What’s behind the design ?

July 29, 2011 by eanjewellery | 1 Comment

Today I want to give you a little insight into the mind of jewellery designer Elizabeth Anne Norris. You may or may not already know I’m educated in Biology though I never studied marine biology. I majored in genetics and biotechnology. Looking back, perhaps I made the wrong course choices at university as I have lasting passion for the environment and the natural world and am always learning.

But enough about me, I want you to shut your eyes and imagine a beautiful warm place, a white sandy beach, endless sunshine, a coral reef, diving into the warm salty waters…

Here live the most colourful creatures on earth. Their collective name is ‘Nudibranch’ but they are really just part of the ‘Heterobranch’ family (that’s snails and slugs to you and me). But the nudibranchs, found in coral reefs worldwide, are my favourite creatures on earth; I would go as far as to say I have a slightly fanatical obsession with them. There are said to be over 3000 different species which means a lot of varieties, shapes, colours and sizes of nudibranch or sea slug. They fascinate me. I’ve scoured the internet only to find one more beautiful and strange than the last. They are bizarre and toxic creatures indeed; hermaphroditic, cannibalistic, they have their breathing parts external to their bodies, and stinging cells in their bright coloured tentacles or fronds.

I love colour and this is what drew me to these bright peculiar creatures in the first place. It was a natural selection: the colours of the Nudibranchs and the enamel colours in my workshop. A perfect match! The more I learnt the more I loved them. My research on Nudibranchs spawned my major project at college, a range of sea alien pendants, enamelled brooches, pendants, cufflinks and most importantly my company logo.

I’d like to thank the humble Nudibranch for an endless supply of design inspiration and you the reader for taking an interest in this humble blog post. Thanks.