This May, we celebrate the traditional art of filigree – an incredible craft that has been used in designs for hundreds of years. Filigree is a form of intricate wire work used in jewellery and other small forms of metalwork.
Read more about the artists and their work here.
Our Contemporary Filigree exhibition celebrates a curated selection of artists using this wonderful technique.
Born into a batik-producing family, I see the world as a series of motifs and patterns. My designs fuse Batik iconography, patterns found in the natural world and architecture and objects. I use the filigree technique to create my pieces. The process involves drawing, twisting and manipulating fine wires into lace-like patterns. The patterns are then arranged and fit into a frame to form a specific design. I mainly work with recycled precious materials, especially sterling and fine silver, because of their malleable and lightweight characteristics. They are also durable, which means that my jewellery will be able to withstand the test of time, thus transforming them from objects of adornment into heirloom items that are rooted in tradition.
Descended from a textile-producing family in the city of Batik, Pekalongan, Indonesia-born Edwin Charmain’s jewellery practice specialises in filigree jewellery inspired by the Indonesian batik arts and traditions. By combining traditional Indonesia Batik motifs and observing the man-made world around him, Charmain transformed what was once a two-dimensional waxing technique on top of fabric into a three-dimensional jewellery object, celebrating the life, courage and wisdom of his kinsmen.
Charmain holds a Masters degree in design jewellery from Central Saint Martins and is one of the Arts Council England Exceptional Promise endorsees. His work has been exhibited internationally and has received numerous awards in the field.
As a jeweller I aim to explore the sensuality of the body through the tactility of materials. My work is fuelled by a deeply rooted interest in textiles, both in terms of borrowed techniques and the range of visual references. More recently plant forms have inspired new ways of construction and a wider use of colour through the use of semi-precious stones.
Susan Cross graduated from Middlesex Polytechnic University in 1986, setting up her first studio in London before relocating to Edinburgh in 1989. Susan has been a part-time lecturer in the Jewellery & Silversmithing department at Edinburgh College of Art since this time and in 2008 was awarded a Readership following her success in the Jerwood Applied Arts Award for Jewellery in 2007. Alongside her teaching she has continued to develop her work exhibiting both nationally and internationally. Susan has also been invited to initiate projects and workshops in Finland, India, New Zealand & South Korea and awarded a travel bursary by the Scottish Arts Council to study Japanese textiles.
Public Collections include:
V&A Museum, London; V&A Museum, Dundee; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; Crafts Council, London; The Goldsmiths’ Company, London; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; Edinburgh Royal Infirmary; Alice & Louis Koch Collection, Switzerland; Spencer Museum of Art, USA; Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, USA.
Andrew Lamb (b.1978) is recognised as one of the leading contemporary jewellers of his generation, celebrated for work that combines technical precision, optical complexity and extraordinary delicacy of construction. A graduate of Edinburgh College of Art in 2000, Lamb was regarded as one of Dorothy Hogg’s most gifted and accomplished students, absorbing her emphasis on drawing, structure and rigorous material understanding while developing a visual language entirely his own. He later completed his Masters at the Royal College of Art in 2004, further refining the innovative approach that has since earned him international acclaim.
Lamb’s jewellery is distinguished by its remarkable ability to create movement and illusion through line, repetition and light. Drawing inspiration from Optical Art, woven structures and patterns found in the natural world, he constructs intricate sculptural forms from fine strands of 18ct gold and silver wire. Layered, twisted and meticulously arranged, these delicate linear elements generate rippling surfaces and shifting visual rhythms that appear to vibrate and transform as the eye moves across them. The resulting works possess a mesmerising sense of depth and fluidity, balancing mathematical precision with organic elegance.
Despite the extraordinary complexity behind their making, Lamb’s pieces retain an effortless lightness and refinement. His jewellery engages dynamically with both body and space, responding to movement, shadow and changing perspectives. Fine tonal variations between gold and silver subtly animate the surface, while the open structures allow light to pass through and around the forms, creating constantly changing visual effects. There is a quiet theatricality to the work, where perception itself becomes part of the experience of wearing and viewing the piece.
At the heart of Lamb’s practice is an exceptional level of craftsmanship. Each work demands immense patience, control and technical skill, with countless individual wires manipulated and assembled into precisely balanced compositions. Yet beyond this virtuosity lies a deep sensitivity to rhythm, proportion and material, qualities that place his work firmly within the lineage of the most innovative contemporary studio jewellery.
Andrew Lamb’s jewellery has been exhibited internationally and is held in major public and private collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; the Crafts Council Collection, London; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; The Goldsmiths’ Company, London; Galerie Marzee, The Netherlands; the Royal College of Art Collection; and the V&A Wedgwood Collection.
“The aesthetic qualities that I perceive to be beautiful and strive to achieve in my work are centred around intense decorative features encompassed by sweeping lines and simplified forms. Of equal importance and beauty however, is the process of their creation.”
Growing up in a highly artistic family it was only natural that Helen would follow in a similar vein. At age 13 she consciously decided that she couldn’t live a life without some form of art as a career. She achieved her BA Hons degree in Silversmithing, Jewellery and Allied Crafts at London Guildhall University in 2005, then went on to complete her postgraduate studies at the Bishopsland Educational Trust in Berkshire. As a silversmith specialising in filigree wire work, Helen London chose this craft for its ability to combine aesthetic beauty with engineering challenge.
Helen attributes her passion for creating to an instinctive nature as humans to use our hands and tools to manipulate materials. This is combined with her own innate tendency towards intense focus and perfectionism. She looks to Japanese and Islamic arts and craft as well as Art Nouveau for inspiration. The human body, antlers, birds and other natural forms have all provided starting points for her designs.
Filipa Oliveira is a specialist in contemporary filigree jewellery. Her work has been widely recognised and awarded by numerous jewellery institutions, as the Goldsmiths’ Company. She uses this ancient technique in an innovative way to lend detail and heritage to her work. This historical element allows both the past and present to be encompassed within each piece of jewellery and is evocative of different times and cultures.
Filipa has built a reputation as an expert in filigree and a leader in disseminating this unique knowledge within the industry, having taught the technique nationally and internationally. She trained as a goldsmith in Portugal and in Scotland at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, graduating in 2011 with 1st class honours. Filipa holds a passion for this art, which she shares with her students in her Contemporary Filigree Courses, and in the Contemporary Filigree Jewellery book, of which she is the author.
I aim to achieve an aesthetic result that obscures the technical rigours of its production. I am preoccupied mainly with the surfaces of precious metals (which I always affect in some way before construction begins) and with form – juxtaposing the play of light, reflection, lustre with characteristic angle, curve and line – inspired by an abstraction of nature and art, and particularly of the human form. I am intrigued, too, by the potential for dialogue between inner and outer planes, with random patterns imprisoned within strictly delineated edges, the inclusion of chance, and the visual tension created by the contrast and harmony of all these factors. Jacqueline Mina
Struggling to find that perfect gift? We have the solution! A Scottish Gallery Gift Voucher is the perfect gift for friends, family, customers and colleagues.
Own Art is a national initiative that makes buying contemporary art and craft affordable by providing interest-free credit for the purchase of original work.