Autumn is here and after the long hot summer we’ve had in the UK, I feel ready for it. To me this is the first week that has felt properly autumnal. The darker evenings, the coolness in the air and the colourful leaves that have already started to fall to the ground. With that in mind, I’m excited to have launched my Autumn Leaves collection today and I thought it would be fun to share some my design process with you.

I think autumn might be my favourite season. Maybe it has something to do with being born in October, but I just find myself drawn to the beautiful rich colours and I love the cosiness of it all. I’m probably at my happiest snuggled in front of the fire with a cosy blanket surrounded by flickering candles. Last year I enjoyed lots of lovely Autumn walks with Ted, collecting colourful leaves, acorns and conkers.

After some very rough sketches I decided that I wanted to expand on my current autumn designs and create a new collection. I found the warm tones and organic shapes of the leaves so inspiring that I decided to focus on these for my new designs. Before long my desk looked like the forest floor and was covered in wooden leaves of all different shapes, sizes and colours. It’s from here that I start to get a feel for which designs I should focus my attention on and which aren’t working.

Once I’m happy with the jewellery designs it’s time to play with colours. I find that choosing the right colours for a design is so important and can take a considerable amount of time, sometimes longer than creating the design itself. I always have specific colours in mind while I’m designing a piece but they often don’t look how I hoped they would when put into practice. I’ve learnt to be adaptable when it comes to this part of the process and to be honest it’s probably the bit I love doing the most!

I have individually mixed all of the colours for my Autumn Leaves collection, taking reference from the leaves I collected on walks to create this beautiful autumn palette.

And here are the finished designs! I’m pleased to say that the Autumn Leaves collection is available now from my shop, I hope you like it.

Layla x