Five jewellery designers who actually make you smile

There is a school of thought that says jewellery should be timeless. Understated, investment-grade, perhaps a little safe. And look, ok. Sometimes that's exactly what you need. But there's another kind of jewellery entirely: the kind that makes the person behind you in the queue tap you on the shoulder and ask where you got it. Something that has a backstory, a point of view – all crafted by a maker who clearly had a very specific vision and followed it without apology.

It's exactly that quality that unites these five jewellery designers. They make pieces that mean something – whether that's a private tribute to baked beans, a business born out of a recession and an overwhelming creative drive, or a tiny hand-cut face that looks back at you every time you glance down at your hand. Joyful, witty, completely original, and very much deserving of a place in your humble collection.

1. Kitschen

For the person who has always felt fine jewellery was missing a fried egg. Kitty Konsta grew up obsessed with miniatures and food in equal measure, trained as a jeweller, and eventually did the only logical thing: combined both into a handmade fine jewellery brand built around the Full English breakfast. The result? Sausage rings, a tomato ring set with emeralds, a beans ring studded with carnelians... sounds like a punchline and wears like a treasure.

Each piece is made to order in sterling silver and 9ct gold, finished with Hatton Garden's help, and crafted with a seriousness of intent that makes the absurdity all the more satisfying. Jewellery that rewards the people who get it, and quietly confounds everyone else.

2. Liz Harry

For the person who wants their jewellery to say what they're thinking. Liz Harry spent over a decade designing for the music industry — album artwork for Arctic Monkeys, Jessie J, and The Zutons — before a shift in direction led her to something altogether more personal. The enamel pins, keyrings and jewellery she makes now are rooted in mental health, colour, and the irreverent warmth of her native Liverpool: visual reminders to slow down, feel something, look after yourself.

What started as an Instagram account has grown into a community of tens of thousands, a regular market presence across the country, and pieces that reliably stop people in the street. Art you can wear, made by someone who genuinely means it.

3. Plump Charms

For the person who knows exactly what they want and just needs someone to make it. Caitlin had 83 pairs of earrings and absolutely nothing to match them, so she started making charm necklaces for herself and her friends in 2024. People kept stopping her to ask where they were from. Strangers in restaurants. Shop assistants. Drunk girls in club toilets.

Eventually, made redundant in July 2025, she moved into a studio in Salford and went full-time. Monthly drops, a pick-and-mix charm builder on the website, and the sort of specific, personal energy that's impossible to manufacture. This is what a brand looks like when it starts from a genuine need rather than a gap in the market.

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4. Polly Collins

For the person who wants their jewellery to have a personality of its own. Polly trained as a shoemaker on Dartmoor before moving to Bristol to focus on jewellery full-time – and something of that handmade, unhurried spirit runs through everything she makes.

Each piece is hand-cut from recycled silver or gold with a tiny saw blade, giving every sun face, moon face and character its own unique expression. No two are identical. They're small, strange, quietly joyful objects that sit on your finger or around your neck and feel, somehow, like company. She'll deliver your order by bike if you're in Bristol. In her own words, it's "jewellery to be friends with", and she's absolutely right.

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5. Sour Cherry

For the person who backs originators, not imitators. In 2009, Kayleigh started making resin jewellery in her parents' garage in Sheffield. No investors or blueprint. Just a recession, a ton of ideas, and a need to make something. Fifteen-plus years later, Sour Cherry has shops inside two of the north's most beloved independent spaces – Manchester's Afflecks and the Leeds Corn Exchange.

It also has a team of 14 people, plus a Vogue feature, and at least one devoted customer with a Sour Cherry tattoo. The jewellery itself is bold, colourful perspex made entirely in their Manchester studio: the kind of pieces that have been doing their own thing for so long that trends have started catching up with them.