Pippa Small

Born in Canada, but raised in Wiltshire with an extended family of artists and wanderers, Pippa Small’s home was filled with an eclectic mix of cultural artefacts gleaned from their travels.

Even as a small child, Pippa was attracted to gems, shells and minerals. She gathered beads, bottle tops, seeds, sea-washed glass, anything and everything, secreting her treasures in little piles around the house.

These personal tokens soon followed her around in an ever-expanding bag, until she began to string them together to make, for her, a tactile diary of her existence: a button from a loved ones shirt, a shell from a beautiful beach, a found treasure reminiscent of a person or place.

The jewellery told stories, held secrets and helped a shy child express herself through the tangle of bracelets and amulets. By the time she reached her teenage years the entire length of her arms were entwined in a mosaic of colourful stones and she jangled when she walked.

Pippa Small’s early childhood travels were to have an enormous influence on her as she became fascinated by other cultural ways of being in the world.

This led her to study anthropology and then complete a MA in medical anthropology. She started making jewellery to fund her degree and soon attracted the attention of the fashion world leading to collaborations with Gucci, Nicole Farhi, and Chloe and her superb rough diamond collections with Christina Kim of Dosa.

Later, her two interests merged while working on craft initiatives with indigenous communities such as the San Bushman of the Kalahari, the Batwa Pygmies of Rwanda, and the Kuna in Panama, helping them to research their traditional designs to generate self-sufficiency and income.

She now divides her time equally between her anthropological work and jewellery collections.