ABOUT Guzzardi
Giuseppe Guzzardi – Goldsmith and Jewellery Designer
I’m Giuseppe Guzzardi, an Italian jewellery designer based in London. My work brings together two parts of my life: traditional goldsmithing and digital sculpture developed through years in visual effects.
Through Guzzardi Jewellery, I explore architectural lines, organic forms and intricate textures in silver. I design each piece digitally and finish it by hand in my London workshop, creating jewellery that gives its wearer room for individual expression.
How a piece comes to life:
From an idea to a finished jewel
Each piece begins with an idea, sometimes explored through sketches, sometimes developed directly in digital sculpture. I use 3D modelling tools familiar from my work in visual effects to shape the design and refine its details.
The digital model becomes a physical prototype through 3D printing. I check its proportions, wearability and comfort before moving on to casting. Once cast in silver, each piece returns to the bench, where I finish it by hand.
Digital tools give me freedom to explore complex forms; my experience as a goldsmith helps me turn those forms into jewellery that can be made and worn.
Since the 1980s
Goldsmithing meets digital sculpture
My journey began at a goldsmith’s bench in Rome in the late 1980s. Working directly with metal taught me how a design becomes a physical object: its construction, proportions, finish and how it feels when worn.
Later, my career in visual effects opened another world of possibilities. Through 3D modelling and digital sculpture, I learned to develop forms and details in ways that were very different from working at the bench.
Today, these experiences come together in Guzzardi Jewellery. I bring a goldsmith’s practical understanding to digital design, and a digital artist’s curiosity to working in silver.
Fusion of two worlds...
Bringing these two worlds together lets me explore ideas from the first digital sketch to the final polish. A design may begin with a memory, a natural texture, an architectural detail or an unexpected form.
My aim is to create jewellery with character: pieces that invite a closer look and become part of someone’s own expression. You can discover my existing designs in the collections, or contact me to discuss a bespoke piece.
The same idea - years apart...
I first designed Francy’s Flower in the 1990s. Years later, I returned to the idea using digital sculpting tools, exploring the form with a different level of precision and detail.
Both versions have their own charm. Seeing them together reminds me how tools can change the way an idea takes shape, while the original inspiration remains.
For me, that is one of the most exciting possibilities of combining goldsmithing with digital sculpture: returning to an old idea and discovering what else it can become.
My story: from Sicily to a London workshop
1966 – The beginning
I was born in Siracusa, Sicily, in 1966. One of my childhood memories is of a rubber dinghy my father gave me. On the beach at Fontane Bianche, surrounded by my family, I was already imagining myself as the captain of a pirate ship.
When I was around seven, we moved to mainland Italy. After a brief period in Milan, we settled in Rome, where I grew up.
Drawing was a constant companion. I carried a notebook and sketched whenever I could. After I finished school, a friend noticed that fascination and invited me to join him in his workshop. That was the beginning of my apprenticeship as a goldsmith.
2000 - The digital era
Around 2000, a difficult period in the jewellery market led me to look for new opportunities. I discovered 3D modelling and became absorbed in learning a different way to create. Much of the material was in English, which made the challenge even greater.
That exploration became a career in visual effects. I worked as a 3D modeller for film, taught professional designers in Rome and later took on a role directing a visual effects company.
A brief period working in London in 2009 left a lasting impression. Although I was less convinced by the weather, something kept drawing me back.
Leaving Rome was a difficult decision. Eventually, I boarded a flight to London with an eight-kilogram cabin bag and my computer on my back, ready to begin again.
2017 – an epiphany
After a year in London working for private clients, I began exploring 3D printing. I had spent years creating digital forms, but until then they had remained on a screen.
One afternoon, I used my digital sculpting tools to recreate a ring I had made for my mother years before. That first experiment led to another, then another. Soon I was designing rings and pendants, wondering how to bring them from the screen into someone’s hands.
I spent hours exploring the possibilities in Hatton Garden, London’s jewellery quarter. Having the printing and casting done elsewhere proved expensive, so I began asking myself how much I could do in my own workshop.
I bought my first 3D printer and started turning digital designs into physical pieces. Gradually, the idea of returning to goldsmithing became a practical project.
Then came an unexpected opportunity. The person who had bought my old workshop equipment in Italy had kept it in storage. Just before Christmas in 2020, that equipment arrived in London.
Now I needed somewhere to put it. With help from friends, I built a wooden cabin in the garden and began creating a workshop where my two careers could finally come together.
2022 - Getting Guzzardi on-line
With the workshop built and the equipment prepared, I could begin developing and testing the jewellery collection. Each piece brought together digital design, practical experiments and time at the bench.
The next challenge was the website. I had built websites for other people in the early 2000s, but creating an online shop for my own work felt very different.
I worked on every part of the project: designing the jewellery, making the pieces, building the website and preparing the small garden workshop where it all came together.
Guzzardi grew from that space, one design and one practical step at a time.
2023 – Big things have small beginnings
The photographs here show me building the workshop: a small wooden cabin that became a place to design, experiment and make jewellery.
Creating it was part of the same adventure as creating the collection. There were unfamiliar tasks to learn, practical problems to solve and friends willing to lend a hand.
For me, Guzzardi is the result of bringing those experiences together: years at the goldsmith’s bench, a career in digital art and the determination to give my ideas a physical form.
Explore the jewellery collections, or contact me if you would like to discuss a bespoke piece.
