Jewellery designer Elke Kramer, may have, she humbly recalls, “stumbled into fashion” to begin with, but it hasn’t taken long for the Sydney-based designer to find her feet. With her jewellery adorning actress Keira Knightley on the cover (and throughout the inside spread) of British Vogue this month, Kramer’s eponymous wares have found their way into the spotlight, and it looks like it’s just getting brighter from here.

While Kramer has become known for her distinctively geometric, Art Deco-inspired aesthetic, it’s her unusual palette, which takes direction from nature and botanical prints, that is the driving force behind her designs. “I spend a lot of time on the palette and find that the best colour combinations come from nature,” says Kramer. “Nature has, and always will, inspire me and my designs.”

Kramer’s most recent AW11/12 collection was iderived from, she explains, “The poetry of architecture and space. How architecture, but more specifically shapes and forms, can evoke certain emotions and ideas.” The layering of basic shapes in the collection, such as circles, squares and rectangles, directly reference the Bauhaus movement – an ironic twist being that in this case, functionalism successfully inspired ornamention.

So far, Kramer’s approach to, “Just do what makes me happy, and design things that I would like to wear myself,” couldn’t have worked out better – Opening Ceremony have just bought up her latest collection, which is now in store, she has recently branched out into leather bags, belts and scarves as well as producing a line of sunglasses with Australian eyewear brand COLAB. Wow. It would seem 2011 is this emerging jewellery and accessory designer’s year to shine.