Ruby Taglight

Ruby Taglight began her career studying fine art at the Glasgow School of Art, creating life-sized, heavily adorned sculptures. She subsequently moved to New York to earn a graduate gemmologist diploma from the Gemmological Institute of America. Ruby began her self-taught journey into jewellery by taking short courses at the London Jewellery School and Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School, Florence. Alongside her studies, Ruby worked for Pippa Small Jewellery in sales and wholesale, where she was introduced to the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, who recently invited her to teach a summer programme on jewellery design, over Zoom, to students in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Now, based in her West London workshop, she hand-carves her pieces out of wax, casting them in recycled precious metals, and signing them with a lab-grown ruby. She has exhibited her work in multiple exhibitions across London, and was selected for Getting Started Spotlighting, by the Goldsmiths’ Centre in 2021.

Ruby Taglight’s Untitled Collection celebrates overlooked snippets of history. Featuring mythical beasts that curl over the body, this work takes inspiration from the side-lines of our past - the borders of medieval manuscripts, the ornate ceilings of religious buildings, the edges of paintings. In these spaces there exist creatures that function within the realms of decoration. Untitled considers what happens when they are taken out of this context and placed on the body.

The process of hand-carving each piece out of wax, mirrors the repetitiveness that is characteristic of the handling and retelling of these stories. The act of casting wax forms into precious metal solidifies and gives the creatures a physical reinterpretation. Adorned with brightly coloured gemstones, the pieces are tangible; the textures and details should be explored as though one were studying a religious space or historic object. Each piece tells a story.