Meet Artefact, the fine jewellery label making one-of-one heirlooms

“I think the idea of an heirloom is really about the life a piece has beyond you.”

If it weren’t for jeweller Amelia Hancock’s curiosity about metallurgy, Artefact might not exist today. Amelia was studying fashion design with the intention of starting a clothing label when she became increasingly drawn to metal.

“Metal is such a forgiving medium,” she explains. “You can make something, melt it down, pull it apart and turn it into something completely new. Fabric didn’t allow me the same level of creativity.”

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She was also drawn to what jewellery could become over time. Unlike clothing, which is typically donated or discarded when it’s no longer wanted, jewellery can stay with us for decades. “It has a lifetime with one person, and then it can be passed down and loved by someone else for generations,” she says. “I think that longevity has always really appealed to me.”

What began as a self-taught passion project gradually grew into the Newcastle-based business Artefact is today. “I started selling handmade jewellery at local markets many years ago, and eventually sold my car to fund my first order of solid gold material,” she says. From there, Amelia has grown the label slowly over the past 12 years, sharpening its aesthetic in the process.

“I’ve always been drawn to old jewellery and the feeling that comes with pieces that have lived a life before you,” she says. “I love antique and vintage forms, old religious and ceremonial jewellery, signet rings, relics and found objects.”

Rather than recreating these references literally, Amelia strips them back, combining their sense of history with raw, modern forms. “I think that contrast is what makes the pieces feel like Artefact.”

Today, the label operates from an old black terrace in Cooks Hill, with its store downstairs and studio and workshop upstairs. The small team handcrafts its jewellery in-house using recycled precious metals, the range spanning sterling silver and solid gold pendants, chains, rings, bracelets and earrings.

By handcrafting each piece, Artefact’s jewellery is “deliberately unrepeatable”. It’s Amelia’s way of pushing back against the idea that everything needs to be new, perfect, and available to everyone. “When you know something is completely unique,” she says, “it becomes yours in a very personal way, and over time it starts to carry your own history with it.”

Hi Amelia! You describe Artefact’s jewellery as deliberately unrepeatable. Why was it important to you to create one-of-one pieces?

Everything is so mass-produced these days, so there’s something really special about having one of something that only belongs to you. There’s also something beautiful about the imperfections that come with making something by hand. No two pieces are ever going to be exactly the same, and that’s part of what gives them their character.

How does making one-of-one pieces change the way you approach design?

The one-of-one designs allow a lot more creativity and freedom. In all honesty, I just create pieces that I would love to wear.

Rather than starting with a sketch, I usually go straight into the wax carving. It has become quite a meditative practice for me. I’m not necessarily thinking about what the piece needs to be, I just start making and see where it takes me.

The designs that we mould and reproduce as part of our collections are often a little less intricate and more everyday pieces. I like to think of the one-of-ones as something a little more special, pieces where I can really experiment and let the material lead the design.

A lot of your pieces lean heavily into texture, especially that molten look. How is that style achieved?

All of the Artefact designs start as a piece of wax, which I then hand carve and shape. I love working this way because it’s very tactile and intuitive. You can push the wax, take some away, soften an edge or make a mark, and the piece evolves as you’re working on it. Once it’s cast into metal, all of those little marks and textures remain. I think that’s where a lot of the character comes from.

Was there a particular piece you made early on that made you realise, ‘this is what Artefact should be’?

One of the first pieces I ever designed and made was our Relic pendant. It’s still our bestseller and has been for years. It’s a small pendant that can be engraved with a name, date or word of affirmation. It’s such a tiny piece of metal, but it can hold so much sentimental value for the person wearing it. That’s really the reason I love jewellery so much, and why I built Artefact in the first place, to create pieces that can symbolise something much bigger than themselves.

Photography by Apartment 12.

What makes a piece of jewellery qualify as an heirloom? 

An heirloom is less about how old something is and more about what it means to the person who owns it. A piece can be brand new and still become an heirloom if it holds enough meaning. Maybe it marks a particular moment in someone’s life, was given to them by someone they love, or eventually gets passed down to their children. That sentimental value is what gives jewellery its longevity.

Tell me a little about how the business currently operates. 

We have a store and studio in Cooks Hill, Newcastle, in an old black terrace. The store is on the bottom level and our studio and workshop are upstairs, everything is handmade in-house using recycled precious metals. We also have a piercing room, where our piercer, Tally, performs piercings using the jewellery we make upstairs. It’s really lovely having the whole process happen under one roof.

The team is quite small and everyone plays a really important role. We have Alana in retail, Lulu working on jewellery manufacturing, and Olivia and Sarah looking after marketing. I tend to juggle a little bit of everything.

I really like that we’re able to keep the business quite hands-on and connected to the making process. Even as Artefact has grown, that part has always been really important to me.

In a culture increasingly dominated by trends, what does it mean to make something that’s deliberately unrepeatable?

I think it’s about slowing down and making something that doesn’t need to be replaced. There’s something really special about knowing that no one else has exactly the same piece as you. It becomes yours in a very personal way, and over time it starts to carry your own history with it.

I think jewellery should have a life beyond a trend. It should be something you keep, wear, mark, scratch, love and eventually pass on. Making something deliberately unrepeatable feels like a small way of pushing back against the idea that everything needs to be new, perfect and available to everyone.

Explore Artefact’s one-of-one collection here.