1
Aug 18
Meet Jorja Smith’s Favorite Jewelry Designer (It’s Her Mom)
Trying to find reasonably priced jewelry that suits your taste can sometimes feel like an endless hunt—that is, unless your go-to jewelry designer happens to be your mother. That’s the case for British singer Jorja Smith, as she revealed in an Instagram post earlier this week. Jorja thanked her mom, Jolene Smith, a jewelry designer who has been crafting rustic artisan pieces since 1984, for her new black diamond pendant, which she paired with a lilac mesh head wrap and earrings by Jiwinaia. “The black diamond necklace was to go with her black diamond ring that I made for her for Christmas,” Jolene says of the one-off piece. “Black diamonds are so underrated,” she adds, and Jorja clearly agrees—the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Jolene went to jewelry school in Birmingham for three years and has been working full-time on her craft ever since (with the exception of a brief part-time period when she had children), making pieces primarily from silver. Her designs, which incorporate semiprecious stones, find a way to modernize ancient references. In addition to these handmade pieces, she takes old or broken jewelry and uses it for raw material; she also runs workshops for adults and children interested in trying their hand at the craft “to inspire people to create and immerse themselves in another world.”
Jorja is understandably a fan of her mom’s handiwork. “I love how my mom can make literally everything,” Jorja says. “She even made my friend Erin a shoe pendant because Erin makes shoes. My mom has always inspired me, as nothing seems impossible for her.” And while Jorja has made a few rings and bangles with her mom before, she claims that she doesn’t have the patience to really commit to the practice. She of course manages to don some of her mother’s pieces on tour. “I’m working on Jorja’s Lost & Found collection for Jorja’s Japan shows at the moment—hearts and keys chains,” Jolene says. Look out for more of her mom’s original work, coming soon.