Summer Exhibition

This summer we are showcasing some lovely new work from designers both new to the gallery, like Bronwen Gwillim working with recycled plastics, Claire Allain who also works with re cycled materials, fare-trade and eco-metals. Mim Best who is inspired by ancient and antique jewellery worldwide creating a wonderful style perfect for summer and outdoor festivals. Adele Brereton, who’s work is well known and a regular Goldsmiths Fair exhibitor. Scarlett Cohen French with her sumptuous enamelling and geometric 3D printing technique. Dominika Kupcova with her inspired DNA laser printed work. Stephanie Johnson returns with 24ct gold leaf added to her wonderful sculptural pieces.

CLAIRE ALLAIN

Claire trained at the Birmingham School of Jewellery with graduating with a B.A Hons In jewellery and silversmithing in 1998. Her love of the outdoors and living by the sea in Cornwall has influenced her work greatly, along with strong ethics for jewellery making. Claire made a conscious choice to use recycled metals, fairtrade and eco metals, and to only obtain gemstones from reputable sources many years ago.

Claire makes pieces which are little abstract pictures or sculptures which can be worn. Textures and colours appear by adding 24ct gold foil to the firings of the enamelled pieces. She also uses sheets of anodised aluminium which add another colour and surface to some of the pieces. The metal has a rawness to it with firings produce different textures and patterns on the enamel. Claire layers colours and materials to create unique pieces.

MIM BEST

Mim Best is a contemporary jewellery designer who specialises in making unique one-off pieces. Mim graduated in 1998 with a degree in Applied Arts where she experimented with all aspects of 3D design and developed a broad knowledge, working with materials such as concrete, wood and perspex, alongside precious metals.

Mim takes much of her inspiration from simple shapes, pattern, print and surface textures. She is also fascinated with ancient and antique jewellery across all cultures from all over the world and finds this to be a continual source of inspiration. Working primarily with silver and gold, she uses traditional making techniques and often stamps the metal to create different surface textures. Much of her work is embellished with coloured gemstones and intricate wire-wrapped beads demonstrating her meticulous attention to detail resulting in original, elegant and beautifully executed designs.

ADELE BRERETON

There is a human narrative behind the everyday objects that inform my work. Redundant and eroded shards of Victorian smoking pipes influence the irregular hollow forms. An inherent dialogue remains between the manmade and the organic, alluding to the feeling and qualities of the found objects, with their decayed urban patina and ambiguity of material.

I work in Silver and Gold, intuitively translating forms by hammering from a flat sheet using ancient techniques to create jewellery that is tactile and understated.

Recent work incorporates the original textures of my found objects, bringing the remnants back to life for everyday wearable precious jewellery.

SCARLETT COHEN FRENCH

Inspired by research into experimental film work, Scarlett’s jewellery is based on the idea that there is fine line between order and chaos.

This year’s collection combines 3D printing, silver, touches enamel and 18c gold to produce bold, confident and unique pieces of jewellery that empower the wearer.

Scarlett works from her studio in Glasgow and regularly exhibits her jewellery in various high-profile shows across the UK each year.

BRONWEN GWILLIM

Bronwen makes wearable, sculptural jewellery from repurposed and recycled industrial plastics. She imbues these soulless materials with character by working their surfaces till their colours soften and they feel natural in the hand. The shapes she uses reference those worn by the sea and allude to the fact that these ubiquitous and non-biodegradable materials will be sadly washing up on our beaches for many years to come. She originally trained as a jeweller and uses traditional hand tools and techniques. She slowly makes one off pieces, in stark contrast to high speed mass production that we associate with modern plastics.

STEPHANIE JOHNSON

In a studio overlooking the Fal Estuary in Cornwall, Stephanie creates a unique range of handmade designer jewellery in silver and gold.

‘The joy of making things by hand and a sense of bringing materials to life is what I love about jewellery making. I work intuitively and in response to exquisite textures and forms in nature.

Designs evolve as I play around, exploring the possibilities of working and manipulating metal by hand. I make and adapt tools to facilitate new ways to crimp, crease and texture sheets of silver and gold. I aim to create Jewellery that is sculptural yet eminently wearable.’

DOMINIKA KUPCOVA

Dominika is a jewellery designer and maker based in Glasgow, Scotland, who aims to create complex, eye-catching structures with an element of optical illusion, carefully constructed using repeated layers of linear pattern. The work is informed by the aesthetic properties of the DNA double helix and DNA testing outcome, inspiration generated through an interest in science and genetics since childhood. A fascination with the intricacies of human genetic make-up, uniformly structured yet individual, is echoed in the unique hand-crafted jewellery objects.

Dominika’s work is created using a combination of hand and manufacturing processes – time-consuming and repetitive skills of metal work and hand cutting paper alongside quicker and innovative modern techniques such as laser cutting. The resultant body of work, titled the LINES Collection, pursues to seamlessly combine precious metals, with non-precious materials of paper and card, which are manipulated and transformed through a variety of processes into a material which is sturdy, durable and waterproof.

Dominika’s Silver Collection is a diffusion line using the same visuals as the main body of work on a smaller scale, working exclusively in precious metal, predominantly silver. The sculptural jewellery is highly original while being more suitable for everyday wear.

Ed Willson

Ed Wilson grew up in the artistically renowned town of St.Ives on Cornwall’s rugged coast, surrounded by a rich history of art and sculpture, which without doubt has impacted his creativity. His love of the ocean and surfing has sent him on adventures around the globe and his love of jewellery began from his travels to Mexico over 20 years ago.
The influence of the movement, colours and the raw nature of the ocean and its surroundings can be seen through his work.
His incorporation of precious gemstones and subtle textures, highlight the organic shapes and structural curves of his elegant stand out hand carved pieces.
He honours classic contemporary designs but often with an avant-garde twist, experimenting with textures, colours and symmetry as part of the narrative of the pieces of jewellery.
He above all values the precision of his craftsmanship, producing timeless, soulful, bold and edgy collections. This is his Skullduggery collection.