Margaret Macdonald worked with her husband on creating the famous Willow Tea Rooms in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
9ct yellow gold Red rose Earrings, Supplied with a lovely new Ola Gorie presentation gift box. Dimensions: Around - 13 mm hallmarked in Edinburgh 375. silver version may still be listed in my eBay shop. RRP usually around £598.00
Matching earrings also listed in my eBay shop locket section of my eBay shop. The last 13 pictures are not part of this listing.
Ola Gorie is one of Britain’s most important jewellery designers of recent times. A pioneer in the 1960s, she explored her Celtic and Norse heritage to find inspiration for stylish, wearable, modern jewellery. Her designs have continued to break new ground, and influence a generation of designers.
Ola returned to Orkney from art college in 1960 with a dream of doing something new: drawing on her native islands for inspiration in the field of jewellery design. Her early pieces quickly gained approval at home and abroad, and her name became synonymous with stylish, finely crafted jewellery. She was awarded an MBE in 1999 in recognition of her work both as a designer and as a founder of the modern jewellery industry. This honour was welcomed by the many loyal customers and collectors of Ola Gorie’s jewellery around the world, as fitting recognition for the long-standing quality of her designs.
Ola Gorie frequently appears in judges’ lists for prestigious awards such as the Scottish Gift of the Year and the Kayman Award. In 2001 we were invited by the World Gold Council to participate in a global touring exhibition, ‘Evocative Gold’ – A New Renaissance’. One of our brooches was selected by the Goldsmiths Company for inclusion in the prestigious ’Celebration in Gold and Silver’ exhibition for the Queen’s Jubilee in 2002.
Ola Gorie is based in the medieval heart of Kirkwall, the Orkney Islands’ capital (pop. 9,000.) The sea is a few hundred yards away, and its sound and salty tang are with us every day, even in the centre of this bustling market town. Our family business is located on the town’s main street, in the shadow of the magnificent sandstone St Magnus Cathedral, built from 1137 by Orkney’s Norse rulers. We haven’t been here quite as long as that – ‘only’ since 1859! For much of that time the family operated as a grocer’s and wine merchant (which latter trade we still carry on to this day) but since 1960 there has also been superlative jewellery.
Now, of course, Orkney is part of Scotland – part of Europe – and we are inspired by design and fashion trends from far beyond our shores. We continue to draw inspiration from the rich mix of Norse and Celtic history and culture that surrounds us. But we also feel that our island traditions of international trade and travel make us uniquely placed to blend the most exciting fashion developments from around the world with our solid base in craftsmanship and British-made quality.
Quite often we have to explain to customers or to fans of Ola Gorie that the Celtic arts and crafts products, which we now see around us in so many different guises, were not always there. We pass on what Ola (and other pioneers of modern Scottish craft) have often said: as recently as the mid sixties, there was very little quality craft being produced in Scotland, on anything but the smallest, most locally-available scale.