Atomic Disco Ball Earrings, 2019
Jacqueline Cullen creates wearable, sculptural jewellery in 18ct gold featuring materials such as Whitby jet, black diamonds and agate. With diverse inspiration ranging from thunderous skies to intergalactic space travel, colliding asteroids, comets and neon dust – cascades of tiny diamonds flow from hand carved fissures depicting these phenomenon. Jacqueline specialises in contemporary Whitby jet and black diamond jewellery and has recently introduced an ethereal grey agate collection set with champagne, electric and ice blue diamonds.
Whitby jet is a 180 million year old naturally occurring black fossil which derives from the ancestor of the monkey puzzle tree (araucaria) found on the North East coast of England. Whitby jet was made popular during the reign of Queen Victoria as it was used to signify mourning. Jacqueline’s supplier of jet lives in Whitby and abseils down the cliffs to access the ancient caves and Victorian crawl holes to collect the raw material.