Acorns on fingers, seashells on toes

Looking at some of Britain's most inventive jewellery designers, it seems formal training can be more of a hindrance than a help.

It all started five years ago, with worm-casts on a Norfolk beach. "Their shape and texture was so interesting that I decided to make something out of them," remembers Helen Downie. She threaded them on to a wall-hanging and enjoyed doing it so much she decided to make something else. Now, Helen's jewellery sells for up to £300 apiece in glamorous shops such as Christa Davies and Koh Samui in London, and her intricately crafted bead and crystal necklaces are bought by the likes of the model Sophie Anderton.

It all started five years ago, with worm-casts on a Norfolk beach. "Their shape and texture was so interesting that I decided to make something out of them," remembers Helen Downie. She threaded them on to a wall-hanging and enjoyed doing it so much she decided to make something else. Now, Helen's jewellery sells for up to £300 apiece in glamorous shops such as Christa Davies and Koh Samui in London, and her intricately crafted bead and crystal necklaces are bought by the likes of the model Sophie Anderton.

"The fact that I'm not a trained jewellery designer has helped," says Helen, who is 35, has four children aged 14 to 6, and lives in Wimbledon. "If you go to college you understand how difficult it is. It's almost as if you know too much. If you're naive and ignorant, you just go ahead."

An untrained mind, she says, can be freer. "My necklaces started out as lampshades," she adds, by way of illustration. "I made this fringe out of beads and wire and a friend held it up and said, it's not a lampshade, it's a necklace."

"Experience, in the end, is the only training that really counts," says Gina Cowen, 42, who has built a business making jewellery out of sea glass. Having worked as a journalist, art publisher and manager of classical musicians, Gina decided to make a bold career change when she was walking on a beach in South Africa six years ago. "There was a lot of perfect tumbled sea glass lying on the shingle and I got this vision of it being around the neck - like luminous solid water."

Inspired by Goethe's "Whatever you do or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it, begin it now", Gina came back to her home in London and began to research how to string the pebbles of glass without losing the quality of light. Her main instruction came from R Holt, a well-established gem store in London, where a helpful assistant told her to drill the glass underwater to keep it cool.

She started her jewellery business in 1995, and within the year had a collection on sale in Liberty followed by the Agete Gallery in Tokyo.

Being largely self-taught, however, has its drawbacks. "One of my first customers was dancing in Crete when her necklace broke and the glass scattered all over the stone floor. I was mortified." She didn't know that the biggest problem with stringing hand-drilled beads is abrasion. "You have to smooth every single hole you make in the glass, which takes ages."

Trial and error is the main guiding principle, according to Karen Howse, 32, a trained textile designer who makes fabric jewellery. "I've learnt things as I've needed them," she says. Karen didn't like using mass-produced earring fixings, so she signed up for an evening class and was taught how to make them herself, which was "surprisingly easy".

Based in Launceston, Cornwall, Karen's jewellery is a sideline to larger wall-hangings and pictures she creates using stitched fabric and found objects. She applies the same principle to her jewellery, attaching acorn-cups to bracelets, and shells and beads to necklaces and brooches, albeit on a more modest scale.

"My early brooches were so labour-intensive. Little works of art in themselves. My designs are much simpler now." And now that she has discovered a fabric-stiffener, her brooches are less bendy. "I can date the early ones according to how floppy they are."

Jewellery design, then, would seem to be the ideal business for dedicated self-starters with a good eye. "My initial outlay was £300. How many other businesses would be that low?" points out Helen. Karen's love of acorns ensures her costs are even lower. With such success stories, it makes you wonder why anybody bothers to flog their way through years of college training to be a jewellery designer. Why doesn't everyone just string up a few stones and beads and sell them?

One of the reasons, says Helen, is evolution. "It's hard to evolve if you haven't got the skill behind you. My necklaces are done up by ribbon because I don't know how to make a clasp, which is a problem because this is what I want to do next." She shows me a necklace of chunks of amethyst strung on wax thread. Ties weighed down by two large pieces of amethyst are designed to hold the necklace in place. "The only snag," she points out, "is that once it's on, the ties pull so tight, you can't get it off."

For details of stockists:

Helen Downie: Koh Samui (0207 838 9292); Christa Davies: (0207 727 1998; netaporter.com)

Gina Cowen: seaglass.co.uk

Karen Howse, The Square Gallery, St Mawes, Cornwall (01326 270720; or contact: 01566 777328)

Right: Gina Cowan's tumbled seaglass jewellery, like solid water round the neck; inset left, fabric brooch by Karen Howse