Hannah Martin celebrates two decades of rocking the jewellery world. Balancing on a knife-edge of gritty rebellion and supreme grace, Hannah brings the punk movement, London's underground music world and erotic references to high-end jewellery. Emerging from a mosh pit of emotions, Hannah brushes herself off, and heads to her studio to transform these experiences into taut, finely honed, minimalist compositions of timeless beauty.
As Hannah explains, 'musicians make songs out of pain, I make jewellery. Having some kind of creative output is a blessing in itself because it helps understand what feels quite understandable at the time, in moments of emotional turmoil.'
Tina Isaac-Goizé is author of Iconoclast, the first book dedicated to the London-based jeweller and compares Hannah's far reaching impact to that of Suzanne Belperron at the start of the 20th century. 'Once you get to know Hannah Martin's aesthetic, it's impossible to unsee how her influence ripples throughout the industry.' says Isaac-Goizé.
Hannah's not only turns her back on fine jewellery that politely toes the line, but dares to take it in a new direction; to a place where gold twists, thrusts, bulges and turns into things it was never meant to be. Shackles, safety pins, fetishist paraphernalia, and nails are the surprising forms of her jewels. Hannah adds a dose of surrealism to her irreverance: think the improbably opulent combination of outrageously large chain links in gold, hastily strapped to the wrist like a post-apocalyptic treasure seized from a scrap heap. All this juxtaposed with mechanical perfection: a gargantuan malachite bolt screws into a sleek shackle with inexplicable ease.
Upending the hierarchy of jewels as status symbols, Hannah's jewels are a proclamation of self, subversive to the core, and rooted in her fascination with sexuality: 'From the very beginning, I've always said that I want to make sexy jewellery. Jewellery is sexy.'
Hannah studied jewellery design at Central Saint Martins and her first designs were for men but coveted by women, making her an unwitting pioneer in gender fluid jewellery. Her instinctively androgynous designs sidestepped classification and form the backbone of her style.
Although Hannah says, 'I owe my whole life to Saint Martins', the cogs fell into place when working as an intern at Cartier's high jewellery workshops in Place Vendôme, the prize for winning the prestigious Cartier Award. This gave her the opportunity to breathe and work amongst the greatest craftspeople of luxury jewellery, a transformative experience which influences her work to this day. 'I was spending my days on the rarified Place Vendôme and my nights at sweaty punk gigswith pretty boys in underground clubs,' says Hannah. 'I put these two worlds together, and the seed of my brand was born.' After graduating from Central Saint Martin's jewellery design course, in 2005 she founded Hannah Martin Limited to continue making jewellery in the same vein.
Hannah's background was devoid of luxury; her father was a graphic designer and moonlighting DJ, her mother a teacher, giving her a blank canvas to create her version of luxury. She thrives on the thrill of the naughty outsider playing with the sacred: 'I honestly think the reason that I make massive bolts out of gold is because it feels rebellious because it's gold and it's so expensive, I love that I can do it.'
Hannah describes her twenty years in business as 'living by the skin of her teeth'. With no investors or deep-pocketed backers, half-way through the journey, a betrayal by a business partner nearly bankrupted her. But it did not crush her and Hannah doubled her output by designing for large brands to pay the bills to continue creating her own jewellery.
Twenty years on and still feeling a child-like awe for the materials she works with, Hannah presents The Perfect Drug 02, with explicit references to the world of S&M and fetishism. In Hannah's hands, diamond-studded ball-gags, gold bondage chains and gargantuan-sized studded leather straps become, if not exactly mainstream, incredibly tactile and mesmerisingly attractive.
Always committed to her unique vision, Hannah takes jewellery into realms it never before dared to venture, giving its actors a voice, dignity and permanence. And on its way, broadening the pararmeters of fine and high jewellery from which there is no turning back.
