How a Boy From East London Became One of the UK's Most In-Demand Engagement Ring Designers

I'm Karl Karter.

I grew up in East London, left school at 15 and somehow found my way into the jewellery trade.

More than 30 years later, I'm still here.

I'm a goldsmith, jewellery designer and maker specialising in bespoke engagement rings and contemporary fine jewellery, working from my studio in Hatton Garden, London.

There wasn't really a grand plan to get here.

One thing just seemed to lead to another.

From East London to the Jewellery Bench

My first job was on Walthamstow Market.

I was 15 years old and working as an apprentice, making and repairing jewellery.

It wasn't glamorous.

But it was the beginning.

I learned the fundamentals of working with metal and, more importantly, started understanding that jewellery wasn't simply something you bought in a shop.

Somebody had to make it.

After that I moved to another jewellery company producing mass-market jewellery, including pieces for Argos.

It was a job.

But thankfully, my career was about to take a very different direction.

The Longest Jewellery Apprenticeship in History

I eventually found myself working for a master jeweller in Hatton Garden.

And I stayed for 11 years.

Possibly the longest apprenticeship in history.

I swept the floor.

I made the tea.

In fact, I think I was still sweeping the floor and making the tea on the day I left.

But I was learning.

Constantly.

This was proper traditional jewellery making.

I learned how to hand fabricate fine jewellery, how to construct settings, how to work with platinum and gold and how to turn an idea into something that could actually be worn.

We produced all kinds of high-end jewellery, but a lot of the work had a strong modern Art Deco influence.

Geometry.

Symmetry.

Strong architectural lines.

Diamonds integrated into the structure rather than simply stuck on top of it.

Looking back at my work today, that period clearly left a lasting impression on me.

My jewellery has become more abstract and contemporary over the years, influenced by everything from modernism and brutalist architecture to sculpture and Japanese design.

But underneath it, you can still find Art Deco.

It's part of my jewellery DNA.

Learning Jewellery the Old-Fashioned Way

I was lucky.

I entered the jewellery industry at a time when you could still learn by standing next to people who had spent their entire lives at the bench.

You watched.

You listened.

You got things wrong.

You did them again.

Eventually somebody trusted you with something expensive.

Then something more expensive.

There wasn't a YouTube tutorial for everything.

You learned from craftspeople.

And knowledge was passed from one pair of hands to another.

That traditional Hatton Garden apprenticeship gave me something I still rely on every day.

An understanding of how jewellery actually works.

Not just how to draw it.

Not just how to sell it.

How to make it.

Getting the Call From Graff

Eventually my work caught the attention of Graff, and I was headhunted to work for them in Mayfair.

For a young goldsmith, this was an extraordinary opportunity.

Graff sits at the very top end of the international jewellery world, working with some of the most important diamonds and gemstones imaginable.

I did a relatively short stint there.

But it was important.

Because rather than convincing me that I wanted a career inside a major jewellery house, it made me realise something else.

I wanted to do this for myself.

I Wanted Creative Control

I've always had quite strong opinions about design.

What looks right.

What doesn't.

What proportion works.

What doesn't.

What should be there.

And probably more importantly, what should be removed.

Working for other people taught me an enormous amount, but eventually I wanted control over what I was making.

I didn't just want to execute somebody else's design beautifully.

I wanted the design to be mine.

So I set up my own jewellery studio in Hatton Garden, London.

Starting My Own Hatton Garden Jewellery Workshop

In the beginning, much of my work was for the jewellery trade.

Retailers and designers would come to me with pieces they needed fabricated, and I'd make them.

It was a fairly traditional way for an independent Hatton Garden goldsmith to build a business.

Quietly.

Behind the scenes.

No big marketing campaign.

No personal brand.

Certainly no TikTok.

Just work.

Alongside the trade work, I gradually started building my own group of private bespoke clients.

One ring became another.

One client recommended a friend.

That friend came back for wedding rings.

Then somebody wanted a necklace.

Then an anniversary piece.

And things naturally grew.

I've Never Been Much of a Salesman

I've always believed that your work should speak for itself.

Perhaps that's slightly old-fashioned.

I've certainly never considered myself a salesman.

If anything, I'm probably quite bad at selling.

If I don't like something, I'll tell you.

If I think you're spending money unnecessarily, I'll tell you.

If I think a diamond isn't right, I'll tell you.

If I think your idea isn't going to work, I'll tell you that too.

Sometimes quite enthusiastically.

But I think clients responded to that.

There was no hard sell.

We were sitting in a workshop talking about jewellery.

I wasn't particularly interested in selling somebody the most expensive thing I could.

I wanted to make something I could be proud of as well as the client.

That's still how I work today.

The Jewellery Has to Satisfy Me Too

This might sound slightly selfish, but I think I make jewellery partly for my own pleasure.

Maybe more than partly.

Hehe.

Obviously, the client has to love it.

They're paying for it.

That seems fair.

But I have to like it too.

I don't enjoy simply reproducing whatever happens to be fashionable.

I'm interested in proportion, architecture, negative space, unusual stones and finding different ways of constructing jewellery.

If something leaves my workshop with my name attached to it, I want to feel something about it.

That philosophy gradually attracted clients who wanted the same thing.

Not simply an engagement ring.

Their engagement ring.

From Trade Goldsmith to Bespoke Jewellery Designer

As the private side of the business grew through word of mouth, I gradually reduced the amount of trade work I was doing.

I became more serious about my own designs.

I improved the website.

Expanded my collections.

Created more original pieces.

And eventually the balance completely shifted.

Instead of primarily making jewellery for other designers and retailers, I was making my own work for my own clients.

That was where I'd always wanted to end up.

Opening My Own Jewellery Shop

In 2009, I opened my own jewellery shop.

