For jewellery designer Ruth Leslie October and November are production months, and in her studio at Custom Lane in Leith the work proceeds slowly and entirely by hand. She twists fine silver and gold wire using an old-fashioned hand drill, then cuts it, shapes it and wraps it around frames she has built to hold it. Hundreds of twists accumulate into a single surface. That surface is what registers movement, catching the light as the wearer turns.
Hook and Eye Chain Necklace
Her references come from textiles and from the machinery behind them. Heddles, inkle looms, the small repeating components buried inside a loom that were never designed to be seen. Leslie has been playfully rebuilding those structures in precious metal since 2015, working predominantly in recycled silver and gold, with titanium for colour. The method is consistent across the work: infrastructure, hidden and precise, raised to the scale of jewellery.
Her pieces are attentively named for what they do. Fidget Hoops move. Heddle Studs are the entry point to the work and its most literal borrowing from the loom. The Inkle Collar in 23.7ct gold vermeil is drawn from the narrow band loom that gives it its name.
Eye Earrings
Eye Earrings
This June brought the show that measured the decade. 10 opened at The Scottish Gallery on Dundas Street on 4 June and ran to 27 June, marking ten years of Leslie showing with the gallery. For it she left the loom and turned to the sewing box. The hook and eye belongs to the category of components that function on condition of being unseen. Sewn at the waistband or behind the collar, it holds a seam under tension and disappears into the garment. Leslie inverts that condition in silver, as the Eye Necklace, the Eye Earrings and the Hook and Eye Chain. Stack Pendant 2.0 hung from silk cord at 94cm. Fidget Hoops returned at their smallest size yet. Ten silver pins were made for the ten years, one for each.
Most of the collections stay in production year round, made to order at the bench. Work is available directly from Leslie and through The Scottish Gallery at 16 Dundas Street.
One of the original Custom Lane residents, Ruth Leslie has built a visual language around finely twisted wire structures and refined architectural forms. She is one of the most exciting voices in contemporary Scottish jewellery, celebrated for work that combines sculptural elegance, technical precision and a distinctive sense of playfulness.
ruthleslie.co.uk
@ruth_lessly
@scottishgallery
Photography by Chantelle Gomez, Gabriela Silveira and Ruth Leslie
