Ming Lampson was sitting in her Notting Hill studio in West London, peering at the Nigerian aquamarines, sapphires from Madagascar, fire opals and other gems sprinkled across sheets of white paper on her desk. “I am trying to honor the stone, thinking, ‘How do I make a home for the gem in the most unique and interesting way possible that still just makes it something I want to wear?’” she said during a recent video call.
Ms. Lampson, 49, was born in Sydney, Australia, and grew up in England. She learned goldsmithing the old-fashioned way, arriving in the Indian gem center of Jaipur in 1994 and spending the next two and a half years working alongside artisans and gem dealers.
After returning to England in 1997, she studied jewelry making at London Guildhall University (now London Metropolitan University) and earned a Diamond Diploma at the Gemmological Association of Great Britain. She also studied at the London campus of the Gemological Institute of America before beginning her own brand, Ming, in 2000.
“I always wanted to work in gold,” she said. “For me, a jewel is a treasure — I never dreamt that I would have a jewelry business.”
Her initial focus as a private jeweler — executing custom commissions — gradually shifted and in 2016 she debuted Oriental Garden, her brand’s first collection, inspired by Asia and its cultural appeal.