For somebody who started at 15 making and repairing jewellery on Walthamstow Market, having my own shop felt like a fairly significant moment.

The business continued to grow.

More clients.

More commissions.

More designs.

More staff.

More responsibility.

And for a while, growth seemed like the obvious objective.

That's what businesses are supposed to do, isn't it?

Keep getting bigger.

Except eventually I realised I didn't particularly want that.

Becoming a Father Changed Things

Once my wife and I had children, my priorities began to change.

We moved away from London to be closer to nature and create a different lifestyle for our family.

I was still working in London, but increasingly I began to question what I actually wanted the business to become.

Did I want more shops?

More employees?

More management?

More meetings?

Or did I want to make jewellery?

The answer was fairly obvious.

I wanted to make jewellery.

Why I Closed My Shop

In 2024, I closed the retail shop.

Not because I wanted to leave jewellery.

Almost the opposite.

I wanted to get closer to it again.

I didn't want to spend my life managing a large team of people or running a traditional retail operation.

I wanted fewer distractions.

More time designing.

More time making.

More time thinking.

And, importantly, more time for my family and the life we'd created outside London.

So I deliberately made things smaller.

And I think the work has become better because of it.

Back to the Workshop

My workshop is still in Leather Lane, Hatton Garden, where I work with a fantastic small team of experienced jewellers.

But we now see clients by appointment only.

I generally spend four days a week in London, meeting clients, working on pieces and developing commissions with the team.

When I'm at home, I design.

That separation has become incredibly important to me.

London gives me the energy, clients, craftsmen and history of Hatton Garden.

Home gives me quiet.

I need both.

Designing in Quiet

I've become increasingly interested in the idea of quiet focus.

Jewellery making is slow.

Good design can be even slower.

Sometimes I need to sit with an idea.

Draw it.

Leave it.

Come back to it.

Reduce it.

Take something away.

Change the proportion by a millimetre.

Then change it back again.

Some of my jewellery is influenced by architecture.

Some by sculpture.

Some by modernism, Art Deco or brutalism.

Some ideas come from Japanese woodworking, gardens or construction.

Sometimes I just see a shape and can't stop thinking about it.

Working away from the noise of London gives me room to explore those ideas without constantly thinking about what needs to sell tomorrow.

Why I Still Work in Hatton Garden

Hatton Garden has changed enormously since I first arrived.

The jewellery industry has changed too.

CAD.

3D printing.

Lab-grown diamonds.

Social media.

Online retail.

AI.

Everything moves faster.

But I still think there's enormous value in having a real jewellery workshop in Hatton Garden.

There is knowledge there that can't easily be replicated.

Setters.

Mounters.

Polishers.

Engravers.

Stone dealers.

Diamond experts.

People who have spent decades becoming exceptionally good at one very specific thing.

That ecosystem is incredibly valuable to me.

I'm a modern jewellery designer, but my work is still connected to a very old tradition of specialist craftsmanship.

Handmade Jewellery in a Digital World

I'm not against technology.

I use it.

There are things modern technology does brilliantly.

But I'm still a goldsmith.

My understanding of jewellery starts with my hands.

That affects the way I design.

I understand what metal wants to do.

I understand where something needs strength.

I understand how a setting is constructed.

I understand what happens when something goes wrong.

And I think that allows me to design differently.

I'm not creating an image of a ring.

I'm creating an object.

Something that has to exist in three dimensions, hold valuable stones and survive being worn for decades.

Why My Engagement Rings Look Different

I've never been particularly interested in creating the same ring everybody else is making.

There are enough jewellers doing that already.

My engagement rings tend to be more architectural.

Geometric.

Minimal.

Sometimes brutalist.

Sometimes Art Deco.

Sometimes deliberately strange.

You'll see knife-edge bands, unusual bezel settings, negative space, unconventional stone combinations and geometric structures running throughout the work.

I'm interested in deconstructing familiar ideas and putting them back together differently.

It's probably why clients come to me.

If you want exactly the same engagement ring as everybody else, I'm probably not your jeweller.

And that's absolutely fine.

From Walthamstow Market to Bespoke Engagement Rings

Sometimes I think about that 15-year-old kid on Walthamstow Market.

I don't think he had any idea where this would lead.

From there to a master jeweller in Hatton Garden.

Eleven years at the bench.

Graff.

My own workshop.

My own shop.

Closing the shop.

Then deliberately returning to a smaller, quieter studio where I could concentrate on the work again.

It's not exactly the conventional business-growth story.

But I like it that way.

I've never really been interested in building the biggest jewellery company.

I've been interested in becoming a better jeweller.

More than 30 years later, I still feel like I'm learning.

I still find things I want to try.

I still see jewellery that makes me rethink something.

I still make pieces that lead to completely new ideas.

And I still get excited when an unusual diamond lands on my bench.

That's probably why I'm still doing it.

Working With Me

Today, I specialise in bespoke engagement rings, contemporary fine jewellery and one-off commissions, working from my appointment-only studio in Hatton Garden.

There are no layers of salespeople between the client and the people responsible for the jewellery.

You come into the workshop.

We talk.

We look at stones.

We draw.

We disagree occasionally.

We change things.

And eventually we make something.

I've always believed:

Why go to a salesman when you can work directly with a craftsman, designer or artisan?

After more than three decades in jewellery, that's still the kind of business I want.

Small.

Independent.

Personal.

A little obsessive.

And focused on making things we're proud of.

Because, if I'm completely truthful, I still make jewellery partly for myself.

You just get to wear it.

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Karl Karter: From East London Apprentice to Bespoke Jewellery Designer

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Discover Karl Karter's journey from a 15-year-old East London jewellery apprentice to an experienced Hatton Garden goldsmith creating distinctive bespoke engagement rings and contemporary fine jewellery.