Simon Smith was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and now lives in the UK, also trading as ‘Dancing Bear’.
He has been a jeweller for over 30 years following an apprenticeship. From the very beginning he designed and made his own pieces, and influenced by art, in particular catholic imagery and icons from his early years in South America. He also makes boxes with mixed media and found objects.
His work is very labour intensive, a deliberate backlash response to the accurately engineered mass production jewellery market. His work is about celebrating the human differences. As an example, each link in a bracelet is cut out by hand and only roughly measured by eye, ensuring each link is unique. Likewise, each piece itself is never the same twice.