Miriel Design
Miriel Design
Miriel Design is a one woman shop with me, Josephine Ryan, doing everything on my own, from designing to handmaking, photographing and listing items, communicating with customers, packaging and shipping.
I outsource is casting, and this is done by Edelmetallstøperiet, a casting house local to me. Over the years I’ve become good friends with the casters there.
Only some of my items are cast, much of it is handfabricated directly in metal.
I started making jewellery when I was 17, using metal clay fired with a small creme brulee torch on a brick on my mothers kitchen table.
I then went to school to become a goldsmith, and took my journeymans certificate in 2013. The same year I was selected to represent my country in the Nordic Championship for goldsmiths, and was awarded shared 4th place.
For a while I worked with repairs in the local goldsmith shop, owned by the headmaster of the goldsmith school I attended. I unfortunately had to quit when my own business became a fulltime job, and I could no longer keep up with both.
I design and create my engagement rings and other jewellery in my little workshop in the forest, inspired by the nature around me.
My designs often have a witchy fantasy fairy vibe, but I also love finding inspiration in science and space.
I’m not a spiritual person at all, although my look might suggest otherwise. I love fantasy and scifi, and enjoy dressing up in a witchy or elvish style.
I’m not personally religious, but don’t mind making jewellery with religious or spiritual symbols for those who want that.
My diploma for representing Norway in the Nordic Gold Championship, and my goldsmith certificate.
Both from 2013.
I love scrollwork inspired by vintage designs. I like basing my scrolls on Fibonacci and the Golden Ratio, because I want my rings to feel like they belong in nature.
I shape the scrolls using pliers, and solder them securely together to make jewellery. In rings I take extra care to make sure each scroll is soldered closed onto something, so that the tips are not exposed in a way that can make them get caught in hair or clothes.
They look delicate, but are durable.
I often add pieces of actual bark and twigs to my wax carvings before casting it in solid gold.
These rings won second place in the competition Norwegian Association of Jewellery Designers in 2018.
The rings are inspired by birch trees, and the bark texture on the rings is made by using pieces of real bark combined with handcarving in the wax before casting, and then some more in the metal after casting. They were created using bark from the same tree, to bind them together as a pair.
I offer this style of rings in any gold colour, and with various leaf designs.
Me working at the bench during the 2013 Nordic Gold Championship
My biggest inspirations is nature and fantasy litterature.
My childhood was shaped by my love of all things witchy and magical, and this is reflected in my art now.
Science and space also holds a place in my heart.
I love carving jewellers wax to look like something that grew in nature, like the metal had spent years growing around a gemstone.
My wax is cast in solid gold, and each wax model can only be used once.
It is placed in a plaster investment, and when that has hardened, the wax and any organic matter like bark and twigs is burnt out at high temperatures, before melted gold is poured in. The plaster is then shattered to get the gold out, and the resulting ring is a one of a kind object.
I also make many of my rings using no wax or casting at all, just starting with a chuck of gold, and hammering, sawing, filing and shaping all the parts before soldering it together into a ring.
While I make a lot of rings, I started out making science inspired necklaces.
Since I made these solarsystems in 2013, some fake copies have turned up online, even going so far as to copy my signature scrollwork on the orrery.
This is my original design and idea, made for a school project about the Renaissance and the art and science of the time. I have since made several hundred of these solarsystems, and it’s still one of my favourite things to make.
In 2016 I created the award sculpture for Mensa Norways annual award that went to Forskerfabrikken (Scientist Factory) for their work in promoting a love of science in kids.
I love doing custom orders, and creating something special for customers, so feel free to contact me if you wish to talk about a possible order!
I enjoy photography as a hobby, and usually model my own jewellery.
