece every day for many years, it feels like the jewellery is on a journey, and maybe we want to be on that journey with our loved ones in our own little way. There is some sort of personal transference; it’s like the person is with you. I think it used to be far more prevalent as a symbol of love in the more distant past, but [used] in the form of mourning, as the mortality of humans was so [much] worse than it is today.

I think when your partner gives you a piece of jewellery it’s always romantic, no matter what the piece is. Just the thought that they want to give you something that marks a time is romantic… I don’t think the style of the piece has to be anything in particular—it just needs to suit the wearer.

I really don’t think our idea of wedding and engagement rings has changed that much to be honest. There are definitely still people who care about the status of a big diamond, but we are seeing more and more coloured stones and different designs because people want to be authentic and unique, [in keeping with] what they really like. I totally agree with Claire. The idea of weddings and engagement isn’t changing terribly, but the tradition and culture that was previously surrounding it is.

Our reasoning behind these motifs was really to offer an alternative to traditional engagement rings… for people who value individuality over tradition. Snakes have so much history in jewellery, from Cleopatra to the engagement ring worn by Queen Victoria. For us they symbolise eternal love. I would love to make so many more serpent styles. They’re an alternative to a tradition; that’s what makes them more interesting. They’re a crossover and a mixture, an inclusion of popular culture and historical references. They add comment and flavour to an age-old idea of monogamy.

Yes, but I feel like there is also a level of detail in a piece of jewellery that can express an earnestness of love.

Yes definitely, and especially when a couple chooses or customises a piece just for them, so that no one else has the same thing. We love to add tiny elements to custom rings that only the couple know about.

The song “Exit Music (For a Film)” [by Radiohead] has always really affected me in this sense. For me it [always] represented a couple joining together and escaping some repressive hierarchy. It evokes [the idea of] personal struggle and sacrifice in order to pursue a relationship. I’ve been listening to that song since 1997 on and off, and only recently found out it was written for Baz Luhrmann to accompany his film Romeo + Juliet. Before finding this out I always ascribed an Eastern European flavour to the imagined story in my head, and assumed the protagonists lived [in the end]… which I feel is more romantic than the outcome of Romeo + Juliet.

Well, that depends on what it is. [Putting] a necklace [on someone] is similar to zipping up a woman’s dress, I think. There is an aspect of vulnerability there, of exposing a sensual part of the body. Jewellery serves as a connection point too, a reminder of love, which is strengthened if the giver is also the one putting [the piece of jewellery] on.

It’s hard to describe our aesthetic, even though I am the gatekeeper of it. I think it is feminine but with a toughness; it’s quiet but confident. I seem to always describe it as a push and pull between dark and light. It is overall pretty but retains a certain edge.

I think I’m mostly inspired by trying to be better. A better, kinder, thoughtful person and the best designer I can be.
I’m still trying to figure that out. It’s like I’m trying to distil a nuance in things that ticks all the right boxes. There is an aesthetic, and I don’t know what its called, but it exists in very specific clouds in a type of light, or in very specific songs, or in particular drawings or design.

I think it’s just what comes out of us. We aren’t really conscious when we design; it really does come from our souls, and often I have an epiphany that will become a collection or a design. Meadowlark is an unconscious extension of our own personalities, and I think we both tend to create powerful symbols [for that reason].

Yes, often that first bold piece is the artwork, and then we pull that down into a more wearable offering. To us they are tiny artworks because it’s a deeply personal process we go through to birth a collection from ourselves. I’m also very intense about every angle being perfect.

I am always wearing jewellery; I sleep with all my earrings in. I definitely feel like something is missing if I don’t have a ring on my finger. I currently have three rings [I wear], one of which is my wedding ring. The other two I swap, depending [on how I feel]. I definitely feel their absence if I forget to put them on. They are an expression of important aspects of my life, and of who I am.

The human relationship with jewellery is beautiful, and I feel very lucky to be a part of it. Buying a piece of jewellery for yourself is the best gift, and receiving it from someone you love imbues meaning into it more than any other gift I can think of. I think wearing it on our skin is part of the bond, but I believe there is more to it—I think metal, being from the earth, and metals being within us is a part of the reason it feels like more of a connection. Often jewellery marks important stages in our life too. I still have a collection of jewellery from throughout my life, and each piece has a story, a place I purchased it, a person who gave it to me, a particular birthday, just so many memories.

