Blocky, bold and sleek, Capulet and Montague’s artful jewellery has been gaining momentum since its inception in 2012 with recent accolades including the coveted Irish Fashion and Innovation Award for Jewellery Designer of the Year and the overall prize for Innovation. We met with Lisa McCormack, the Dublin-based designer and skilled craftsperson behind those attention-grabbing pieces.
What was your path into jewellery design?
I suppose I had always been a maker. My mum’s an artist, so it would have stemmed from there. I came up to Dublin in 1999 to study film and media at Ballyfermot College, after I left that I managed a café for ten years, and then when I lost my job I had idle hands, so I started making. I began by making pieces for friends and family, for birthday gifts and such. People were really impressed with what I was making, so I began on a part-time jewellery course here in Dublin. I was just practicing at home with different materials and found I really loved working with printable acrylic, so I decided to go on the Back to Work scheme in order to start my own business. I met with my local office and they said they loved my work and that they would help me get my business up and running. After that I went into Om Diva on Drury Street – they have vintage pieces and an Irish designer floor, Atelier 27, and they really loved my work. I’ve been stocked there since 2012, also in the RHA Gallery, and in Dipili boutique on Ormonde Quay.
Could you talk us through how you make your pieces?
A lot of people would draw up their ideas first, but I would see a shape, for example, the curve of a lamp or something that might inspire me. Then I would get the materials, either Perspex or wood, and cut it onto a shape from that idea, as opposed to drawing it. I just never found that suited me as much as taking the materials and layering them up. I bend the plastic as well by heating it up using a heat gun, then moulding it and bending it into different shapes around wooden moulds which I’ve made also. There’s a lot of trial and error as acrylic is quite temperamental, it can pop or buckle – you might be working on one side of a piece , then the other side might start bending and changing the shape. It is brilliant in that simple pieces can be really striking.
You also include soft elements like fringing?
Yes, every season I like to change what I’m doing and develop, so the recent season had a lot of fringing and that was to add another dimension. It gave more movement which people loved and was really popular. Having the high shine of the hard plastic and soft fringe was fun and would fall in different ways.
What were your inspirations for AW15?
I started by looking into Bauhaus, it was a school in Germany, and I was specifically interested in the typography. They did a lot of these large U-shaped lettering. Herbert Bayer was the member who designed the typography that I worked the shapes from. So they are very structured, still with some fringing and block colours of blue, turquoise, orange, and still with the wood and the white mixed in.
What music would you stick on while you’re working?
I’m a big fan of Little Dragon, it’s upbeat but also really melodic with such a beautiful voice, so I love listening to that. I really like anything that’s upbeat. A little bit of St. Vincent mixed in, and I’m a big disco diva, depends on how fast I want to work! My studio is at my home in Harold’s Cross, and my view out my window is my beautiful garden, and that makes me really happy. So being at home, listening to music, and having a good atmosphere to work in is great.
How have you found working in Dublin with Capulet and Montague for the past three years?
Working in Dublin has been fantastic I have to say. For a new designer who’s self-taught, it’s brilliant. There’s always someone who wants to help out or be part of what you’re doing, and then you’ll have people who will push you. It’s really connected here, there is always somebody who can connect you to someone. I love living in Dublin, it’s been great for me to be able to walk in somewhere and speak to someone. Say if you were going to London with the start of your business, it could be really daunting but if you get the start in the city that you live and stocked in the city that you live, and people get to know you in the city that you live, it’s a brilliant feeling.
Capulet and Montague is stocked at Atelier 27, Drury Street, D2 and Dipili Boutique at Ormonde Quay, D1. For more, see www.capuletandmontague.ie
Words: Honor Fitzsimons
