Hey! I'm Alison, al for short, the founder of al's gems. Based in Cork city, the south of Ireland which is where I grew up and evolved as an artist from drawing and painting as a young child, attending art college to now creating my very own handcrafted jewellery collections for you to enjoy!
I've been making jewellery for almost four years, here's a little introduction on where it all started.
I began my jewellery journey around two years ago as a hobby I picked up in 2019 and since then I gradually progressed from a hobbyist to an independant jewellery designer once I saw potential in what I was doing, as did many others who bought my creations during lockdown.
I handmake all my newest collections in the garage of my house where I recently converted into my own workshop. There, I melt down silver, solder, experiment with other mediums like bead work and resin, upcycle old antique silverware and transform them into 'spoon rings' and so much more. 
I am a fine art and graphic design student dropout who fell into the jewellery design world and never looked back. My career hattrick excelled into something wonderful as I can express my love for art and design through wearing it on your body from sketch to finalised polished piece. 
The inspiration behind a lot of my work is from nature so asymmetry, fluidity and abstract texture plays a big part in the visuals of al's gems.
I love to watch the process of heating up silver to the point of it melting to a natural fluid form, which is where I got the inspiration for the popular liquid 'o' rings. It fascinates me that whatever I decide to sketch on paper can ultimately become a piece of jewellery. 
I have continued to grow my passion for jewellery design from beadwork to metalsmithing which I am currently studying in a year long course progressively upping my skills and knowledge of the craft.
Thank you for getting this far in wanting to get to know me and what goes into this one woman show I am so immensely passionate about in growing and evolving.
My direct messages and email is always open if you ever want to know a bit more or if you have a design idea you have in mind I'd be delighted to work on bringing it to life.
Cheers,
- al and her gems.