Where Is Karl Karter Jewellery Made?

I often talk about design, inspiration and the ideas behind Karl Karter Jewellery, but I don't talk nearly enough about where the pieces are actually made.

So I thought I should.

Every piece of Karl Karter Jewellery is made here in London, in my workshop in Hatton Garden, the historic heart of London's jewellery trade.

The workshop is London Rocks Jewellery, another jewellery business I founded and a place that has been a huge part of my life as a jeweller.

Although Karl Karter Jewellery and London Rocks Jewellery are very different brands, behind the scenes they share the same workshop, the same craftspeople and, most importantly, the same belief in making jewellery properly.

Two Brands, Two Different Identities

People occasionally get confused about the relationship between Karl Karter Jewellery and London Rocks, which is understandable because, visually, the two brands are very different.

And that's intentional.

Karl Karter Jewellery is my creative outlet.

It's where I explore the things that interest me as a designer — Brutalism, architecture, geometry, unconventional stone arrangements, texture and unusual construction.

The jewellery is contemporary, minimal and sometimes deliberately challenging.

I'm not particularly interested in designing jewellery that looks like everything else.

I want Karl Karter pieces to have their own identity.

London Rocks Jewellery has a different purpose.

It's our bespoke jewellery workshop in Hatton Garden, specialising in engagement rings, wedding rings and completely bespoke pieces.

London Rocks is where clients can come directly to the workshop and work with the people who are actually going to make their jewellery.

But it's also where all Karl Karter Jewellery is made.

The Workshop Behind Karl Karter Jewellery

I've been a jeweller for more than 30 years.

My background isn't primarily in jewellery retail or marketing. It's at the bench.

I'm a goldsmith, diamond and gemstone setter and engraver, and I've spent most of my working life making jewellery.

That experience has shaped the way I design.

I find it difficult to separate designing something from understanding how it will actually be made.

When I'm drawing a ring, I'm already thinking about how the metal will behave, how the stone will be set, how the piece will be assembled and how it will feel when someone wears it.

That's one of the reasons having my own jewellery workshop in Hatton Garden is so important to me.

The distance between an idea and the finished piece is incredibly short.

I can sketch something, walk over to the bench and start working out how we're going to make it.

Made in Hatton Garden, London

There's also something important to me about making the jewellery here.

Hatton Garden has been the centre of London's jewellery trade for generations.

Goldsmiths, diamond mounters, setters, engravers, polishers, stone dealers and diamond merchants have all worked within this small part of London.

Those traditional skills are a huge part of my background.

Karl Karter Jewellery might look very contemporary, but underneath it you'll find many of the same jewellery-making techniques that have been practised in workshops like ours for generations.

Goldsmithing.

Diamond mounting.

Stone setting.

Engraving.

Polishing.

Finishing.

These are physical skills learned through repetition and experience.

There are no shortcuts to becoming good at them.

London Rocks Jewellery

London Rocks has become something quite interesting in its own right.

On one side, we're a bespoke jeweller in Hatton Garden, working directly with private clients to create engagement rings, wedding rings and one-off pieces of jewellery.

Someone can walk into the workshop with an idea and we can help develop it, source the diamonds or gemstones and then make the finished piece here in London.

But there's another side to London Rocks that most people never see.

We also work behind the scenes with other jewellery designers and brands.

Over the years we've helped brands develop ideas, solve manufacturing problems, prototype designs and ultimately manufacture their jewellery.

Sometimes we are making very traditional jewellery.

Sometimes we're making something completely experimental.

That's one of the things I love about the workshop.

We're not tied to one particular style.

We're jewellery makers.

If you're interested in bespoke jewellery, engagement rings or jewellery manufacturing, you can discover more about my workshop at London Rocks Jewellery.

Why I Still Believe in Making Things

The jewellery industry has changed enormously during my career.

Technology has transformed how jewellery is designed and manufactured, and I use modern technology myself where it makes sense.

But I've never lost my fascination with actually making things.

There's something very different about understanding an object through your hands.

When you've spent years filing metal, soldering, setting diamonds, engraving and polishing, you develop an instinct for proportions and construction that is difficult to learn any other way.

I think you can see that influence in Karl Karter Jewellery.

Even when a design is very minimal, there is usually a lot happening in the construction.

A knife-edge band.

An unusual bezel.

A deliberately awkward angle.

A stone positioned somewhere you wouldn't normally expect it.

Those details come from understanding jewellery as an object rather than simply as an image.

From My Sketchbook to the Bench

One of my favourite things about having the workshop is being able to experiment.

Not every idea begins as a finished design.

Sometimes I'll have a rough sketch.

Sometimes it's a particular diamond or gemstone.

Sometimes it's a shape I've seen in a building, a piece of sculpture or architecture.

And sometimes I simply start making.

Having experienced goldsmiths and setters around me means those ideas can evolve naturally.

Something might change because of the way the metal behaves.

A setting might become thinner.

A stone might move.

A construction detail might suddenly become the most interesting part of the piece.

For me, that's design.

It's not always a perfectly straight journey from drawing to finished object.

Traditional Craft. Modern Jewellery.

That's probably the easiest way to explain the relationship between my two jewellery brands.

London Rocks Jewellery is the workshop.

It's where we practise the traditional skills I've spent more than 30 years learning: goldsmithing, diamond mounting, gemstone setting, engraving and jewellery manufacture.

Karl Karter Jewellery is where I push those skills creatively.

It's where I can take everything I've learned from traditional jewellery making and use it to create something much more contemporary.

The two brands don't need to look the same.

In fact, I don't want them to.

But they come from exactly the same place.

So, Where Is Karl Karter Jewellery Made?

Right here.

In our Hatton Garden jewellery workshop in London.

By jewellers.

At jewellery benches.

Alongside the bespoke engagement rings, one-off commissions and pieces we're developing for other jewellery brands.

I like that.

Karl Karter Jewellery is a modern jewellery brand, but behind it is a very traditional way of working.

Thirty years of making jewellery has taught me that ideas are important.

But knowing how to turn those ideas into something real is just as important.

And that's exactly what we do every day at London Rocks Jewellery.

— Karl Karter

Founder & Designer, Karl Karter Jewellery
Founder, London Rocks Jewellery

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Where Is Karl Karter Jewellery Made? | Our Hatton Garden London Workshop

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Karl Karter explains where his contemporary jewellery is made and introduces London Rocks Jewellery, his bespoke jewellery and manufacturing workshop in Hatton Garden, London.

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