Hesketh Racing
Est. 2016Bringing heritage racing into the here and now – This was the ultimate end goal and inspiration behind this incredible collection of miniature, solid silver replicas with Hesketh Racing.
Partnership with Hesketh Racing and Alyssa Smith Jewellery – Est. 2016
The concept for the collection was first imagined back in early 2015. Alyssa was approached by Retro GP, who hold the trademark rights to the Hesketh brand with the possibility of working together on a collection of jewellery.
This was the kind of opportunity that Alyssa had only dreamed of throughout the years of running her jewellery brand, and our small team of expert jewellers were soon pulling out all the stops, and exploring ways to bring F1 legend, James Hunt’s iconic mascot- the Hesketh bear, to life in miniature, 3 dimensional form.
bringing history to life again
As a small, British brand, to be given the opportunity to work with Retro GP and Hesketh Racing was just incredible, and bringing heritage racing to the ‘here and now’ so that collectors around the world could enjoy these wearable masterpieces in solid silver was something we were so excited to be able to bring to market.
“Hesketh Bear absolutely went hand in hand with our ‘wear the memories’ brand ethos, and I was so excited to be creating this miniature yellow bear in solid, 3 dimensional sterling silver. We wanted him to provide a delightful reminder of the halcyon days when the stars of motorsport featured on both the front, and the back of the papers!”
– ALYSSA
“Giving him a tail was the hardest part of the design process actually, because when you are taking a historically 2 dimensional design and turning it 3 dimensional, there is a huge element of imagination needed, as you never really see what he looks like behind! We worked closely with Retro GP to get Hesketh Bear just right, and we even engraved a tiny union jack onto his helmet. This was probably the most challenging part, as the union jack isn’t even 5mm in size! I think we have done the mascot justice, and we’re just so pleased that our collectors around the world love our miniature silver version!”
– ALYSSA
staying on track
Turning something so big into something as miniature as a finger nail, without losing key details in the design was challenging in more ways than one, but the design came to market in 2017, and was an absolute hit.
