Featured Maker: Da Capo x Lee Harding

This September, DesignYard is delighted to present Da Capo by Irish goldsmith Lee Harding as our Featured Maker.

The exhibition marks a new chapter for Da Capo, bringing together a small collection of new work with selected pieces from Lee’s earlier practice, alongside jewellery generously loaned by clients. Together, the pieces offer a glimpse into a career shaped by curiosity, technical precision and an enduring fascination with how things work.

A New Chapter for Da Capo

For more than twenty-five years, Lee Harding has worked across bespoke commissions, complex repairs, trade work and teaching. Da Capo was originally a partnership, but with his long-time partner Sé now moving into full-time teaching, Lee is taking the practice forward on his own.

Sé remains a close friend and occasional collaborator, but the creative and business decisions now sit with Lee. This exhibition marks that transition: part retrospective, part new beginning, and an opportunity to look at where Da Capo has come from and where it might go next.

Alongside new work, Lee will bring together selected works from his earlier practice, as well as jewellery generously loaned by clients who have collected his work over the years.

Where Aesthetics Meet Physics

At the heart of Lee’s approach is a balance between aesthetics and physics.

A piece needs to be beautiful and desirable to wear, but it also needs to function, endure and be structurally sound. For Lee, the interesting challenge is finding the point where those two things come together.

Clean lines, curves, considered proportions and carefully engineered settings are recurring elements in his work. He is particularly drawn to openness and negative space, allowing as much of a stone or structure to be seen as possible without compromising its strength.

Sometimes the most important decisions are the ones you barely notice.

A setting might be designed so that stones align in a particular way, or so that a hidden detail becomes visible only when the piece is tilted and the light moves through it. These are details that may not be immediately apparent, but they contribute to the experience of wearing and looking at the finished piece.

The Joy of Problem Solving

For Lee, problem solving isn't simply part of being a goldsmith. It's one of the things he enjoys most.

That instinct goes back to childhood, when he would build things from Lego and see how far he could push an idea. Today, the same curiosity appears in everything from bespoke commissions and complex repairs to teaching.

Over the years, Lee has worked on pieces that people had been told were irreparable. Rather than seeing the problem as impossible, he sees it as a challenge: how can this be made to work?

“I don’t think anything is impossible. We just haven’t thought about it enough.”

That willingness to experiment also means accepting that not every idea will succeed. For Lee, failure is part of the process — a way of discovering what doesn't work and, importantly, what might work next time.

Looking Closer

One of the defining characteristics of Lee’s work is his fascination with detail.

He likes jewellery that catches your eye from a distance but draws you in when you look more closely. A clean line or simple curve might reveal another layer of detail. Negative space may have been precisely calculated. Stones might be positioned so that their relationship changes as the piece moves.

“I like the idea that somebody discovers more in something the longer they look at it,” says Lee.

It is a philosophy that can be seen in a pearl ring from his earlier work, which Lee considers a particular achievement. The piece incorporates a precise 90-degree twist in a sheet of metal while maintaining the same thickness throughout — a technical challenge that is largely hidden within the simplicity of the finished form.

For Lee, that's part of the pleasure. The detail doesn't have to announce itself. It can simply be there, waiting to be discovered.

A Practice Built on Discovery

This idea of discovery runs through the Featured Maker exhibition.

The new works represent where Lee is heading now, while the earlier pieces and client-loaned jewellery provide a sense of where the practice has come from. Together, they create something between a retrospective and a new beginning — a portrait of Da Capo at a moment of transition.

After more than twenty-five years of experience, Lee is still driven by the same curiosity that began with building things as a child: what happens if you push an idea a little further?

For him, the answer is rarely obvious. And that's precisely the point.

Da Capo x Lee Harding is DesignYard’s Featured Maker for September 2026.

The exhibition brings together new and existing work alongside selected pieces loaned by clients, offering an opportunity to discover the detail, ingenuity and craftsmanship behind one of Ireland’s distinctive contemporary goldsmithing practices.

We look forward to welcoming you to DesignYard.

RSVP for the Meet the Maker event on September 24th.