Alyssa Norton

Alyssa Norton originally trained as a painter and then decided to go on studying jewellery at the Institute of D'Allende in Mexico. She established her eponymous label in 2004, refining the minimalist forms she created in the beginning towards an experimental approach with contrasting materials.

A typical characteristic of Alyssa Norton's work is the abandonment of traditional closures in favour of inventive wrapping and tying techniques, which add a unique versatility to each piece, as it can be worn as necklace, bracelet, belt or hair piece.

After studying Fine Art and starting out as a painter, Alyssa decided to go into jewellery design. At the graduate school she attended in Mexico, she took jewellery design as a side class and soon realized she could transfer some of her painting and collage techniques to the making of jewellery. The use of lots of materials became a focus, making the step from painting into jewellery organic and graceful.

Alyssa, who was born in Chicago and is now based in New York, names New York and the streetwear in the city as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art as unlimited sources of inspiration. By putting together contrasting materials like brass and soft silk and mixing the high with the low, she creates an unexpected look.

"I really like the relationship between the chain and the braid and the way that it feels - there's movement. Brass is really great because it has a nice weight to it. It's always been linked to the formal aspects I would pay attention to whilst painting; the weight, texture, colour and shapes.", she says. "I love the really subtle surprises that you get, where you can't tell what something is, whether it's a chip or a bit of paint on it or it's just oxidized chain."

For her collections, Alyssa keeps a lot of her styles and just shift them a little or change the colour, as everything is about colour and mood. She starts looking at techniques that have been successful and tries to move them forward. "As inspiration for my Autumn/Winter 2011 collection I've been looking a lot at Tibetan armour because the way they connect these plates is really amazing. I was also looking at Josef Albers and Birds of Paradise. It's a really colourful collection so I was looking at different ways of combining colours and some of his colour studies are really nice."

Feature by Lilli Heinemann
Photography by Michael James Fox