After Delft
Sandra Bruil always had a fascination for jewellery design, so she decided to combine her Master’s of Industrial Design with a practical course in jewellery making. She recently started running her own jewellery design company.
Bruil discovered she enjoyed the combination of technology and creativity at secondary school. “In Year 4 we had to think about our further education choices. The first option that caught my eye was jewellery design, a vocational training course. Right away my teacher said I should consider a university degree.” This led her to TU Delft, where she chose Industrial Design. ‘It was a good choice. I particularly enjoyed the projects that involved producing tangible things.”
After her Bachelor’s programme, she continued to dream about jewellery design. She decided to take a year off university and take the first year of the part-time course in jewellery design in Schoonhoven. Her mark for her first practical assignment was a 5.5. “That was a shock. I subconsciously assumed that it would be a breeze for me after TU Delft. But it takes more than only intelligence.” It only made Bruil more determined. She enjoyed the first year so much that she completed the entire course next to her Master’s in Industrial Design.
Photo © Sam Rentmeester
Equipped with both qualifications, she started searching for an industrial design job and registered as a jewellery designer with the chamber of commerce. She also started work as a user experience (UX) designer. But in early 2018, she started to wonder: “What do I really want? So I decided to leave my other job and focus entirely on my business.”
‘You can use a 3D printer to create detailed designs that can’t be made by hand’
She profits from the things she learned during the industrial design programme every day. “I work with the user-centred design method, using the customer’s background story as the input for the design.” So Bruil feels it’s important to devote plenty of time to the first meeting with the customer. “The meaning of the item of jewellery to the customer is central to my design.”
She also learned how to use a 3D printer during her study at TU Delft. She thinks this makes her one of the few jewellery designers who knows how to make good use of this tool. “Colleagues in the trade tend to look down on casting work, as if they think it’s an easy way out, but I think it is the perfect way to design things that are too detailed to create by hand.” Looking back on her time at TU Delft, she says she enjoyed the prevailing mentality there. “If you had an idea, they told you to go ahead and make it and see what happens. I like that approach.”
Working from home can inhibit customers from dropping in to her workshop, says Bruil. “So my plan for the future is to rent my own studio.”
Name: Sandra Bruil (31)
Place of residence: Rotterdam
Civil status: Living together
Education: Industrial Design Engineering
Student association: Sint Jansbrug
Position: Owner of Lasand