'My Morning Cup of...' with Laila Smith

Laila Smith is a Brighton based jeweller. She designs and makes simple, elegant jewellery using geometric forms that are crisp and beautifully crafted and currently almost obsessively inspired by with geometry. After graduation in 1996 Laila took a place on a jewellery fellowship in the The Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham and this amazing start to her career opened her practice to all the professional possibilities and working methods that she has utilised throughout her career to date. You can view Laila's work here

What drink do you have to start the day? 

Cup of tea

What are your studio essentials? 

Lots of tea and my trusty hand tools

What do you listen to whilst you work? 

Radio 4

What has been the most influential advice someone has given you? 

Try to always say yes to things. I once turned down making a range of work for a channel 4 sitcom because I had just graduated and had no studio to work from, luckily a friend lent me some bench space (same friend who urged me to always say yes) so I could say yes to the producers. Secondly, always get a business card... I then spent an age running around trying to track down the contact again (pre internet) as I hadn't taken their business card. Luckily it all worked out in the end! 

What was the last thing you saw that inspired you? 

Rachel Whiteread at Tate Britain.

What are you looking forward to in 2018?

Making new pieces that I've been thinking about for months, now is the time to get the ideas out! 

View Laila's work here