Jo Pond

Born in Chiswick, London, Jo is now based in rural Derbyshire. After lecturing at the School of Jewellery in Birmingham for fourteen years and becoming a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, she now works full-time as a studio jeweller, undertaking commissions, remodelling old jewels and working on bespoke commissions.

“I come from a family of ‘Ponds’ who appear to have a genetic necessity for hoarding; digging up metal detector finds was the foundation of a passion for objects which others might not quite appreciate. This fashioned the beginnings of a lifetime of habitual collecting. Utilising this drive to accumulate the unconventional and unwanted, coupled with an aesthetic appreciation of the details of decomposition and change, I choose to incorporate items potentially paradoxical within jewellery, to create beautiful and on occasion, confusing objects. Employing symbolic references of form, material and technique, I dabble in the potential for wearable items to become vehicles for communication; whether through sense, nostalgia, or knowledge.”