Collection: Cristina Zani

Following a career in corporate communication, Italian born artist Cristina Zani completed an MFA in Jewellery at Edinburgh College of Art in June 2012.

After living and working in several countries, Cristina established her workshop in the Lake District. In 2016 she moved back to Edinburgh where her studio is currently based.

In 2011 she was awarded a bursary that enabled her to study jewellery in Seoul for four months. Her present work is influenced by the Korean urban landscape and explores the contrast between modern buildings and ancient temples and palaces of South Korea.

She mainly works with wood, which she combines with precious metals and sometimes stones. Her pieces are sculptural, bold and tactile; they are usually large in scale, but light to wear. Although they are based on preparatory sketches, her way of working with materials is largely intuitive and instinctive. She doesn’t tend to constrain herself to the initial drawings, but she allows incidents to be part of her creative process and this often produces unintentional and more interesting results. This way of working often sparks ideas for new pieces or brings her to unexpected turns.