Scottish jeweler Ellis Mhairi Cameron has made history with her latest work: a sgian dubh, or traditional Highland knife, that London’s Victoria & Albert Museum has acquired for its collection. The piece made its debut in the museum’s metalwork gallery last week, making it the first and only sgian dubh at the V&A.
The blade is forged from reclaimed steel in partnership with Sheffield-based master bladesmith Simon Maillet. The hilt features approximately 25 old-cut antique diamonds, as well as hand-engraving in Cameron’s signature textured style.
“The collaboration is a striking, contemporary example of a traditional sgian dubh,” says Rebecca Knott, the V&A’s senior curator for metalwork spanning 1900 onward. “Combining their expertise in the forging of blades and traditional jewelry making, the knife clearly evokes Cameron’s passion for Scottish history and the Scottish landscape.”
Discovering her passion
Cameron describes her design philosophy as “perfectly imperfect” and her work as “sculptural fine jewelry.” She initially intended to pursue painting or sculpture, but discovered a passion for jewelry and went to study it at the Glasgow School of Art. She then moved to London for a master’s degree at Central Saint Martins, which she chose for its business focus to complement her existing conceptual skills.
In 2018, she and her family started metal detecting on her grandparents’ farm in West Scotland and found some “incredible objects,” she recalls: shards of knives, fragments of rings, waistcoat buttons, and other items. Mostly they dated to the 18th and 19th centuries, but some finds were as old as the 1500s.
These discoveries inspired Cameron’s 2024 Armach collection — which means “armored” in Gaelic — as well as the sgian dubh, which is part of a series of five knives that she calls her “passion project.” She plans to sell the other four knives to clients.
“It’s been such an interesting exploration for me, in terms of thinking on a larger scale [than jewelry], of being able to sketch in that way, of getting prototypes made up, and of working with my friend Simon, who’s a really incredible bladesmith,” says the jeweler.
She was also intrigued by the chance to work with a different medium than her usual gold. “I saw it as an opportunity to explore what we could do with steel that we can’t do with gold. How we could patina, layer and texture, and recreate some of those layers and folds and things that I have in my jewelry, but reimagined in this different metal.”
‘That pulled-from-the-earth feel’
Cameron describes herself as “traditionally trained,” and she handmakes all her pieces herself. “I’ve got two [other artisans] on the bench with me who help create everything, but we’re not using CAD or any printing technology or anything. That’s not my skill set, and that’s not my passion.”
Cameron is known for creating pieces with a textural, organic feel — characteristics that show in the sgian dubh. For the jeweler, it’s all about “referencing these objects that we found in the earth.”
She wants her jewelry “to be a bit eroded on one side, or almost as if it’s melted into an interesting texture. It’s that play between order and chaos. It’s trying to recreate things that are absolutely wearable for every day, but have that pulled-from-the-earth feel.”
By the book
Cameron’s sketchbook, where she documented the sgian dubh’s design process, is also part of the V&A acquisition and will be on display at the museum.
“While the sketchbook contains several pages of designs for the sgian dubh, it also includes a page of ring designs, evocative sketches of the Scottish landscape, and a series of drawings and collages that illustrate her exploration of texture,” says Sandy Jones, the V&A’s assistant curator for architecture and urbanism. “We thought it would be fascinating for visitors to see how these observational studies and experimentation with form shaped the design of her final piece.” While the sgian dubh will remain in the V&A’s permanent metalwork gallery, bespoke commissions are also available directly through Cameron’s studio.
Main image: Ellis Mhairi Cameron holds the sgian dubh that the V&A recently acquired. (Ellis Mhairi Cameron)
