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Alice Robson’s workshop is an idyllic haven. Natural light floods the room as she sits at her workbench in front of a large window overlooking a well-stocked garden.  The view extends over sunny winter fields, crisp with early morning frost.
The perfect environment for Alice’s creative skills to flourish, it is here she designs and makes her popular collections of contemporary silver and gold jewellery.
A large antique desk set of drawers that might well have come from a 19th century haberdashery store, holds her materials.  Tags hanging off the delicate wooden handles are marked “made up pieces”, “pebbles”, “chains”, and “commissions”.
Although her workplace may be the epitome of old world charm, Alice’s jewellery is very much 21st century.  Until now she has been selling it mainly to friends and family and in some exclusive shops, but a new website – named after her four-year-old daughter, Edie – has launched her clean and simple designs into an exciting new market.
The business is all part of a big lifestyle change for Alice, who not only picked up her former career after 10 years but moved out of London with her family back to her roots deep in the Sussex Countryside.

Born in Hawkhurst, Alice was educated in East Sussex and Kent, latterly at Cranbrook School.  She and architect husband James moved to Silverhill, in Hurst Green, while she was pregnant with Edie, to a bungalow in the ground of a large estate off the A21 owned by her father.
“We wanted to get out of London and find a better way of life for the children,” says Alice, hwo also has a son, Fergus, six.  “We lived near the Holloway Road and when I took Fergus out in his pushchair his face would get covered in black dirt spots.  When my father asked if we wanted to rent a bungalow in his grounds we grabbed at the opportunity.  “Moving back here enabled me to think about doing my own things again,” she adds.  “I realised what I wanted to do was take up where I left off in the jewellery business.”

Alice completed a degree in jewellery design at Central St Martin’s in London in 1990, then worked for two year for internationally known jewellery designers Dinny Hall an John Donald.  A further eight years in sales and marketing for telecoms and publishing companies followed before the family headed for a new life in the country.
Alice took the plunge back into making jewellery after being asked to be a god mother to a close friend’s baby.  “I thought I can’t possibly buy something so I’ll get my workbench out.”
She constructed a traditional silver box, which “went down a storm” so tentatively decided to put a foot into the water.
“I organised four sales for friends and family to see what their reaction would be.  I was flabbergasted in went down so well, but it wasn’t hard to start again. I went to a college that trained us through a mix of design and craftsmanship to be good gold and silversmiths.”

Alice has two collections, one of which sells in shops in Battle, Rye, London and Brighton and another, lower priced, exclusively for the website.
“There is a gap in the market for nicely designed jewellery using semi-precious and precious metals, “ Alice says.  “I use the website to keep prices down.  There is a lot of competition in the cheaper end of the market, but this is an opportunity to offer something of good quality, made by hand at an affordable price, typically around £30-£35 mark.”
The website ‘Pebble’ collection is based on classic, unfussy lines and includes earrings, some of which come as hoops with attachable beads, and chains with beads or smooth pebbles covered in silver.
“I try and keep it simple and let the materials form part of the design,” Alice says. “On our holidays in Norfolk we spend hours combing the beaches for lovely pebbles.” One of her own favourite pieces is a large, oval pebble in silver that she wears on a s simple black ribbon.  “It is very tactile, like a lot of my work.”

One fan of her’s is Tim Henman’s mother, Jane who bought one of Alice’s  necklaces at the Rye Tennis Tournament last year.  “She told me later she hadn’t taken it off since, “ Alice Beams.
“Lots of people at my son’s school also have pieces.  My husband gets embarrassed when we go to school events because he says they’ve all got my jewellery on!”
Her other ‘Link’ collection, which sells solely in shops, is made of chunky, but elegant necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings and cufflinks.  Based on organic natural shapes, it is also proving popular.  “I took my first collection into a shop in Battle, and by the afternoon they had sold a £750 necklace.”
People like her jewellery, she says, because it’s fashionable, but not too tied up with fashion “and it works for all ages”.

Alice says success has made her more ambitious.  She shows me her business card with its distinctive AR logo.  “I’d like people one day to instantly recognise that AR as something made by Alice Robson.  “That takes time and a lot of persistence but I want to keep setting myself goals.
“Ultimately, the design is the most important thing.  If you don’t design well you won’t get anywhere.  Having a passion for your work is vital too, and I have buckets loads of that.”

Alice’s work can be seen on www.alicerobson.co.uk or www.edieflorence.co.uk or call for more details on 0777 5556552.  She can also be contacted for commissions.

Alice will be participating in SEOS 2008, for details click here.

This story first appeared in Kent and Sussex Today produced by Courier Media Group, Tunbridge Wells, February 2007