Aimee craddock – jeweller on the old high street

Aimee Craddock has her jeweller’s studio and gallery at the top of The Old High Street. Having spent her first years as a jeweller making other people’s designs.  Then, after moving to Folkestone with her partner and young daughter, she found that Creative Folkestone could provide both the working and living space for her to realise her own work. Folkelife met Aimee at her studio to find out her inspirations.

“I fell into the jewellery.  I had always been creative, and had started in fashion design but soon realised that wasn’t for me.  Then I did a foundation degree in photography but decided I didn’t want to go to university, and went off travelling and working on super yachts!  I returned to the UK when my dad was ill and set up in Cornwall.  Whilst working for the RSPCA and realised I wanted to go back to college.  I got on the bus to Truro and said to myself ‘I’m not getting back on the bus until I’ve signed onto a course!’  There was a jewellery course a friend had done which I thought sounded interesting.  I have always been creative, and made things, and the alchemy of working with metal was enticing.  So I signed up for that.”

cornwall to london

“I fell in love with the whole concept; it seemed magical. After my degree and after a year needed to find a job.  Sadly, there weren’t many jobs in Cornwall so I moved to London.  By 2012 I was working for jewellers where I would create their designs.  It was good, I learnt an awful lot, but I was missing that freedom to create my own ideas.  My partner, who is from Brittany, and a freelance welder and prop maker, had a friend who’s mum lived in Folkestone.  We’d been down to visit, and when faced with the prospect of living in London on maternity pay, and freelance unpredictability, it just wasn’t possible.  We wanted to be by the sea, and Folkestone seemed to tick all the boxes.  

“The other thing that Folkestone has is Creative Folkestone.  We applied for a flat, which we still live in, and moved here in July 2019.  It’s the best thing we’ve ever done.”

aimee craddock style

“In my apprentices and jobs I had always recreated other people’s work.  Yet down here, on lovely sunny walks we did during Covid, I was inspired by the architecture around here to create my own work.  The first item was my Sound Mirror ring.  I’ve always been fascinated by brutalist architecture, especially when we were in London.  But I think you are naturally inspired by what’s around you, what we are surrounded by.  And the longer we’ve lived here, the more interested I have become in the human interaction with the coastline.

“I love the natural side, the beaches and the sea, but you see these chunky concrete structures which is the industrial side of sea defences and it’s fascinating.  There are lots of things left over from the past; I love the old photos of the ferries, and the fact that the Orient Express used to come through here.”

the sound mirror ring

“Everything I had made before had been in gold, and when you’re working in gold it has to be fine and delicate.  I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to make something that was big and chunky, but all I could afford was to do it in silver.  But I had fallen in love with silver, and adding different textures to the metal helped it to resemble the concrete.  I love turning something that’s so utilitarian and purely functional, and quite ugly in some cases, into a precious, beautiful object. 

“I started off renting a room from my friend Dan Joyce who ran Happy Skate down on Tontine Street near F51.  That was the October of 2021.  It was a risk, I had a small collection of jewellery but I wasn’t selling a vast amount.  Then, by January of 2022, my current studio/gallery space on The Old High Street came up, and it wasn’t much more rent than I was paying on Tontine Street.  It seemed to me that having a window on the street was a good idea.  I can work here, and showcase my collection.  I opened up in May 2022, and have been here ever since.  It’s flown by, and really worth taking that gamble”

work life balance

“My little girl started school shortly after I took on this space.  And making that transition to going to a place of work after the school run has been a good thing.  The jewellery had grown and grown, and now we’ve just had this little art exhibition in here too.  It’s a collaboration with three other artists who are also interested in the concrete structures around us. 

“I had said I wanted to make jewellery based on the Akmon blocks, and Luke Wayman had taken photos of them already. Ophie OG had done screenprints and DIYzines and things.  Then my other half, François, created the furniture and the concrete blocks.  The Creative Folkestone Triennial has been on this summer, so it made sense to put on our own little thing too.”

folkestone works

“I think the draw for us in the first place was the creative aspect of Folkestone.  And the Creative Quarter and Creative Folkestone works for us too.  Being able to rent a flat from them was a bonus obviously.  But being by the sea is important to us both.  We’ve both lived by the sea in our other homes, so to be here suits us. 

“Everyone favours different towns around the Kent coast, they all have their own feel to them.  Folkestone felt like a family place to us, and rough around the edges which we liked too.  We like the geography of the town too.  It’s nice having The Warren, all broken up; a lot of the other seaside towns have that flat seafront, and Folkestone has its variety of sandy and stony beaches and terrain. Folkestone has a feel about it that we like.  It feels good.”