Lane Crawford: How did you become a jeweller?

Shaun Leane: At 14, a careers advisor suggested I take a foundation course in jewellery design and manufacture and I loved it. I then did a seven-year apprenticeship at a company called English Traditional Jewellery in Hatton Garden. The two masters there [Brian Joslin and Richard Bullock] became father figures. I worked for them for 13 years. We were a very traditional workshop, and created fine jewellery for Asprey, Garrard, the Sultan of Brunei, and the Royal Family. It was a dream come true.

LC: What was it like to work for traditional craftsmen?

SL: I wasn’t allowed to talk. You don’t talk, you learn. It was really old fashioned. Like art, you concentrate on a piece and set yourself a target and a time limit. I was fast, intricate and detailed and, within the first year, I was designing with gold. I wasn’t meant to be touching gold until the third year in.

LC: What are your personal favourite pieces of jewellery?

SL: I wear a scapular necklace. At one end, there’s a guardian angel and the other, the sacred heart of Christ. Someone, who I spiritually connected with a long time ago, gave me this and said, “This will guide you.” I can’t take it off. I also have this pendant of St. Christopher, from somebody else whom I cared and loved. And, my business partner Ben Rowe made me this red enamel necklace. It has an eagle, which is my family crest, and a sentence from a Tennyson poem about the eagle that owns the skies. It is really special because no one has ever made me jewellery, so I wear it everyday.

LC: How do you feel about design in the 21st century?

SL: Technology moves so fast that we forget about romance in design. We forget about love letters. There’s no writing involved anymore, so I write to my family — in italics as well. So, I’ve created collections are romantic and paint sincerity and sentiment. For example, like the Victorians would put a lock of hair from a loved one inside a pendant, I create enamelled hearts with a glass door on the back. You just look at it, and imagine. My mother has one with a lock of my hair in it. It’s really sweet and I think we’re forgetting about those connections that we shouldn’t.

LC: Which period in history is the most formative for you as a designer?

SL: I love the 1920s and especially the designs that houses like Lalique were producing. I also love the drastic change in eras from Victorian and Edwardian to Art Deco, which was so dramatic, powerful and inspiring.

LC: If you were to create one ultimate piece of jewellery, what would it be?

SL: I would really love to create a beautiful modern sculpture piece that would somehow transform into some fantastical element that is jewellery.

Shaune Leane fine jewellery is available from Lane Crawford ifc mall in Hong Kong.