"I think of beauty as an absolute necessity. I don't think it's a privilege or an indulgence, it's not even a quest. I think it's almost like knowledge, which is to say, it's what we were born for. I think finding, incorporating and then representing beauty is what humans do." 

- Toni Morrison

 

Making jewellery is a therapeutic practice in which I try to bring more beauty into the world. Each piece is custom made from start to finish by me in my home studio in Berlin. My jewellery is the opposite of mass produced: most pieces are only made once, and are created thoughtfully and slowly over many hours. 

 

I use a combination of methods, from hand forging to sand-casting and use recycled sterling silver and (occasionally) fair-trade gold. I favour processes like sand-casting that introduce an element of chance, producing outcomes that are unpredictable and surprising. Each piece is designed to be worn for a long time, with the promise that you can always return items to me for repair.

 

The pieces I make are utterly individual, drawing on and developing personal symbology that I transform into precious materials. They are contemporary talismans designed to be worn daily for life. I believe jewellery is genderless.

 

In contrast to our current climate of fast fashion, I value objects that convey messages of labour, time, and materiality. My work doesn't erase the hand of the maker. The wearer of these pieces appreciates non-traditional beauty, entering into a close bodily dialogue with an imperfect thing. You are carrying the message of the material with you, and will continue to impact the material through wear, introducing more 'scars' - scratches and sections of gently worn down silver.

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Sometimes we take what we believe to be the sensible path over the one that feels insecure or uncertain. The Nikita Brooks project is a return to the uncertain path.

 

After completing my PhD and working in the academic and cultural sector as a curator, writer and editor for almost a decade, I burnt out. Needing to take a break and reassess my direction, I returned to a childhood love of making things and decided to take a short course working with silver. I fell in love with it and started making pieces for friends and family, gradually learning more in order to realise my ideas.

 

But before I put these ideas out into the world, I needed a name. 

With publishing attached to mine, I wanted something that felt free and unencumbered for my new project. I also wanted some distance and mystery from the authorship of this work. I found inspiration in a queer, groundbreaking, independent painter from the early 20th century named Romaine Brooks, who forged her own path and developed a signature style even as others were taking very different directions.  Her steadfast approach offers a context that continues to guide the work I create.

 

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