Kotomi Yamamura

Kotomi Yamamura specialises in hand crafted costume jewellery. Using polymer clay to bind and shape her work, she fashions her jewellery from natural and semi-precious stones (smoky quartz, crystal quartz. fresh water pearl, agate, etc...), faceted glass stones and beads.
Because of the many differing shapes, sizes and textures of these materials, her work is imbued with plenty of variety and so often the sence of being one-off.

Born in Osaka, Japan, Kotomi Yamamura obtained a degree in lacquer at Kyoto City University of Art. Following a decade as contract designer to fashion jewellery manufacturers, and gradually developing her own jewellery design style, she moved in 1998 to London, where she has settled.

Her main source of inspiration has been the decorative arts of the European mediaeval world, the Gothic, the Byzantine, the Russian... Her work being strongly founded on traditional forms, together with the flair that she has for the exotic and the scintillating, means that she has found a ready and enthusiastic market at galleries, shops and craft fairs in London.