Meet The Maker: I Am Acrylic

They say small is beautiful and a great example of this are the items made by today’s creatives in our Meet the Maker interview. Yes, we are talking about the bright, cheerful jewellery that is handmade (or handcut, rather) by the equally bright and cheerful duo that is I Am Acrylic. We caught up with Ruth and Brendan recently to find out more…


Hello! Please introduce yourselves and tell us a little something about your work...
Hello! We are Ruth and Brendan and together we make hand-cut jewellery and other stuff mostly made from acrylic!

Ruth: I Am Acrylic started in 2004 when Brendan made me a bird shaped keyring from some acrylic that we found outside our old flat, using the fretsaw that my Dad had lent us for something-or-other. At the time I was working in Magma (a lovely book and gift shop) and the owner suggested we make some to sell and then it just naturally progressed from there to the range of necklaces, brooches, rings and earrings we have today!

We came back to the West Country a year ago having spent 17 years in London, and we now have a little shop and studio space on Christmas Steps in the heart of Bristol.

What do you love most about working in your chosen discipline?
We're constantly learning new ways to work with acrylic, so we're always experimenting, which we both love to do! We're currently trying to combine acrylic with other materials more, and we're also working on a range of non-jewellery items which may or may not ever get beyond the prototyping phase.

We recently found a manual from 1957 about working with acrylic, including some amazing projects and instructions for making all sorts of wonderful things such as swan shaped candy dishes, and grand piano shaped cigarette boxes!

One of the most popular range of jewellery by I Am Acrylic includes their Lily of the Valley brooch, as well as the Clifton Suspension Bridge necklace and blackbird necklace.

What is currently your most popular creation?
Our new Months and Meanings flower brooches have been doing really well, especially the Lily of the Valley which seems to be a lot of people's favourite flower! And our simple little Blackbird designs, which we designed about 6 years ago, have always proved popular which is lovely as we're both really keen on them and love that they are still going strong!

I Am Acrylic's very tidy studio is situated out the back of their shop on Christmas Steps in Bristol.

What are some of your biggest creative influences or inspirations?
We often seem to be influenced by our surroundings. Whether that's a seaside sunset necklace from our holiday in Cornwall, or our Clifton Suspension Bridge necklace as Bristol is where we live!

Tell us about your studio or workspace…
We work at the back of our shop which is a very cute 1800s building on Christmas Steps. We love the history of the area and the building and we like to imagine the people that used the space before us! Two hundred years ago the space was used as a cafe, and then 30 years ago it was a shoemaker, and then more recently the Cider Shop!

We now have two mechanical fretsaws and a pillar drill in the studio space, plus lots of hand tools for finishing off all our jewellery components, which we can often be seen doing at our desk in the shop!

Tools of the trade: I Am Acrylic's sunny studio includes saws, drills and hand tools to make their jewellery, as well as lots of colourful acrylic sheets too, of course!

Take us through your creative process - how do you go about designing a new piece?
It's a fairly random process for us, we never really sit down and decide to design a new collection - designs just come about naturally as we react to things we do or see. Quite often, as mentioned earlier, it can be our surroundings that will trigger an idea, or maybe a nostalgia for something we loved as a child. Our Fuchsia flower range for example - I used to love making earrings from them as a child, and the streets of Bristol were covered with them this summer!

Ruth from I Am Acrylic has progressed from making earrings from real Fuchsia flowers when she was a child, to now where you can buy her more robust and lasting acrylic version instead!

Brendan tends to work quicker than me and will make a prototype version of his ideas almost straight away (like the Clifton Suspension Bridge which he whipped up in one afternoon!). I'll faff around with bits of coloured paper until I'm happy with the shapes and then start working in 3D.
The main challenge for us always is keeping the designs relatively simple so we can actually manage to cut them out identically each time and so that they're not too labour intensive to make! The blackbird necklaces are actually one of the fiddliest things we make, Brendan has to cut out each tiny little beak for a start!

I Am Acrylic's process of making: From cutting out the shapes using a fretsaw, to all the tiny yellow beaks, sanding and joining the pieces to finally make the wonderful little blackbird necklace

What are some of the biggest challenges in your work?
As touched upon above, for us it's a challenge to keep the design simple enough to replicate over and over in the way we work, but keep a level of detail in the designs. We actually love the way that this restriction has forced us to think of other ways of working, such as how we "draw" with the saw, as we have done for the tree trunk of our little tree brooches. This technique was a solution to us constantly trying (and failing) to hand cut very fine detailed pieces to stick on to a background. When we suddenly realised that we could do it the other way round and use the negative shape to give the detail it was a bit of a revelation!

Blooming marvellous: Spring, Summer and Autumn seasonal brooches by I Am Acrylic looking splendid on a denim jacket

Which handmade possession do you most cherish?
Ruth: I recently rediscovered a traditional handheld fan that was handmade by my Mum and Dad. My Dad (who's a retired CDT teacher) hand-cut and then hand-fretted some amazing detail into the wooden slats that make up the framework of the fan. And then my Mum (who was an artist and sports teacher) hand painted some beautiful poppy flowers and ears of wheat onto the paper bit of the fan. I find it really stunning and truly inspirational!

What do you when you are stuck in a creative rut?
Read a book (or just look at the pictures), browse through old sketchbooks and saved bits of paper from old magazines... or get out of the studio completely and visit a museum/gallery/independent shop, go for a walk/cycle, go to a flea market!

We both love to browse at vintage markets or indie makers markets - we love buying bits and bobs to go in our type tray which houses many little treasures, old and new, that have inspired us!

I Am Acrylic's collection of inspiring objects, including: tiny vases, flowers, printing stamps, embroidery, little creatures and more!

Where would you like to be in ten years?
We'd love to still be here on the Christmas Steps selling stuff we've made! We're also hoping to invite a few guest makers to sell some things in the shop next year, so who knows where that could lead! And as we both have a thing for vintage knick-knacks,that could also be another avenue that we explore in the shop. Let's see!

Thanks Ruth and Brendan – we look forward to seeing you on Saturday 1 December at our Made in Bristol Gift Fair at Colston Hall. 

You can also see I Am Acrylic’s pieces featured in our first ever Made in Bristol Designer-Maker Gift Guide.

Photography thanks:
Products by Jo Hounsome Photography.
Studio shots by I Am Acrylic.