Melanie Eddy Featured in New York Times
In November 2020, in the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, British Vogue profiled Melanie Eddy as one of five Black British-based designers reshaping the world of fine jewellery. “This precipitated a shift in many senses,” she says. “I was used to my work being profiled, but not myself.”.
Like many industries, the fine jewellery trade began to address inherent inequalities of representation. Cognisant of the fact that no Black student had graduated from the MA Design: Jewellery programme at Central Saint Martins in the six years that she had been teaching on it, Eddy became a founding member of the Jewellery Futures Fund. Together with fellow founding members jeweller Emefa Cole, Vanity Fair jewellery editor Annabel Davidson and (then) British Vogue Jewellery and Watch Director Rachel Garrahan, Eddy helps steer the organisation, which supports Black jewellery design students with access to scholarships, grants and support from industry professionals.
In autumn of 2021, Eddy had several pieces selected for display in Brilliant & Black: A Jewellery Renaissance. The groundbreaking exhibition, which was curated by Melanie Grant and held at Sotheby’s in NYC, showcased the work of 21 leading Black fine jewellers. “The exhibition I felt changed all of our lives,” says Grant. “So many design houses throughout history have released collections inspired by Black culture, African wildlife, Caribbean tropicana, etc., but none of them ever had any Black designers attached and I wanted that to change. It was just after George Floyd and the feeling of injustice was so raw, I was thinking what I could do to move the needle just a tiny bit towards acknowledging Black talent, of which there is so much. I wanted us to be heard.” Eddy remembers exactly where she was when she got the call from Grant, telling her that the exhibition would be taking place and asking her to take part. The experience proved life changing.
Now, five years later, Eddy joins with jewelry designers Thelma West and Lola Oladunjoye in the New York Times to reflect on how this outpour of support following the death of George Floyd impacted their careers.
Meditations on Form: Jewellery by Melanie Eddy, The Bermuda National Gallery’s first every jewellery exhibition, looks at the bold geometric faceted forms of London-based Bermudian jeweller Melanie Eddy.
The exhibition is on display in the Ondaatje wing through to May 31.