Group showcase of stunning contemporary jewellery by highly skilled and innovative jewellers.  Some familiar faces with established makers we've had the pleasure of working with over the past 35 years and some emerging makers premiering their work here for the first time.

 

Jessica Briggs

Jessica originally trained as a textile designer and it is evident within her jewellery making as she draws extensively on her textile print skills.  Jessica layers textures to create pattern and enhances designs by selectively fusing golds to the silver surface using an ancient Korean technique called keum-boo. Oxides and finishing methods provide depth and colour.  Inspiration comes in many forms; sometimes her starting point may be the discovery of a new texture or technique. Observations and drawings of the natural world have always been an important source of ideas, as has her constant collecting of anything and everything that might hold the kernel of inspiration.  There is an inherent simplicity of both form and function in Jessica’s work.  All designs, whatever the inspiration are translated into elegant pieces with subtle textures or more complex and layered finishes.   In this collection, Jessica have worked to create a damask-like effect, both in white and black silver finishes, enhanced by 23.5 ct gold.

 

Jennie Gill

Jennie has been designing and making precious jewellery in Sheffield for 23 years.  She initially designed for trade; working with high street fashion labels French Connection, Phase Eight and Oasis, and winning trade awards ‘Gift of the Year’ from the Giftware Association and Johnson and Matthey ‘10 of the best’ Platinum Award.  An Arts Council funded research trip to New York sparked an interest in vintage cut diamonds which led her into a more spontaneous approach to designing at her bench as a direct response to the materials around her.  Most pieces are one-offs, based around unique stones.  Jennie is drawn to hand cut, natural diamonds, the flaws and inclusions tell their own stories.  On a larger scale, she has also designed several public art pieces, free standing, gates and railings.  Current projects include a collaboration in jewellery design with the iconic fashion designer Rita Britton and her own clothes label Nomad.  Her studio in Persistence Works, Sheffield, is a hub of creative and productive people; a real community.

 

Adele Taylor

Adele Taylor is a highly skilled maker of Jewellery and small scale useful objects. Adele supplies many galleries with different ranges of work.  She is an obsessive hoarder and picks up interesting objects usually because of their texture, (she always has pockets full of rubbish) from rusting washers, to bits of broken car indicator plastic.  Adele then cast parts of these objects in silver and 18ct gold to create a piece of jewellery or as a part of a small scale object, such as a tiny flower vase just big enough for a single daisy.  Often these hoarded objects are a reminder of a time when they were gathered, on a holiday for example, and therefore the piece of jewellery has a hidden significance.  Adele’s family have now joined in with the gathering of things which is perpetuating a continuous evolution of her work.  Adele trained at Sheffield City Polytechnic B.A (Hons) Three Dimensional Design, Silversmithing and Jewellery graduating in 1988. 

 

Emily Kidson

Emily studied 3D Crafts (wood, metal, ceramics and plastics) at the University of Brighton and has exhibited widely across the UK and increasingly abroad.  Emily is a contemporary jeweller whose layered, intuitively designed jewels marry bold materials with traditional craftsmanship.  Her inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere, whether a quickly captured image from nature or the careful contemplation of a painting.  Nature, art and architecture are particular influences, and her eye for detail informs the minimal, subtly layered aesthetic of her work.  The design process might start with a key image; from this, Emily uses her sketchbook to create initial designs, shapes and compositions, before moving on to the bench where she experiments with materials and card models.  Her sketches complement her making process as she works intuitively with the materials, allowing her work to develop naturally and spontaneously.  Known for her use of laminate with silver, wood and resin, Kidson makes every piece of jewellery by hand in her London studio. Colour is central to her work and is the backdrop to a minimal, modern aesthetic with areas of intricate detail. Emily uses laminate by Formica, made from paper and resin bonded under extreme pressure.  She chose it for its endless possibilities; available in 120 colours, its bold modernity is the perfect foil to the soft, oxidised silver finishes and woods she combines it with.  Emily sees jewellery as an artistic expression of the personality of the maker and the wearer. It makes a statement, speaks of individuality, and is something to be treasured and understood.

 

Jennifer Gilbert

Jennifer graduated from the University for the Creative Arts Rochester in 2011 with a 1st class degree in Contemporary Jewellery.  She enjoys working with the traditional materials sterling silver and pearls.  She uses them in modern designs and often oxidises the silver, which gives it a beautiful matt dark grey/black finish that compliments the delicate white of the pearls.  Ethical materials are used wherever possible in Jennifer’s work including recycled silver and recycled packaging.  Forms found in nature inspire her and she likes to simplify these forms to create contemporary and minimal pieces of jewellery. Jennifer works intuitively with her materials and her ideas begin in sketchbooks which take on a life of their own when developed in metal.  Her designs were created around the idea of using the traditional pearl in contemporary jewellery design.  Jennifer takes forms found in nature and reduces them to their most basic components to create simple geometric forms.

