Mia Winston-Hart Creates Vibrant Resin Jewelry

Meet the British jewelry designer crafting one-of-a-kind pieces with epoxy resin

A graduate of the University of the Arts in London, Mia Winston-Hart (@miawinstonhart) is an educator and the founder and owner of a small accessories business in the south of England. She creates brightly-colored one-of-a-kind pieces with epoxy resin–a material that has no limits, allowing Mia to explore her creativity and work with an infinite range of shapes and colors.

Textile Design

Mia studied art and textiles at school before enrolling in a degree in textile design at university. The course, which focused on the creation of textures, pushed Mia to experiment with techniques such as weaving, knitting, and intricate beading. When Mia completed her course, she felt disappointed: “I thought I’d made work that I’d enjoyed, but I hadn’t really. I didn’t get the grades that I wanted, and this affected my relationship with being creative. When I left university, I didn’t make anything creative for about six months,” says Mia.

When Mia finally felt she was in the right headspace to start creating again, she was drawn to rediscovering her passion for embroidery, which she had experimented with at university. Mia created different pieces using traditional techniques, which eventually led her to make her first two embroidered headbands–her first steps down the path leading towards becoming a fully-fledged accessories designer.

Accessory Design

After selling headbands for a few months, Mia set herself a new challenge: “I wanted to take on something new that I could really put my own stamp on, so I decided I wanted to make some small resin hair clips with real pressed flowers.” Mia was blown away by the positive feedback she received, so she carried on making more and more hair clips. As Mia’s Etsy shop evolved, she began venturing into the world of resin jewelry, working predominantly on earrings. “It’s been such an amazing journey. I’ve created things that I wouldn’t have thought that I would be able to create. I’m constantly trying to work on new techniques and different ways of exploring resin and stand out from the crowd.”

Mia says that being able to create her own molds for her pieces is what has helped cement resin jewelry as her niche–the possibilities are endless: “Being able to create my own molds has given me so much creative freedom,” she says.

Influences

Growing up in the New Forest and close to the sea has heavily influenced her style, which often incorporates motifs from nature. More recently, Mia has been developing pieces incorporating elements of the night sky, horoscopes, suns, moons, “and celestial stuff,” she adds.

The work of the prominent Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt, has made a big impression on Mia. Klimt’s use of gold leaf, shape, and florals–as well as the jewelry-like quality of his paintings–is a huge source of inspiration. Mia also considers Yves Klein’s “unapologetic use of color” and Cy Twombly’s fearlessly abstract pieces to have encouraged her to make bold aesthetic choices.

Mia works with clients all over the world, who she connects with via Instagram and Etsy. She also teaches the Domestika course, Resin Jewelry Design, in which she shows you how to create epoxy resin jewelry from start to finish.

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