Solid-gold Maria makes her mark in silverwork

City Lives –  Bernie Ní Fhlatharta meets Maria Dorai-Raj, a fast-rising figure in the jewellery world

Contemporary jewellery is currently enjoying a huge revival, especially big, bold pieces – just the sort of designs favoured by Galway jeweller, Maria Dorai-Raj.

For the next month, Maria’s pieces will be showcased in Create, the annual celebration of Irish innovation and design at Brown Thomas on Grafton Street, Dublin.

This is her second year in a row taking part in Create and she is delighted to have been invited, believing it is a huge benefit to Irish designers, especially those starting out.

Maria, who is from Salthill but now lives in Dublin, has been making jewellery since she was a child – she remembers using beads to create bracelets, then selling them to her classmates in the Jes!

“I have always liked working with my hands. I find making the jewellery is very tactile. I work mostly with silver, but gold plate some pieces, using 9 carat gold,” she explains.

Maria works part-time in a Dublin jewellers, Stone Chat in the Westbury Shopping Mall, which makes and sells its own jewellery. Maria gets to sell some of her pieces there as well.

Her craft came to light on the national scene over a year ago and she appreciates that craftspeople like her take the slow route to success because of the way they work. She actually launched her label, dorai two years ago. She hand-makes every single piece from her own designs and says many of her original designs get tweaked along the way.

“I am inspired by things around me – one of my ranges is inspired by anatomy – but often a piece turns out differently to the way I had seen it in my mind first. . . it can even change from the design on paper!” Her ‘anatomy’ range, called Plexus, is beautifully crafted. Like all her ranges, it includes rings, ear rings, necklaces, cuffs (wide solid bands which she prefers to bracelets) and pendants.

She has also been inspired by the iconic geometric paintings of Dutch artist, Piet Mondrian, but she really fell in love with jewellery while studying at the Alchmia School of Contemporary Jewellery in Florence, Italy,  where she learned the craft of goldsmithing. She loved every minute of her time in Florence, not only the city itself, but the way art and crafts were taught in the college. It was an intimate course, where not only were her skills honed but her mind was opened up to giving her craft a lot more thought.

Maria’s degree in ceramic design (from Limerick), alongside her goldsmithing and a background in high fashion all add up to a very impressive artistic CV. She also did a week-long course in jewellery design in London, as she was intent on acquiring as many skills as possible.

“A millimetre in jewellery is a mile. You have to be so specific. It is delicate work but I have transferred a lot of my ceramic skills to my jewellery making.”

Her pieces are first carved in wax, and then cast in silver in her cases (gold-plating some pieces in 9 carat gold).

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.