"My work is a reflection of my belief that jewellery is more than an accessory, it's a meaningful and lasting addition to one's life story"
Goldsmith. Artist. Maker of meaning.
I hadn’t realised, until someone shared it with me, that I had been working within the philosophy of Wabi Sabi all along. It’s a fascinating philosophy to research, there’s no direct translation into English, and Wabi Sabi is genuinely hard to explain. But it is incredibly beautiful, from aesthetic to soul. A way of working and a way of thinking. A way of seeing the world that finds beauty in imperfection and impermanence. In things that are incomplete. In things that are weathered. In things that are quietly, authentically themselves. It isn’t really a style, it’s something you lean into slowly rather than arrive at suddenly.
I didn’t discover it. I recognised it.
It was already in the way I work, slowly, intentionally, with my hands and with full attention. In the organic textures I’m drawn to. In the stones I choose, the ones with inclusions, character, the ones that look like they were pulled from the earth five minutes ago rather than cut to within an inch of their life. In the belief that a piece of jewellery should connect you to something real — to the earth it came from, to the hands that made it, to the moments it has lived through with you.
And honestly — it was already in me too. I spent years feeling imperfect, like there was something slightly wrong that needed fixing. And then slowly, like Wabi Sabi itself, I stopped trying to fix it. The things I thought were flaws were exactly the things that made me me. The way I see the world differently. The way I find beauty in unexpected places. The way I cannot walk past a broken thing without imagining what it could become.
Perfectly imperfect. Slowly made. Connected to the earth. That’s the work. That’s me.
And it makes me a little rebellious — because Wabi Sabi is rebellious. It pushes back against the idea that things should be kept pristine, preserved, protected from life. So when the jewellery industry tells you to save your best pieces for special occasions, to keep them perfect, to wrap them away — I instinctively resist that. Because Wabi Sabi says the opposite. It says let things be worn. Let them gather life. Let them become more themselves the longer they are lived in.
I believe jewellery is for living in. Not saving. Not wrapping in tissue and waiting for the right occasion. Wearing. Every single day. With your morning coffee, on the school run, in a board meeting, dancing at midnight. Jewellery that weathers and wears and becomes more beautiful for every moment it has been with you.
That’s not just a philosophy. That’s a promise.
It started with a throwaway comment.
An ex and his father told me I should get myself a hobby. I don’t think they meant it to change my life. But in January 2003 I walked into an evening class, picked up a piece of metal, and something shifted. Permanently.
Three major moves across the country. Training at The CASS and Central Saint Martins. Eighteen years working across the trade — on busy repair benches, alongside award-winning designers, through every corner of an industry I had fallen completely and utterly in love with. Twenty-three years later, I am still at the bench. Still as in love with it as I was that first night.
I never chose this path. It chose me. And I am so glad it did.
My work grew as I grew.
Rebekah Ann Jewellery began smaller than the vision, finding its shape. And then something happened that I didn’t entirely plan: my clients started asking more of me. Not just rings for engagements and weddings, but rings for other moments. Moments the jewellery industry wasn’t really talking about. Divorces transformed into new beginnings. Promises made to oneself. Milestones that deserved to be held in gold. Heirlooms carrying three generations of a family, reborn into something new.
The business grew as they asked. And as it grew, so did I.
I am a goldsmith. I am also, I have come to understand, a maker of meaning. The two things are inseparable now.
How I work.
Every piece is made entirely by hand at my bench in Brighton. I work exclusively in recycled and single mine origin yellow gold — the true colour of gold, warm and alive — set with responsibly sourced gemstones. Rose-cut diamonds. Salt and pepper stones full of character. Sapphires in colours that stop you in your tracks.
I don’t work with laboratory-grown stones. I have strong opinions about metal and I’ll always tell you why if you ask — I find that clients who come to me tend to appreciate that kind of honesty.
I create in a very particular way. No news, no radio — only music that sparks something within me. I don’t work on your piece if something feels off. I pause, shake it out, return refreshed. I also, quietly, do a little reiki on pieces when it feels right — filling them with intention before they leave my hands. Not everyone knows that. Now you do.
I never share a piece until I know the moment has happened — the question asked, the gift given, the milestone reached. It isn’t mine to share first. I have waited a year before. I’ll always wait.
This is still becoming.
Listed with the Heritage Crafts Association and the Crafts Council. Founder of the Brighton Jewellery Collective and the Jewellers Hub. National finalist and runner up at The Small Awards 2026 — as a sole trader who built everything alone.
Twenty-three years in and I am at one of the most exciting points of my journey. The work is deepening. The vision is expanding.
The pieces I make are as varied as the moments that call for them.
Whatever the moment — I want to make the thing that holds it.
Rebekah Ann x