It was in the grandiose Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Georgian house at John Adam Street in London’s West End in the year 1980 that Norman met a young, cocky and talented jewellery designer. This chance meeting was to develop into the creation of Grant Walker, the world’s first specialist jewellery consultancy company. This young, talented jewellery designer was me. Norman had become a specially selected judge panel member for the RSA jewellery design award competition, which was held annually for all of the under-graduate jewellery students in the United Kingdom.

 

Since 1754 the RSA had shone an important light to encourage creativity with innovation, and for Norman this was always fundamental to his vision for meaningful jewellery. 
I went on to win the first prize award, very much backed by Norman’s appreciation and support as a judge. Norman was 37 years old and I was 20 years old. A magical voyage lay ahead of us.

 

‘I had never met a warmer, more passionate, funnier, more knowledgeable jeweller than Norman. I felt very lucky, for sure, to meet Norman at this point in my life’. Grant Walker Limited was finally established in 1986 and was then awarded the Design Council of Britain Certificate of Excellence for Project Management and Design Capability, but also in the 6 years prior to this, Norman had already established himself as a leading international jewellery consultant. He worked for various aid agencies on implementing new design and 
manufacturing techniques in Nepal, India, Thailand, Pakistan and Malaysia.

 

His knowledge of both hand-making and batch production at the micro-level was invaluable to these individual jewellers, whilst his wider appreciation at the macro-level was also inestimable to the evolving infrastructure of the industry at large.