A NEW artistic collaboration is being launched at the Jubilee Wharf Penryn Christmas Fair on 12th and 13th December to bring together and showcase the contemporary skills and materials of Cornish furniture maker, Lucy Turner, with local silversmith Lucy Spink.

Called Turner & Spink, the two Lucy’s have designed a unique range of affordable hand-crafted jewellery bringing together handworked sterling silver with retro-favourite laser cut Formica to create distinctive bright modern pieces. Each pair of earrings are uniquely versatile and can be worn in four different ways.

Said Lucy Spink, who formerly owned and ran the Little Yellow House gift and florist’s shop in Penryn: “As a designer I take my inspiration from the natural world and this is reflected in my work. I combine my skills as a silversmith with my expertise as a trained florist and gardener, producing designs that are fresh and contemporary but eminently wearable. Applying texture to the silver so it catches the light ensures that each piece of jewellery has its own identity and organic form. Combining handworked silver with Formica is allowing us to create a most unusual and exciting collection of work for those who enjoy owning and wearing an individual piece or buying something special as a unique gift.”

Lucy Turner has achieved national critical acclaim creating unusual modern designs and customising furniture using laminate Formica. At the Jubilee Wharf Fair she will present a selection of furniture, small tables, chopping boards, trivets and mirrors. Her work has featured in the national press and can be seen at a number of venues from Miss Peapod’s Kitchen Cafe at Penryn to John Lewis and the Bosinver holiday cottages.

She said: "It is a pleasure working with Lucy. We have been friends for years after being fellow shop owners in Penryn nearly ten years ago. Our lives have taken twists and turns through business and our personal lives and it has been really exciting to get together again and be creative. Not only do our unique design ideas and approach to jewellery-making work well together, but the materials themselves also have an affinity with each other. Formica is extremely tactile, vivid and distinctive and the silver is extremely hard wearing yet delicate and lustrous at the same time. We have plenty more design ideas and quirky twists up our sleeves. Watch this space.”