It has a lot to do with the circumstances of receiving a piece of jewellery, but I think it also says a lot about how our minds work. I think wearing something every day makes it a part of your psyche fairly quickly. The idea it represents becomes repeated in your own consciousness over and over and imprints itself onto you. It works in reverse too; events and ideas rub off on or become imbued into pieces of jewellery. That’s what makes heirloom pieces so special, and other people’s discarded engagement rings after a divorce so repulsive.

I can’t remember the first time I saw it—it feels like an image that I’ve seen so many times throughout my life—but for a long time I didn’t know what it was. I seem to remember doing a little bit of study on it when I did art history at school. In some ways, it is a piece that is rebellious in that it was bucking the trend of the Renaissance paintings to only be of a Christian nature. Botticelli was a rebel.

Certainly the jewellery of those times was different to what we’ve created in this range. The references cross over from various art forms to come together as a whole. There are Gothic halos and ’70s lamps and gifts from the sea. There is glitter and glamour, and glossy, sugary love symbols. The range is a clipping from different but related vogues throughout history, but we are all going round and round in circles. Ideas of glamour and romance and love, and how those things are perhaps divine, were not so very different during the Renaissance and the ’70s and ’80s, or even the Classical period. The iconography crosses over, because the human mind is repeating the same thoughts throughout history, although the culture surrounding it is very different.

I am obsessed with art and sculpture and mid-century design, so I’m certain that influences me, but I think this is the first time we have been so strongly and directly inspired by a single design. [The lamp] is a gingko leaf … Nature always appeals to our design senses. Our ideas come from a mishmash of visuals. Often the ideas that lie around the object are important—in this case, what they resemble and look like. It’s not very conscious though; it’s a thing that happens as part of the process sometimes.

Yes, this is the first time we’ve used words. I love words and it felt like the right time. These rings in particular were inspired by my obsession with the French language. I’ve been learning French for a while, and it just felt right to incorporate it.

It really is different every time. We don’t usually start with a theme, as it feels too constricting for us. [For VENUS] the pearls were definitely inspired by the material itself—they are wonderful to work with. Often I just sketch and see where it takes me. Sometimes I start with a silhouette, [or] sometimes I see things in a really strange way, like I will see something on the street and as I get closer it [looks] completely different, and that misinterpretation will become an inspiration. And sometimes I see only the negative space in things, which can be a strange feeling but the beginning of an idea.

I really don’t like the past; I try to never look back. I strive to always go forward to design better pieces than the last time. In some ways we find it restrictive. I think the past is important because it is littered with important ideas, but they range across many art forms. I was always enamoured with Art Deco, and very specific parts of Art Nouveau, but I think it was more about a certain composition of parts. Also, these periods represented a new age of modernity and moving away from tradition and into a more liberal—and commercial—mindset. But this [interest] has less and less to do with how we actually design. It’s there, but the designing we do has to be our own journey.

I love that it’s a very quiet form of self-expression; it’s not about looking a certain way or fitting into a certain style. You can dress any way you like and jewellery is a little cherry on top that others may not notice but you know you have—this special totem close to you.
Yes, I agree. It’s [really] a tiny keepsake designed for a very small audience. It is a concentration of a lot of thought and creativity in a tiny space.

It comes from a quote by Ambrose Bierce [that] ‘the metallic note of the meadowlark suggests the clashing of vibrant blades’.

I don’t want to be buried in my jewellery. I would like to see my pieces handed down to my daughter and further generations.
I think I would like to be buried with my wedding ring on. It’s not something I’ve ever considered before, but I take comfort and security in my wedding band, so I can’t imagine I’d want to face eternity without it. The ring on my other hand is about facing today’s life challenges, so I don’t feel it [would be] appropriate in death… Weird.
I would like to be able to keep a part of Greg if he passes before me, so we might have to discuss this further (laughs).