Icicle Bracelet

Born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland in 1948, Jamison first studied in Belfast before concentrating on Jewellery Design at Central St Martins in London, graduating in 1972. Nuala Jamison was a pioneer of modern jewellery, specialising in acrylic – her work is synonymous with enhancing the wearer with colour and light. Jamison was also an art educator and taught jewellery at Morley College in London as well as summer classes in Ireland. Her sculptural jewellery was inspired by urban city spaces as well as the southern Irish coastline; between London and County Cork, she felt she had the best of both worlds. During the course of her life in jewellery, Jamison designed accessories for the iconic clothing designer Jean Muir and in the 1980’s she enjoyed a collaborative partnership with Caroline Broadhead and produced a line of acrylic jewellery called C&N. In July 2016 we celebrated Nuala’s career with the solo exhibition Faceted Light. The Scottish Gallery has proudly represented Nuala’s work for over thirty years.

Jamison carved and shaped her pieces with pumice over several weeks to achieve a weathered appearance. Above all, Jamison loved colour and more recently she had developed ways of dyeing and colouring acrylic to enhance the reflective qualities – sometimes creating a subtle blend of shades and other times mixing together contrasting colours or cutting facets to reveal more light. Her work is held in numerous public collections worldwide.