When Shaun Leane stepped back from the namesake jewellery brand he had built over 25 years in 2024, it came as a shock to many in the industry.
The business itself had been in trouble, entering into administration in May of 2024 ahead of Leane confirming his exit in the October, but for such a powerful creative force in the industry – and one of the few voices in contemporary jewellery to have successfully broken into the wider fashion and luxury worlds – to disappear entirely seemed unfathomable.
“There’s so much noise and demand and chasing and wanting,” reflects Leane over video call from his home in rural Ireland, where he now spends the majority of his time. “We all know the hamster wheel; we’ve all been on it for years. And part of it is fun, but I think that wheel has just speeded up and speeded up.”
‘I have no regrets’
Leane describes his choice to step away from the brand as “a difficult decision”, but one that has ultimately reinvigorated him. The Shaun Leane jewellery brand remains active after being acquired by M Jatania Capital.
“I have no regrets,” says Leane. “I enjoyed building the brand. It was a beautiful part of my journey, but with anything that grows, it changes. The focus and the interest in the brand was more on silver and volume. Even though I was really good at designing silver collections, I could do them blindfolded. Sometimes, I think in life we all need to pause to try and remember why we started and what fills our hearts with joy and passion.”
For a moment, Leane says he really did consider retiring when he stepped back from the brand, but the pull to create was too strong: “There was a part of me that felt it was time to hang up my pliers, because I have a beautiful life: I live in the mountains, I hike, I cold-water swim. [But] I cannot deny this energy inside of me. It’s part of me. I always trust the universe, and when you don’t know what to do, do nothing and the answer will come. I paused and, lo and behold, the answer came, and it was in the form of my loyal collectors, the loyal houses that I’d worked with over the years and fellow artisans.”
An artisan collection led by commissions
This week, Leane is officially revealing a new venture – not another jewellery brand, but a hyper-focused craft collective of sorts. The company is called 12, named so because it will be limited to just 12 creations a year – all of which will be commissions.
Some of the 12 annual creations will be jewellery, but others will be as diverse as cutlery, furniture, glasswork, couture, or even headstones – of which Leane has made a few of late. And not all of those commissioning work will be end consumers. Leane will also be open to working with businesses, such as architects, furniture designers, stores or luxury houses. Sometimes the piece will be a single one-of-a-kind item, or it could be 12 variations on the same design. “If it’s a chair [for example], there’ll be 12 of them,” he says.
The interaction with the client is a collaboration in itself, but what Leane is referring to when he speaks about 12 being a collective is the group of artisans he is surrounding himself with: “I have a group of artisans that now work with me that are going to go on this journey with me with 12, from enamellers to engravers to silversmiths, goldsmiths, box makers.”
Leane says he is actively seeking out solo or small artisans to collaborate with for 12, with a view to supporting niche crafts and individual makers. His inspiration for 12 is the Wiener Werkstätte studio established in Vienna in 1903 by artist Koloman Moser, architect Josef Hoffmann and entrepreneur Fritz Waerndorfer that brought together architects, artists, designers and artisans working in ceramics, fashion, silver, furniture and the graphic arts.
The concept for 12 is still in development, and while Leane is speaking about it as a collective, he is unclear as to whether the craftspeople working within 12 will be credited as co-creators or not: “Some will want to be talked about, some will not. It will be case by case.”
Slowing production schedules by axing deadlines
One of the most striking elements of 12 – other than its extremely limited production – is that Leane is not imposing deadlines on the creation of the pieces. While he will take on a maximum of 12 commissions a year, with each numbered, he is not creating a release schedule. Not all of the pieces will become part of the public record either, as some clients may wish to hold on to the anonymity.
“[Not adhering to traditional commercial production schedules] allows each piece to breathe, and it allows each artisan that I work with to breathe, more importantly,” says Leane. “[When I was running the brand] there were pieces that we made, and afterwards I would be like, ‘I should have done that differently’, but things get rushed [when there are launch deadlines]. For me now, it’s not about the date, it’s about the longevity of this piece. The piece should be the best it can be. Time is a material.”
Leane has already begun creating pieces using this method. In 2025 he made 10 creations (prior to settling on the strategy of 12 pieces per year), and this year he already has seven commissions lined up or underway. Early 12 clients include his long-time muse Daphne Guinness, who commissioned a silver collar that Leane collaborated with a silversmith to make over the course of nine months. “It’s so simple, yet the consideration of its form and its mechanism so that looked like her neck had been dipped in silver took us so much consideration,” he says. “For me, 12 is like a meeting of minds, a passing of tools. It’s a shared pursuit of beauty.”
But will it be commercially viable, in a business landscape where the onus is on brands to produce more and more, faster and faster? “It has to be,” says Leane, who notes that his clients for 12 are high-net-worth individuals or established businesses. “It is commercially viable because these pieces are rare, they’re artworks. I’m making 12 artworks a year, so commercially they will support me and the artisans, and that’s what I intend them to do so that we can continue to do it.”
