SPINNING
RACING
CAR
Innovation, creation and determination.
UK patent pending : 2109019.6
THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE EVER TRUE STORIES…
Taking the concept of moving jewellery to the next level was the absolute end goal for this piece of unisex jewellery. I’ve always been fascinated with pushing the boundaries on ‘what jewellery can be’- seeking to push our designs to make them move and open and with this revolutionary piece, I wanted to create our own miniature Grand Prix, playing on the element of fun and also ‘fidget toys’ with this design.
I love talking about this design, although it was dreamed up and brought to life at quite a sombre time in my life. I often find when I am in a bad place mentally, I can throw myself into my designs and get lost in them as a way of ‘healing’ and forgetting the world. I came up with the concept mid 2019 during the early hours of a morning and made a mental note to explore it further when I had time. In the early stages, I really wasn’t sure it would work since it involved moving and spinning elements I had never worked on before so I made a couple of notes and left it for ‘another time’.
Early 2020, one of my brothers died quite suddenly. I am the youngest of five children, and it was a terrible shock to the family. I struggled with sleeping and concentration for very many months afterwards. My family pet died too, and I felt completely and utterly overwhelmed. I locked myself away in my house for most of February and March 2020 before coronavirus hit the UK properly. During this time I suffered some bad moments, but I turned to creativity as a means of losing myself and focusing my thoughts on something productive that I could control. It was during these few months of 2020 that I brought this design concept to life in miniature form, working day and night on refining and developing my in-depth sketches, technical drawings and prototyping. With this spinning car design, every millimetre counts or the design simply would not (and did not!) work. It took nearly a year for prototyping and sampling to be finished, and I had very many failed attempts, where the design wasn’t as smooth as it should have been before finally late 2020, the finished prototype was ready!
STILL UNDER WRAPS FOR MANY MORE MONTHS
Once this amazing spinning car design was finished, I just wanted to show the world and wear it every single day, adding sound effects to my own mini Grand Prix race every time I wore it, and as tempted as I was to reveal it to the world for Christmas 2020, I absolutely couldn’t because we had a final stage to complete before letting the world see this one. Learning from past mistakes, I made sure this design of ours was protected – many of our followers and customers will be familiar with copycats who have tried to rip off our jewellery, steal our designs and even start a jewellery business in my name to confuse people, and I was conscious that this time I needed to do what was right even if it meant many more months of not being able to reveal it. Early 2021 we applied for a Patent on this design, and after several months of work submitting it with our layers, we were finally able to unveil it to the world for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone 2021.
Our most unique design to date, and something we are so proud of. With a UK patent pending, we aren’t surprised this piece landed us our position in the finals at the UK jewellery awards 2021!
A HUGE HIT AROUND THE WORLD
This design has been an incredibly huge hit from the moment we revealed it to the world, and needless to say we aren’t going to stop there with the concept of spinning jewellery. We’re working hard on more spinning designs and similar concepts whilst we know the mechanism and general concept of the design is protected from copycats which really does help creatively, when you know you are not at risk of being ripped off when you have only just unveiled a design to the world!
This is one piece that you just can’t help but play with. We’re sad that the sound affects don’t come with the necklace but we’re pretty sure you will be able to make your own (and probably better than our attempts at them, too!)
As we celebrate our 12th birthday at Alyssa Smith Jewellery in September 2021, I would like to think we will continue to push the boundaries on how clever our jewellery can be, and the element of ‘play’ in our moving pieces will probably stay with me forever. I love exploring how to make our jewellery something ‘more’ than just something to sit in a jewellery box, and the idea that jewellery can really be a talking point and have something special about it means a lot to me as a designer. I have so enjoyed bringing this concept to life, but it was absolutely my most challenging yet. I can’t wait to see how the concept evolves over time and I’m so pleased that this little piece has made it to the top of so many wish lists.
‘’I’ve been asked why our car goes round the track in the direction it does by quite a lot of people. And quite simply, I don’t really have an answer for that apart from visually, when I brought the design to life it seemed to just ‘feel right’ seeing it spin that way, especially when you are wearing it and someone else is looking at it! It just sort of clicked for me!’’