Kayo Saito

2016 QEST Scholarship - Jewellery
Kent

Kayo’s visionary style turns jewellery into an art form. She uses her goldsmith skills to create organic forms of great subtlety, forged from 18ct gold and silver. Kayo’s unique sculptural jewellery is a hybrid of Japanese and European aesthetics and techniques. She trained in Japan and the UK, and gained an MA from the Royal College of Art in 2001. She obtained her QEST Scholarship in 2016, which gave her the opportunity to learn to carve semi-precious stones with QEST Scholar Charlotte De Syllas, and at Hawsker Lapidary Works in Yorkshire. Since then, she has set up stone-cutting machines in her workshop.

Throughout her career, Kayo has received numerous awards including from the Goldsmiths Company; the British Jewellers’ Association; the Bombay Sapphire Martini Glass Competition; and the Crafts Council Development Award. She is represented by numerous galleries in the UK and overseas, including Adrian Sassoon (UK), Galerie Slavik (Austria), Galerie Orfeo (Lux), MIN (Japan) and Tayloe Piggot Gallery (USA).

Her work, featuring stone carving together with precious metal, has since been acquired by the Goldsmiths’ Company in 2020 and by the V&A in 2023 – whist showing with QEST at Collect – and recognised with the Trade Warden’s Award at Goldsmith’s Fair 2023.

I like making jewellery because it is an art form that we can closely relate to, both physically and psychologically. Once the pieces are worn, their essence passes on to the wearer and becomes part of their identity and feelings.