Jewellery by Natalie Ifill
I am Natalie aka Eilatan, the founder, designer and maker at Jewellery by Eilatan. Our jewellery consists of made to order items, one of a kind or bespoke pieces, all of this somehow falls into my (sometimes) weird but unique taste. If you look at the jewellery I make, it says almost everything about me as a person. Sometimes my work is cute and femme, other times its chunky and gothic, sometimes I open up about serious issues such as mental health and other times I feel more playful. Making jewellery is one of the only ways I feel able to truly express myself, and one of the greatest things it’s brought me is a connection to all sorts of people. I’ve had people come to me about their ordeals of breast cancer, metal health and racism - being able to talk about these things freely and having the opportunity to provide something that they can wear with pride to overturn their negative experiences is such an overwhelming privilege that I experience. The process of making to me is therapeutic (if everything is going well), it’s mentally stimulating but also makes me shut off and concentrate on the task at hand which is great when you have an over active mind. Although I love the making experience, knowing I’m creating something beautiful and am providing something for someone that makes them feel special, put together or fierce is one of my main driving forces. Through making, through just being myself and doing what I can, I am able to help people and that warms my heart so much.
I’ve always been creative, at school I was constantly drawing or painting, then I was experimenting with knitting and embroidery. I’ve always loved trying new creative experiences, but one thing I struggled with is how to begin. The activities I picked up were easily accessible at school or through my family, therefore I looked at other creative endeavours and felt lost as had no one to show me the way. I went through a long period of being lost and having no inspiration. It wasn’t until I became an art technician in a museum that I was opened up to a new world of creativity, not even in the art I was surrounded by, but the people in my team. I wanted to learn more, and be more creative so I signed myself up to evening jewellery making classes at my local adult education college and the passion just grew from there. Now through making I find that I actually have a bigger sense of purpose, it gives me structure in a weird way, I look at everything differently, such as seeing inspiration in places I wouldn’t have before.
I take inspiration from all around me. I say my brand is “inspired by nature” and I guess I use that term pretty loosely. I am inspired by flora and fauna, insects and creatures but I’m also hugely inspired by the human body, our brains and interactions, spirituality and all the other weird and wonderful things that exist. My ideas mostly appear to when I’m falling asleep, so these days I keep my sketchbook close to me so I can quickly draw them out. I don’t have a well refined process, I tend to just go with how I’m feeling and how inspired I am that day. Sometimes I’ll have sketches of my work, and I plan to follow through but once I’m making it all goes out the window and I make something even better. I never really struggle at my bench to form ideas as my mind is always full of hundreds of things I want to do, the only struggle is when I’m too exhausted to work or not in the right mindset, things go wrong. Having a chronic pain condition and being so hands on has been a difficult thing to get to grips with, and I’m still trying to learn what my limits are and how to handle it, but sometimes it’s just accepting that there will be days when you want to create and can’t, or there are days you don’t want to create and that’s okay too.
I think the fact that I get the most joy from a finished piece is what keeps me so engaged in the process. I just get so excited from the concept in my head and want to see it all shiny and perfect. But trying to slow down, enjoy the process and learn from it is what I’m concentrating on now. I want to refine my skill, I want to be even better than I am now so it’s also a goal I am aiming for. When I release my work into the wild, I feel a mixture of pure happiness, insecurity and sadness. A weird mix of emotions, I know.. Happiness because I still feel overwhelmed that people like my work and see something in it (or me), insecure as I’m a worrier at heart and always worry something will go wrong and lastly sadness, especially if it’s a one of a kind piece, as I feel like I’m saying goodbye to a part of me. I honestly feel so humbled that people love my work, especially love it enough to buy it. I would never have imagined myself being where I am today when I first began this journey.
I have so many favourites it’s hard to pick but if I had to it would be the items in my “Hope Collection”. These are pieces of work that are so important to me. So far there are three main pieces in this collection (I have a few new pieces to be added soon) but they each represent an issue close to my heart, and 10% of the proceeds are donated to a selected relevant charity. The three pieces in this collection represent the Black Lives Matter movement, Suicide Awareness and Breast Cancer Awareness. Having dealt/dealing with mental health issues and being a Black woman of colour, I feel I need to speak up about these issues at times, and help as many people experiencing this as I can. And having my mother deal with breast cancer when I was young makes me feel like it is vital to spread awareness and educate those on the importance of regular checking. I think this collection really has highlighted the personal value of making to me, going through all these battles in my life I’ve found it hard to talk about or deal with and through making I’ve managed to bring these issues to the forefront of my mind and deal with them, and by making myself vulnerable and sharing this work with others and my personal experience has helped bring me closer to people I would have never had the opportunity to before. It also helps me feel like I can do my part in helping educate people on these issues.
If I didn’t make things, I would struggle. I truly believe I would struggle. I wouldn’t be able to express myself, or confront certain issues, I wouldn’t be able to stimulate my brain, I wouldn’t be able to connect with so many beautifully talented individuals, I wouldn’t be able to help others via charity contributions or letting them know they aren’t alone, I wouldn’t be able to speak up on issues and educate people as well and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself. Being a maker, and loving art is really such an honour and a beautiful experience to have.
Natalie Ifill