“I worked for a long time in an industry that imported mass-produced jewellery pieces that weren’t tailormade. After that, I just knew I had to follow my dream.”

Lill Bente Dahl-Pedersen graduated from her training as a goldsmith in 2000, with the highest possible grades—yet she soon found herself working more with jewellery logistics than with production. However, by gaining a detailed understanding of the Scandinavian jewellery market, she developed the belief that there was a niche in the market for hand-crafted, personally designed jewellery.

Now an established producer of jewellery, Lill Bente works with gold and silver—and one of her trademark styles is how she mixes different materials and surfaces to create truly unique pieces. “I can, for instance, combine different types of gold and leave some surfaces rustic and unpolished while others are polished,” she explains.

In general, Dahl-Pedersen Jewellery is characterised by timeless and unique design—as each piece is hand-crafted. But Lill Bente is quick to stress that these qualities do not mean that the jewellery is unpractical or uncomfortable to wear. Quite the contrary.

“With each design I spend a lot of time ensuring it will be functional and practical. Jewellery should be something you wear, not stack away for special occasions,” she says.

Over the past few years, Lill Bente’s work has spread into a different trend: redesigning people’s old pieces of jewellery and melting them into something new. Whereas a few years ago, people would exchange old gold jewellery for cash, more are now realising that older pieces carry a history that’s worth preserving, she observes.

“When I remake older jewellery, it is key to spend time to understand what the customer really wants. For some there are features that are important to keep. Others are open to a complete redesign, safe in the knowledge that the gold is still the same as that which their great-grandmother wore.”

With a workshop in her own garage, Lill Bente’s morning commute is a short one. Yet, from the start, she was adamant that she would do things properly. “If I really want to do everything myself, I need all the right equipment. It takes both manual labour and technical finesse to turn designs into functional jewellery,” she explains.

Currently Dahl-Pedersen Jewellery is sold exclusively via its website and directly from their showroom. “I cannot overstate the value of good reviews!” Lill Bente explains. Yet, ideally, she prefers customers to visit her in the workshop—so they can understand and experience the skill that goes into creating their piece of jewellery.

“It is really rewarding for me when people look at my jewellery and struggle to select which piece they like the best,” she says. Ultimately, that’s perhaps why customers often return time after time to buy more of these handmade works of art.