Jacqueline Cullen

M: +44 (0)7989 470246
E: info@jacqueline cullen.com

www.jacquelinecullen.com

Jacqueline Cullen’s award-winning Whitby jet jewellery has been featured in Vogue, Financial Times, the Independent, Wedding Day magazine and Worth Global Style Network (WGSN). In 2006 Jacqueline had a showcase exhibition at the Donna Karan flagship store on Bond Street and a major piece of work was bought by Donna Karan for her private collection in New York. Jacqueline also exhibited with the Crafts council at Somerset House (Origin) where her work and stand presentation, were highly commended. Jacqueline Cullen’s contemporary Whitby jet jewellery is sold through selected high profile galleries and outlets in the UK and USA as well as to private commission.

Whitby jet is ca. 180 million years old black fossilised wood that has formed into a young coal and is most commonly associated with Victorian mourning jewellery. Whitby jet is now extremely rare. Mined during its heyday, raw samples are now found either washed up by the tide; or encased in the cliff face in a small coastal area surrounding Whitby in North Yorkshire. Although a small number of crafts people continue to work with jet in the Whitby area, Jacqueline Cullen is the only designer working with Whitby jet in a non-traditional way and she remains committed to introducing this ancient and sensual material to a contemporary audience.

Jacqueline has developed innovative processes and formats that celebrate rather than disguise the inherent flaws and inclusions of the material allowing the natural beauty of Whitby jet to speak for itself, removed from connotations of death, grief and morbidity. Pieces are lathe-turned or hand carved with inlaid 24ct gold detail. Larger scale pendants and collars are hand built from pegged sections of jet lined with wafer thin 24ct leaving delicate threads of fine gold running through the finished items, with the lightweight quality of Whitby jet allowing pieces to remain infinitely wearable. Hanging from pure linen or silk threads with 18ct gold beads or worn using hand forged 18ct gold pins, Jacqueline Cullen’s bold, dramatic and luxurious Whitby jet jewellery continues to blur the boundaries between jewellery, art and sculpture.