The jewellery market is difficult to break into. To compete with the High Street, designers have to come up with something completely different. HILARIE STELFOX reports

DESIGNER Sue Bull uses silver wire and a tiny crochet needle to create the delicate filigree jewellery that has become her trademark.

It’s a technique that owes a lot to her background in textiles and it’s one that she hopes gives her creations an edge in the fiercely competitive fashion accessory industry.

Sue, 51, a college lecturer, chose to go part-time three years ago in order to fulfil her desire to explore jewellery design.

“I’d worked full-time for years and raised my children (Jess, 14, and Edward, 18) and hadn’t really had the time to develop and maintain my own creative output,” said Sue. I’m now relishing having that time.’’

After a lifetime in teaching fashion, currently at Kirklees College, and working with young people, she feels to have her finger on the pulse of trends and fashions.

Sue, who lives in Upper Cumberworth, is both an artisan and an artist and her work falls into a category that spans the cross-over between art and fashion.

She said: “I have always been interested in experimental work, using mixed media and textile techniques.” Her first jewellery collection was, unusually, crafted in raffia and her latest work incorporates recycled elements – recycling is a major fashion influence of the moment.

“We are all interested in recycling. Designers such as Vivienne Westwood are basing their collections on the theme.

“She’s taking beautiful old fabrics and re-using them. We have just done a project at college in which the students had to work in pairs, bringing in old clothes and re-making them into an outfit for each other.

“I’ve used parts of some old clay pipes that I found on the banks of the Thames in my new collection and I have also used old watch faces that I bought in the market,’’ explained Sue, who is always on the lookout for unusual jewellery elements.

In contrast to the recycled parts, she also uses silver and gold wire, semi-precious stones and pearls.

Her work sells for between £45 and £200, prices that reflect the one-off hand-crafted nature of the designs.

Sue trained in textile design at the Chelsea College of Art and did her degree in textiles and fashion in Manchester. She did her teaching certificate in Huddersfield and worked in community arts in Salford before joining the staff at the former Huddersfield Technical College, now Kirklees College.

She has shown textile, mixed media and craft work at a number of exhibitions and galleries. Her latest collection is on show in the sculpture park until June 14, but she also has work in the Leeds Craft Gallery and in the Left Bank, Byram Arcade, where the owner is a former student of hers.

“I’m not a trained jeweller and I knew I was going into quite a saturated market, but I went in with my fashion head, knowing what the trends were – using pearls, this season, for example – and coming up with something different,’’ she explained.

Sue’s jewellery is designed to be deconstructed so that it can be mixed and matched.

“It has detachable components so that part of a necklace can be worn as a brooch. I liked the idea of putting something together that is a wearable collage.’’

As a fashion lecturer, Sue is aware that she has to keep striving to produce highly creative and effective pieces.

“I have to practice what I preach,’’ she added.