Eleanor Patton has always been “mildly obsessed” with jewellery.

At four years old she was captivated by a family friend’s Victorian engagement ring.

As a teenager, while others spent their summers shopping or socialising, she was learning basic metalworking skills.

Now 27, Mrs Patton is the designer and goldsmith of her own line of jewellery, Bermuda Rocks.

She’s one of only a few women she knows in the goldsmith trade.

“Sometimes I would go out to a job in the UK and people would be surprised that I was a woman and at how young I was,” she said.

“Not many women choose becoming a goldsmith as a path, I’m not sure why that is. A lot of girls I studied with went on to design rather than make.

“I guess it’s because it’s quite grubby work, although the finished product is beautiful.

“It involves a lot of charcoal, acid and polish that you use and they get everywhere and don’t come out. I used to have permanently red skin around my nails.”

Originally from the UK, Mrs Patton moved to the Island with her husband in 2012.

She was immediately won over by Bermuda’s beauty and wanted to capture that essence in her designs.

“I got the idea for the line’s name because in my opinion Bermuda does rock,” she said. “For an island that’s viewed as a holiday or honeymoon destination there is so much culture, art and so much to Bermuda.

“I don’t think people realise Bermuda has a lot of depth. People just think of the beach and rum, which are amazing obviously, but there is a lot of history here as well.”

The first time she came to visit, her husband took her on a tour of the forts and taught her about the Island’s military history.

“It was interesting to me that Bermuda was one of the most heavily fortified overseas territories,” she said.

“I also like all the regulations that the buildings have. They have to be built the same way they’ve always been built and I like that it’s such a nice tie to where Bermuda comes from.”

She realised there was a demand for more contemporary jewellery and soon after, got to work on her first collection — some simple and elegant pieces inspired by the moongate.

“It was popular with people mainly in their 30s to 50s,” she said.

“I’m not sure why that is but probably because the price point is higher, so women who are further into their career are able to afford it,” she said. “Maybe also because it was a more classic design and more subtle for work.”

Her newest collection, Bermuda Triangle, is more abstract and features pieces starting at $45, making it more accessible to younger women.

“It’s definitely struck a chord with my friends who are more into unusual fashion and modern art,” she said.

Mrs Patton loves the simple, unique details found in vintage pieces and said there’s a “subtle hint” of that in her designs.

One of her aims as a designer is to make sure her collection never seems mass-produced or generic. She wants each piece to be able to tell a story.

She said: “It’s important to me that I am always the maker and that’s important to my customers as well.

“They get to know me and my skills and they know they can trust me. I would love to do some teaching at some point in my career and would love to have my own retail space, but I wouldn’t want to expand my business more than just me and an assistant.

“It’s having a connection with people that’s important,” she explained.

“There is so much mass-produced, throwaway things today, but I think people are moving more towards knowing where things come from and who made them and having that story behind it.”

She also gets excited when she’s asked to design something to correlate with a special moment in someone’s life.

“Before I moved here I did a lot of wedding and engagement work and that’s always really touching to be involved in that,” she said.

“A lot of couples would design the ring together, or we would have customers coming in whose parents were donating the gold from their old rings, so the couple can have wedding and engagement rings, so it’s a really beautiful part of someone’s life to be involved in.”

Mrs Patton will launch a line of engagement rings next month.

For more information visit www.bermudarocks.com or Facebook.