 

Holly Suzanna Clifford

Holly studied in the heart of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter at the School of Jewellery, on the BA Jewellery Design & Related Products course.  She now continues to produce beautiful works from her small garden shed in the Cotswolds.  Holly describes herself as an Art Jeweller, crafting pieces of delicate and detailed wearable art celebrating the curious attraction we have to plants and the natural world.  Encompassing ideas from outside the realm of jewellery, her work draws from illustration, great painters such as Monet and Klimt, as well as from old dioramic books.  Drawing and painting are integral parts of her creative process, so much so that she has developed ways to incorporate them into the jewellery itself. 

 

Jenifer Wall

Jenifer makes jewellery in silver and gold inspired by the beauty and intricate details of the natural world, particularly seeds and seedpods and rocks and stones.  Working in both precious and base metals every one of her pieces has been made individually.  Rocks, stones and geological formations have always been a rich source of imagery for her, from smooth, tactile pebbles with lines of quartz to crumbling cliffs with slipping layers of strata.  Jenifer is fascinated by both the accumulation of sediment and the erosion of surfaces caused by time and she tries to emulate these processes, to recreate a sense of age in the pieces. 

 

Caroline Finlay

Caroline trained at Grays School of Art, Aberdeen, Scotland and alongside teaching has exhibited her jewellery in the UK, Ireland, Holland and USA.   She is currently experimenting with the use of enamel and different surface finishes; these include Basse-taille and Champleve enamelling techniques and matt finishes.  She is inspired by her natural surroundings and the Sea; not only in the textures, colours and marks found by the shoreline but the symbiotic relationship of plants, creatures, the tide, seasons and life cycles and these are echoed within her jewllery.  Caroline works mainly in silver incorporating enamel and uses silversmithing and traditional jewellery craft skills.  She is particularly interested in mark making on metal surfaces and her techniques include; embossing, piercing, punching, hammering, etching, raising and forming.  Caroline enjoys the process from start to finish of gathering inspiration through photographs and found objects and sketching or digitally enhancing an idea and developing it at the bench.  Caroline loves the way a piece evolves at each stage and the spontaneity that experimental enamelling allows.  The techniques she uses means every piece is unique.

 

Moxon & Simm

Debby Moxon and Ian Simm trained at Sheffield achieving a BA(Hons) 3D Design (Silversmithing and Jewellery) in 1981.  Established in 1982, they design and make high quality designer jewellery, selling and exhibiting in some of the best galleries and craft shops across the UK.   Moxon and Simm are well known for their titanium jewellery and they often combine this with other precious metals and stones, including opals.  They are Colourist for Fenium the Belgian company producing exquisite titanium jewellery with diamonds, platinum, gold and colour.  Each piece is unique and made by hand from design to finish so production is limited.  A refractory metal, titanium is strong and light.  It colours permanently by heating or anodising.  Debby has developed her techniques for heat colouring titanium over the last 35 years.  This process has evolved through the exploration of various methods of texturing on, and interference with, the surface of this fascinating, unusual metal.  A degree of chance is integral to the colouring process, so each piece must be carefully considered.  Ian's technical knowledge and his expertise in precision cutting make possible a level of excellence for which they are known.

Anna Wales

Working from her London studio Anna creates sophisticated, striking jewellery that comes to life when worn.  Crafting countless delicate shapes in silver and gold, she brings them together to form flowing, feminine pieces that sit sensually against the skin.  Each piece is a little labour of love, full of light and shadow, spark and movement exuding a contemporary elegance along with and enticing tactility.  Born to furniture designer parents Wales and Wales, Anna grew up immersed in art and design, constantly creating without being particularly aware of it.  Now she finds it is absolutely central to who she is.  The meaningful connection jewellery has with people is an integral part of its appeal for Anna.  Not only in it’s very immediate physical relationship with the wearer but also in its long history of association with relationships between people.  Jewellery is often used as tokens of love and commitment, as expressions of identity and belonging or used as markers of meaningful or milestone occasions in life.  To be part of a larger story, for Anna, is an honour and a joy.  Anna initially studied Jewellery Design at Middlesex University where a strong emphasis was placed on materials and experimentation, leading to her playful and intuitive way of designing.  Anna then went on to spend a year at the renowned Bishopsland workshops where she refined and focused her craft.  Upon moving back to London she worked for some great names in the jewellery and silversmithing world, such as Jane Adam (whose work you can see in this show too), Ane Christensen and Susan May, whilst simultaneously setting up her own business.  Smooth sheet metal is transformed into textured organic shapes; articulated and layered together to form flowing pieces that sit sensually against the skin and celebrates the movement of the body.  The ancient technique of Keum-Boo is used to apply rich gold tones beside shimmering silver, creating compositions of colour and texture, light and shadow.  The addition of gemstones and diamonds give spark and movement to the more discreet pieces, accentuating and highlighting their quiet beauty.  Each piece is a little labour of love, made to be loved.