Bermudian jeweller Melanie Eddy’s latest collection was inspired by tragedy. In 2003, her uncle Alan Edness, and a fishing buddy, Micah Battersbee, were killed in a boating accident. “My uncle was taken by a rogue wave,” Ms Eddy said. “I have always loved the ocean, but when my uncle was lost, it challenged my relationship with the ocean. I had to reconcile that.“

On the 20th anniversary of Mr Edness’s death, Ms Eddy was in North Carolina doing a two-week art residency at Penland School of Craft.

“I wanted the collection to be about the ocean and the currents around Bermuda,” she said.

The residency gave her the time and space to work out what she wanted to do. However, it was a sad time because her grandmother had recently fallen and was admitted to hospital.

“It made me realise how much I loved my uncle and my grandmother,” she said. “I was thinking about them as I was working on the jewellery.”

Her grandmother passed away in January, 2023, at age 108, not long after the residency ended.

“I guess we should have been prepared given her age, but it still took us by surprise,” Ms Eddy said. “The Breakers was birthed out of grief, but also love.”

Ms Eddy has been in London for two decades, but local art lovers can see work from The Breakers and other her other collections, in Meditations on Form: Jewellery by Melanie Eddy, a solo show on now at the Bermuda National Gallery.

“This is my first solo show,” she said. “I had been thinking about doing one for some time. Then the opportunity at the BNG presented itself. When it became clear that they were interested in affording me enough space to do something like a solo exhibition, I became quite excited. It also felt right to do my first solo show in Bermuda.”

She will be giving a talk about her work tomorrow at the BNG. There will be a reception at 5.30pm, before the discussion begins at 6pm.

Her Bermudian family and heritage is present in everything she does. Years ago, she started researching medieval jewellery and architecture to help her find her own style. She was intrigued by mention of templates used to create building features such as arches.

“The minute I read that I recognised that we had templates around the house that my family had used for cutting stone,” she said. “That was what gave me the idea to use a system to create the forms for my jewellery.”

Her family worked a stone quarry near her home on Billy Goat Hill in Warwick. Her grandfather, Arnold J Edness was a builder and carpenter. Together, he and his wife laid the stone for her uncle Alan’s home.

“My grandfather died before I was born, but in our garage, we used to have three big saws used to cut stone,” she said.

The shape of the limestone blocks from the quarry has influenced her geometric, multifaceted bangles, bracelets, earrings and rings.

The bangles she makes are inspired by Mrs Edness, who never went anywhere without several on her arm.

“When I went away to university, she took one off and gave it to me,” Ms Eddy said.

Ms Eddy’s work was included in two exhibitions at Sotheby’s (New York and London), and she was featured in Vogue magazine.

Four years ago, she received a message from the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington, expressing interest in her work. Her first reaction was disbelief.

“I thought, am I reading this right?” she said. “I thought are they really interested in acquiring a piece of mine?”

The prestigious museum was indeed curious. However, it was the spring of 2020, and the pandemic put a massive spanner in things. Because many museum employees were on furlough, the project was paused. Ms Eddy was not able to meet with curators until the spring of 2021.

She eventually took samples of her work to staff at the V & A, who purchased several of her rings, and also commissioned one.

“That was really exciting,” Ms Eddy said.

The V&A requested that the Platinum Jubilee mark be included on the bespoke piece. The special symbol commemorating Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne, could only be used from November 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022.

Ms Eddy was in North Carolina, dealing with the death of her grandmother, when her rings went on display at the V&A.

“It was hard to process because of everything that was going on,” she said. “I had been waiting to tell her.”

Mrs Edness had a great appreciation for the arts, and loved sewing and knitting. Ms Eddy was able to tell her about being commissioned by another high-profile client, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmith’s in London.

“They are a livery company that has been around since the 1300s,” Ms Eddy explained. “They were a guild for goldsmithing and silversmithing.”

In 2020, the organisation asked to visit her studio. It was only later that she learnt that they wanted pieces for their permanent collection, specifically for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

“Sometimes they will just purchase a piece outright, but they were interested in a commission process,” she said. “That made it really fun because then I could present them with ideas that they could pick from.”

She maintains a studio in The Goldsmiths’ Centre in Clerkenwell, London, but lives in Northampton, Northamptonshire. Each day, she either commutes to the studio, or to Birmingham, where she has just started teaching at the School of Jewellery. Previously, she taught at Central St Martins in London.

• Meditations on Form: Jewellery by Melanie Eddy runs at the BNG at City Hall in Hamilton until next May. Admission is free and made possible by the Christian Humann Foundation