Originally trained as a textile artist, Nel Linssen started to make jewellery out of paper in 1986. With paper as her material and the circle as her principal form, Nel’s approach to jewellery was both intuitive and empirical, yet it was founded on years of dedicated research and experimentation. Conveying her deep understanding of materiality and process, when worn her pieces move fluidly with the body to reveal hidden colours, shadows and forms evocative of rhythms and structures in the botanical world. Intricately crafted, these seemingly simple creations belie their extraordinary technical and textural complexities. 

Nel Linssen was born in the Dutch municipality of Mook en Middelaar in 1935 and lived and worked in Nijmegen, where she died in 2016. Educated at the Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Arnhem, Nel’s work has been exhibited internationally and is held in collections including the Marzee Collection, CODA Apeldoorn, Museum Arnhem, Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.