SCOTTISH accessories brand Jojo Blue Design captures a love of colour and abstract design.
The company was founded in 2016 by mother-daughter duo Sheena and Mary Johnston. Despite both finding common ground in the creative industries, the pair come from contrasting career backgrounds.
Sheena was born in Carlisle and raised near Dunfermline, while her mother was raised between Africa and the west coast of Scotland.
Sheena studied Biology at Edinburgh University before completing a Masters in Marine Biology at Heriot-Watt University. After graduating, she spent 10 years working in environmental management for a manufacturing company. But she had an underlying desire to explore her artistic drive.
She explains: “I’ve always harboured a creative side and wanted to find a way in which to express this more. I wanted to branch out into a different career path to explore this.”
Her mother, on the other hand, spent more than 30 years working in the creative industries after gaining a BA degree from Edinburgh College of Art. Throughout her career, she attained a wealth of experience working with community art groups and exploring her own artistic flair through a variety of different media including painting, fused glass and sculpture.
With their mutual passion for creativity, colour and abstract design, they decided to launch Jojo Blue Design.
The brand acts as a strong advocate for the power of colour and art to express individuality and this is communicated through creating the unique and contemporary pieces which are designed in their Edinburgh studio.
The pair are also inspired by the natural world and their range of necklaces, earrings, silk scarves and bracelets seek to encapsulate and combine the beauty of nature with the freedom of the unexpected.
Sheena says: “Many of our designs are inspired by our trips around Scotland and further afield, where we take the colours of the surrounding landscape and use them to inspire new combinations of colour for our jewellery and scarves.”
Jojo Blue Design’s latest collection was influenced by a recent family trip to the west coast of Scotland, where they revisited their roots in Oban and Mull.
The new range takes inspiration from the island landscape, surrounding waters and the beaches of Argyll.
Looking ahead, Sheena says: “We want to continue to experiment with colour and abstract forms and to develop new and exciting collections.”
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