At the last “Pavilion of Art and Design” during Frieze I fell in love with the work of jeweler/sculptor Sophia Vari and consequently I have decided that she is my favourite living jeweler.

Born in 1940 in Vari near Athens to a Greek father and Hungarian mother, she is an internationally renowned sculptor and painter in her own right.

She has discovered jewellery when she was in process of giving up figurative painting and was moving towards abstract sculpture. Her forms are tangled, intertwined circular shapes, spheres, semi discs and circles randomly gathered in skywards motion. Always bold, rounded sensual curves in beautifully contrasting colours and materials like ebony versus gold, red enamel or coral against black wood, those creations are full of life, motion and contrast, echoing the cubist sculpture tradition.

Sophia Vari is available at Luisa Guinness Gallery and Didier Antiques

On many occasions my friends would call me: “So-and-so copied your bracelet, necklace, earring, you name it. Why don’t you do something about it?”

So often we do it. This is how it works:

Our lawyer writes them a letter saying they infringed the copyright (£500 down the drain). Their lawyer writes a letter back saying no way. Our lawyer asks me to provide the proof I designed it and that I designed it before they did (2 days of going through archives, old drawings, press clippings, some phone calls and emails later). Another £2000 down and our lawyers provide them with the proof. They dispute it. Going back and fourth until we get fed up and say that now we will take them to court.

Our lawyer warns us that just to file the lawsuit it will cost us around 30k. We say we don’t care. Then he warns us that if we lose it may cost us 300k and up. We say we don’t care. We will sell our houses, we will fight them till the end. I feel like Robin Hood. I know I am in the right and they are in the wrong.

Then I guess they realise that we wont back up. Shock and horror – this small label is willing to fight them till the end. All at the sudden they say lets settle it and by then our lawyers have already made the bill of about 20k. Finally they pay the lawyers bill, angrily.

We lost: reputation and sales (since our clients don’t like to buy something that has been seen on everyone), time (dealing with lawyers and providing evidence), and the will to do this over and over again.
They lost 20k and potential cash cow.
Lawyers: 20 k in their bank account. They win every time.

It is tireing, it is frustrating, it is a no-win situation. I could do this every day.
I realise it is a way of big cash rich companies bullying smaller labels. They bank on us getting scarred. Why – because they think they can and because they would have made enough money by the time you would have sued them anyway. If you can be bothered to sue them in the first place.

I feel this is all so wrong. If you are accused of murder then the state will provide you with a lawyer and pay for him too. If someone copies and practically steals your designs then the state will not help you. No matter how much tax you pay. You have to fight them yourself and if they win then they can even ruin your life and get you bankrupt.

Every time I see a copy of a design of mine I feel no flattery. That is the luxury of big design houses with full bank accounts. I feel robbed, I feel angry and I feel like fighting.

I saw a girlfriend recently who has just returned from her honeymoon without a ring in sight, nor an engagement nor a wedding ring. Not that she didn’t get a wedding ring but she lost it somewhere in the hotel on her honey moon and the engagement ring, well that was never made on time before the wedding anyway. Since I am a jewellery person myself I can talk buckets on those subjects. So here we go:
Engagement ring: girlfriends don’t be persuaded that you have to have a diamond ring, not unless you want to of course. “A Diamond is forever” is a phrase that was coined as a marketing ploy by De Beers in 1947. Before that engagement ring was made of pearls, rubies, sapphires, any coloured stones, you name it. Also don’t think that it has to be something that you have to wear every day, till the rest of your life. That is what wedding ring is there for. Engagement ring can be bold, big and extravagant and you only have to wear it on your wedding finger every day until you get married. After that you can wear it on any finger you like, on any day of the year, or not wear it at all. So I say go for it! For most women it is the single most expensive piece of jewellery they will ever get (unless you are in the lucky few….) and that is why they choose something they can wear day in and out. But that can become a bit boring. Since now days most women actually choose their own engagement rings then you can choose something that reflects your personality at the time, something that goes with your current outfits and something a bit crazy and special, a bit like falling in love…

Wedding ring: ok so this is a different story. Choose something you can wear every day until the rest of your life, with every outfit, any jewellery and every possible hair colour change that you can imagine you might ever want to do. The big question is to go for yellow or white gold? At the end it doesn’t really matter since you can always plate another colour on top of it without loosing its value. My mother even had hers reshaped in a square shape and it looks really good now. It is all about keeping the same piece of metal since the superstition says that gold channels ones own energy.
And about loosing jewellery: well single best advice I could possibly give you – never ever take your ring off your finger! You should only take it off at the same place, always put it in the same drawer, jewellery box, bathroom cabinet, a safe but always, always, always in the same place. So extra caution when you are travelling and taking it off in different places. But never ever – please! – Don’t take it off to wash your hands in public toilets! That is really when most people loose their precious rings. Now what would you rather have: a bit of soap stuck onto your ring or no soap and no ring either?