ll his life, William Llewellyn Griffiths has travelled back and forth, between countries, between dreams. Born in England, young William emigrated with his father, an electrical engineer, and his mother, an artist, to the other side of the world; to Auckland on New Zealand’s North Island where he grew up.
His father, who was something of an inventor, transformed the basement of the family home into a workshop, filled with tools, drills and all manner of machinery. “I learned to use them when I was still young. Then, when I was 17, I saw an ad in the paper; a jeweller was looking for an apprentice. I’d failed all my exams at school so I applied and they hired me. Probably because I knew how to work with my hands.” At an age when most are still wondering what their future profession will be, William Llewellyn Griffiths was learning to make jewellery.
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- William Llewellyn Griffiths
- ©Eryca Green
The punk jeweller
One idea kept coming back to him: “to be a proper punk.” Except “proper punks” took their disenchantment to London, and so in 1978 William moved back to the country of his birth and found a flat in the land of “no future”. In between hanging out on King’s Road, he learned the intricacies of his trade with Hatton Garden jewellers and, little by little, began to make his own pieces to sell on markets.
Come the early 1990s, he packed his bag and went back to New Zealand to open a shop. “One day in 1992 I got a call from a jewellery collector in Japan who had heard about my work and wanted me to send him some photos. Well, this was before the Internet, so I took a few shots, photocopied them at the local library, wrote the price on each one and faxed them. He bought the whole lot. That was my first big sale.”
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- Mumtaz Mahal ring
- William Llewellyn Griffiths
Traditional jewellery skills
William continued to travel back and forth between Auckland and London. “I couldn’t make up my mind where I wanted to be so in the end I moved to Melbourne, Australia, where no-one knew me. A fresh start. It’s where I met my wife and in 2006 opened Metal Couture.” The shop stayed open for a dozen years, closing down shortly before the Covid pandemic. “These days I work out of a small studio and run a website. A few shops in Melbourne carry my jewellery but mostly I have some really good customers who buy pieces I post on Instagram.”
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- Tears of Aurora Earrings
While he takes advantage of technology, William works essentially by hand, creating the models for his jewellery with 3D printing but also the traditional lost-wax casting method and crafting each piece using artisanal techniques. He has mastered every aspect, from cutting and soldering the metal to enamelwork and some of the gem-setting, adding that “for the really complex pieces, I work with a specialist.”
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- Humming Bird pendant
Gemstones and micro-mechanisms
William Llewellyn Griffiths’ jewellery is infused with his experiences and the cities he has called home; with Renaissance architecture and Gothic spires, Victorian automata, myths and legends, and the mysteries of the human psyche. It is as though every piece has emerged from a dream… or a nightmare that inspires beauty, nonetheless. Classical jewellery motifs and opulent gems combine with original micro-mechanisms. “I enjoy making tiny mechanisms which I then fit into my jewellery. When I was a kid, I was forever taking things apart. Toys, clocks… My parents were wondering what was wrong with me but I just wanted to see how they worked.” What does he want to bring to jewellery? “Just something different.”
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- Carousel of Dreams pendant
