Meet the owners

Meet Harriet

Voted Bespoke Jeweller of the Year 2024 (and scooping the Ethical Jeweller crown, too), Harriet Kelsall is a bona fide industry leader! Louise Cummings chats to Harriet about what inspired her innovative business and why she loves Cambridge

When did you first fall in love with jewellery-making?

I made my first ring when I was four! My Dad was a doctor but also made jewellery semi-professionally, so he’d sell wedding rings and I would sit by his bench watching. One day I asked if I could make a ring and he explained that I’d have to plan it first, so I drew a massive purple stone with a rabbit on one side and a cat on the other and we made exactly that. It had a big purple amethyst and I was even allowed to hold the blow torch (with Dad steadying it so I didn’t burn the house down) and I was hooked!

After gaining an Industrial Design degree, you worked in the computer industry, before launching your jewellery business in Hertfordshire 26 years ago. What made you expand to Cambridge in 2005?

Cambridge was our first proper High Street store and I remember being very pregnant with my son Thomas at the launch! I actually fell in love with Cambridge before I found a home here, as the city really
suits our approach. We were first to bring bespoke jewellery to the High Street where we combine creativity with hi-tech science and engineering, plus often talk about history whilst reworking older pieces of jewellery. If you take those three things; the history, the creativity and the science then that’s Cambridge, isn’t it? So, I knew that people here would like what we were doing.

For anyone who hasn’t visited, what does the Cambridge design studio offer?

We specialise in bespoke jewellery, so someone may come in and say ‘I would like an engagement ring inspired by the fact that we met when we were scuba diving’. Someone else may bring in a big pile of jewellery inherited from their Granny and ask us to make something amazing to suit them reusing the sentimental gemstones and gold. Alternatively, someone may want a quicker present. So, they can customise something from our collection, such as with engravings or birthstones. Or they can pop in to buy a unique piece!

You’re renowned for your engagement rings inspired by personal stories like the man who wanted snow from Mount Everest incorporated in a ring. It must be fascinating to tell these tales in jewellery?

Yes, we love telling peoples’ love stories and life stories in bespoke jewellery. Nicholas was amazing as he was the first person with cystic fibrosis to successfully climb Mount Everest and while he was up there, he took a bit of snow. We created a design where the melted snow could be encased in a chamber behind a sapphire, which was lovely! We’ve also had a magician who wanted jewellery inspired by magic, someone else who asked for a ring inspired by DNA and a Cambridge client who wanted the mathematical shape Mobius Twist in a ring. You never know who will come through the door, which is wonderful!

Do you use gems from all around the world (and which are your personal favourites)?

We do, and we try our best to source them ethically. I personally love sapphire because of all the colours it comes in. I love green sapphire, teal sapphire and tourmaline, which are brilliant gems and very tough.

You’ve opened stores in London’s Primrose Hill and St Albans, grown to 40-plus designers and notched up countless awards. You must feel proud?

I feel proud of all of us, not just me! We have a lovely team of designers who really care about telling peoples’ stories and want customers to have a special experience and feel taken care of, so it’s luxury, but always inclusive.

Harriet Kelsall Cambridge is at 6/7 Green Street, Cambridge. Visit hkjewellery.co.uk