MEET IAN

Ian is a master goldsmith with over 30 years of experience in the making of fine jewellery.

He is fortunate to have received the best training available in a difficult, demanding and ancient craft. During a four-year apprenticeship under renowned Swiss jeweller Toni Cavelti, he learned the art of hand crafting fine jewellery using traditional European techniques.

After completing his apprenticeship at Cavelti’s shop, Ian spent the next fifteen years working under talented Swiss designers, Alois and Therese Lander. This incredible husband-and-wife duo won two Diamonds International awards, and supplied top-quality 18K and platinum jewellery to Swedish Jeweler, a well established jewellery store with outlets in West Vancouver and downtown. During his time with the Landers, Ian broadened his skills and experience, gaining a reputation for precision work. Many exquisite rings and necklaces glittering around Vancouver were crafted by Ian in Landers’ studio.

Ian is grateful for the wonderful training he received from his two mentors, Alois Lander and Toni Cavelti, and he is now passing on his skills to his own son, Simon, a young man with talented hands.

For the next nine years, Ian and his wife Claire designed and made jewellery from their home studio in Gibsons, on the beautiful Sunshine Coast. Word of mouth spread, and although they rarely advertised, they became so busy there was almost no home life left.

In 2000 they opened a jewellery store in Gibsons' only indoor mall. But custom design and hand fabrication had to compete with the myriad of other duties involved in running a full-service retail store, so after five successful but exhausting years, Ian and Claire closed that location to again focus on custom work from a small studio.

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MEET CLAIRE

Unlike her husband, master goldsmith Ian Finlayson, Claire was not drawn to the art of jewellery making and design from a young age. She loves sewing, gardening, photography and classical music, and was busy raising her children. Then she started watching over Ian’s shoulder as he worked at the bench.

At first, it all looked so technical - metals and machines, acids and polishing compounds, and benches bristling with tiny tools. But from a workshop that looks more like a miniature foundry than an artist’s studio came sparkling creations, gold and platinum polished to liquid perfection, diamonds breaking light into all the colours of the spectrum.

The coloured gemstones were the turning point for Claire. Holding a violet sapphire in her fingers, she could hardly believe that something so utterly beautiful could be dug out of the ground. It was a short step to imagining a setting for it. Working with Ian, watching him forge that idea with painstaking patience into a ring that could be worn and enjoyed forever, launched a whole new career.

Claire has completed formal jewellery design training at the Gemological Institute of America in Santa Monica, California, supplementing that with courses in diamond grading. She still loves fabric and flowers, and manages to incorporate these themes into the jewellery she designs. Just as Ian’s style is bold and geometric, hers is strongly organic. Her idol is Rene Lalique, whose work epitomizes Art Nouveau.