Carving a Niche: Liv Luttrell

Inspired by her favorite artists and sculptors, this London-based jeweler works with architectural shapes and bold styles.

Liv Luttrell brings her deep appreciation of sculpture and bold design to her jewelry making — citing Henry Moore, Beverly Pepper and Oscar Niemeyer as among her main influences. Combining her fine art and gemology training, the London-based designer, who only uses responsibly sourced gemstones and materials, launched her brand in 2016, and her strong and sensual jewels have gained her devoted collectors. Luttrell recently released four new pieces, which she calls Editions — two pairs of earrings and two rings — featuring her signature architectural shapes and thoughtful use of gems and textures.

Which cities do inspire you?
My hometown London is an endless source of inspiration and having been based here for a solid 10 months now without my usual weekends away exploring other cities: I am grateful to live in a city with so much to offer. Diversity in architecture, light, and dare I mention, the weather! The streets look different every day. I have been particularly enjoying exploring the City of London, which is where my studio is based. The mix of ancient streets and new glossy office blocks are something I feel my eye will never get bored of.

This being said, I do miss travel, which in normal times is an important source of inspiration for me. I am particularly looking forward to returning to Marrakech [in Morocco], perhaps because it is just so different from London — from the color palette to the plants to the style of buildings; I can’t wait to potter around the old town at some point in the not-too-distant future.

What’s your creative process like?
The creative process that carries me through to a final design is something I try to make part of my every day. It is an organic process: researching references, collecting images and sketches which later develop into fast line drawings capturing movement, light, texture and basic structure. Working at my bench I start to develop these initial ideas into small sculptures and maquettes, using card, paper, wax and metals like copper and brass.
The designs start as shapes exploring curves and proportions that my eye is happy with and become jewelry at an organic point during this development. At some point, the shape will suddenly be just right to curve around an ear or elegantly from a chain. My aim is to create jewelry that is always bold and original, but ultimately it has to be comfortable and a joy to wear. I am always aware of what a privilege it is to create jewelry that will become intimate pieces of people’s lives, and this is I something I always hold in mind through the creation process for my bespoke pieces. Here, I invite the client to share the journey and offer design consultations and unique stone selections as the piece develops.

What works of art are you drawn to?
Works of art, and in particular sculpture, is where I draw much of my inspiration. It is a challenge to choose one piece to talk about! I am working on a bespoke one-of-a-kind design at the moment, which will be highly sculptural: it has been a real joy to reference one of my most consistent sources of inspiration — [Constantin] Brâncuși — and particularly his sculpture Bird in Space. I first saw Bird at the Peggy Guggenheim in Venice, and was struck by the elegance of the high polished shape soaring into the sky, which is just so dramatic. It is surprising how effortless it is for such a simple form to capture the flight it represents. Brâncuși’s confident shapes and particular connection to finish — he famously spent many hours polishing and buffing his sculptures to the smooth surfaces by hand — is something I feel very connected to and work I continually reference.

Who are the people you look up to?
Another of my favorite artists, Beverly Pepper, is an amazing sculptor who conjures impressively light and curvaceous forms at an imposing scale. Pepper’s work has been an ongoing obsession for years now: her process, her style and her rural home in Tuscany where from her wheelchair she continued to work, instructing her team on angles and curves of these giant sculptures until her death earlier this year. The New York Times piece headed “Beverly Pepper, Sculptor of Monumental Lightness, Dies at 97” dives into everything that was fabulous and inspiring about her, not just from her technique but to her commitment to creating the types of work more associated with her male peers. I hope one day to visit her sculpture park, when we are finally allowed to travel again.

Which jewels do you wear every day?
In an ideal world, I like to change what I wear day to day, sometimes even wearing giant bejeweled earrings out for a simple lunch! More often than not, though, and particularly recently in the world of working from home, I have found myself committed to my twist hoop earring with diamond edges — they feel the right balance of my classic sculptural style and bring a little sparkle into my day, with the added bonus that they look great on Zoom!