The Leeds Guide
Wed19 Jan - Thu 3 Feb 2011
Where There's a Mill
Ali Schofield talks starting out, Salt's Mill and designing jewellery for
jugglers with Kath Libbert
I am sitting intently, head down,
going through the contents of a
grey filing cabinet. While most
would fail to have me so rapt, this
one belongs to jewellery gallery owner
Kath Libbert and hides hundreds of
gems - in some cases, literally - by
some of the most exciting names in
contemporary jewellery design.
I finished my interview with Libbert
at her gallery in Saltaire's Salt's Mill
some 20 minutes ago, but the offer
to gawp at incredible finger-knitted
necklaces by Blanka Šperková, Heidi
Butler's plexiglass carved bracelets
professing 'love is enough' around the
wearer's wrist and all manner of other
refreshing manipulations of plastic,
wire, precious metals and even glue,
is irresistible. All the more since these
are the bits not currently on show
to the public, as the gallery's graduate
showcase Cool Constructs continues
till the end of the month, before
making way for Libbert's Alternative
Wedding Show in February.
"With unusual pieces I think you
have to be able to predict when the
right time to put that work in is. I don't
know exactly how I do that, but that's
what's made it successful; a combination
really of keeping things fresh,
exciting and engaging to the public and then how you choose, what you
choose and when you choose it."
The success Libbert speaks of is
the 15 years and counting her gallery
has been based in Salt's Mill. It's not
always been plain sailing. Working full
time as a counselling psychologist in
the NHS some 20 years ago, Libbert
- newly single with weekends freed up
and already a keen jewellery collector
herself - took a Saturday stall at Leeds
Corn Exchange.
"I just had a table top selling five
northern designers, "Libbert says. "I
spent £ 1,000 and that's all I've spent on
the business effectively - £200 on each
jeweller."
At that time, Salt's Mill was a huge
gallery for a few David Hockney paintings,
which the London-born psychologist
and part-time jewellery seller was
already fond of.
'There wasn’t really much here besides the downstairs and lilies, nothing for sale! None of the commercial side, there was no diner.
"There was this deserted mill and
then you'd open a big door and there
would be this wonderful opera music
coming from behind, the scent of lilies,
it was just very magical and it developed
and developed and developed."
The lilies stayed; the heady fragrance
envelops you as you enter the
mill through the ground floor book
shop, and the retail outlets opened.
Owner Jonathan Silver's brother Robin
and wife Patricia opened The Home
in 1994 on the second floor, alongside
the diner. Libbert remembers meeting
Robin Silver after countless letters suggesting
she show some of her jewellers'
designs in the shop.
"Robin met me in the diner and I
had all this work - people even started
coming round and looking at it - but he
said 'no, we source our own stuff and
I thought 'well ok, fair enough'. I went
away feeling dejected."
She remained an avid Salt's Mill
visitor and by 1996 Libbert was finally
invited to pitch for a permanent shop
which, happily for me and my magpie tendencies today, has gone from strength to strength with acclaim from
national magazines, most recently The
Times' Luxx magazine. Despite such success, she only gave up the psychology
work some five 'exhausting'
years after opening the Kath Libbert
Jewellery Gallery.
Since then she has taken on international
artists and regularly travels
to fairs across the world to find new
talent for her Salt's Mill customers.Despite being approached by designers
all the time at the gallery, she prefers
to choose new artists based on a particular
theme - floral jewellery, textile pieces and solely wooden works have
been showcased in the past - which
she comes up with a few months
before inception to ensure the exhibition
looks fresh and trend-influenced.
Next in the diary for Libbert though
is her annual Alternative Wedding Show.
This year's theme is Rock Revival,
employing a bespoke design service to
work heirloom jewels into engagement
and wedding bands.
It is a service which she believes
holds some parallels with the counselling
she gave. "I get quite emotional here because
if they're designing a ring with us you
see them for quite a long period... you
have that intimate connection with people."
One example she cites is a couple
who came to the gallery looking for
wedding bands. "We like to know what
these people do,
what do they
do with their hands. And this guy was
a juggler and wanted to wear his ring
all the time. So that immediately points
us towards particular things and not
towards others, it needs to be something
quite robust," she explains. "He actually went for a ring that's
really textured, hard-hammered, so
that it fits with his lifestyle."
Despite her obvious creative flair
and completing an evening class in
jewellery-making as a student, Libbert
assures me the pieces she came up
with would not fit her criteria for the 'wearable art' she has become known
for. In short, 'I'm no good at it'.
For now though, Libbert is happy
to curate others' artworks for her customers.
She'll even let you look in her
filing cabinet if you ask nicely.
The Alternative Wedding Show
runs till 3rd May with an opening
event and chance to meet jewellery
makers on 6th February at I - 4pm,
Kath Libbert Jewellery Gallery,
Salts Mill, Saltaire, Bradford BDI3
3 LA, 01274599790,
www.kathlibbertjewellery.co.uk
