Manuela Lyle
As my name suggests, I am half Spanish and half Scottish.
As a jeweller and silversmith, I think the seed of inspiration goes back to my roots. My Spanish grandfather was the village blacksmith and as a small child I remember watching him with fascination as he forged the glowing metal into shape. It always intrigued me how something seemingly so solid and unchangeable could be transformed through fire into something beautiful and useful.
In the words of the Little Prince “It is useful because it is beautiful!”
My end-of-term school reports often said
“Manuela is conscientious, but could do with less dreaming and looking out the window!”
...somehow I managed to make that work for me and now I do it for a living.
I was born and brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland where I studied at Leith School of Art and then went on to do a BA(Hons) at Edinburgh College of Art, specialising in Jewellery and Silversmithing. I later combined my love for the ´micro´ with my love for the ´macro´ by doing a Jewellery Postgraduate with Installation.
Having also lived and worked for many years as a jeweller in Barcelona, Spain, I now enjoy the best of both worlds, linking my Scottish and Spanish roots...
spanning the map from the Mediterranean coast to the North Sea.