Canadian craftspeople are sculpting waves of change and resilience [Video]

There is a serene, genuine pulse of creativity that flows through Emily Gill’s jewelry. Copper enamel flower brooches bloom with patterns like delicate seafoam. Silvery scallop motifs ripple through art deco rings. Textures, shapes, and aquatic coloured gemstones capture the soothing, breezy stillness of the seaside, a place that shaped her work during her time at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2006 to 2009.

Gill, an in-house designer at Made You Look Jewelry in Toronto and proprietor of EG Bespoke Limited, is one of Canada’s independent craft artists whose work is anchored in individuality and local identity, defying the tides of mass production and trends. In her pieces, the use of turquoise enamel and silver, coupled with flowing forms and textured surfaces, mimics the motion of crashing waves and seaside nostalgia, reflecting the ocean’s influence on her artistic process.

“The ocean has been very important for …