Jane Adam

Born: 1954

Place of Birth: London

Jane Adam is a leading British contemporary jeweller, who has an international reputation for her work in aluminium, a field in which she revolutionised contemporary practice and gained many significant awards. Her work in fine metals is gaining her even greater recognition.

‘I experiment with materials to explore their inherent qualities. Rather than imposing my own preconceptions upon them, I then set out conditions in which they will behave in a certain way. This approach gives my work a quality that relates to natural forms and to the way they change and grow. I aim to create pieces that extend traditional jewellery values: beauty, femininity and preciousness. My work explores female sensuality, both in the nature of the forms themselves and in the way they feel when worn. By becoming part of the wearer’s experience and expression of her self, my jewellery is transformed and completed.’ – Jane Adam, 2016.

Public collections include: The Goldsmiths’ Company, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Jane Adam was the subject of solo exhibitions: Beyond The Surface during the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2013, and Duality in May 2018.

Disa Allsopp

Born: 1958

Disa was born in London and grew up in Barbados. This special island really influenced her jewellery designs, visible in her use of colourful gemstones. Disa personally selects each stone such as golden citrines, warm garnets, rubies, sapphires and morganites.

White and coloured diamonds are set on unique bands while rough and rare cut gemstones make Disa’s work contemporary and current, maintaining a timeless charm.

Disa exhibits internationally throughout the UK, United States, Japan and France. All work is individually handmade in Disa’s London studio.

Malcolm Appleby

Born: 1946

Place of Birth: West Wickham, London

Malcolm Appleby was born in 1946. He studied at Central School of Art, Sir John Cass and the Royal College of Art in London before establishing his studio in Scotland in 1969. A silversmith and metal engraver, known for his imaginative use of line and form, he considers gold “just another lovely material to work with.”

The Scottish Gallery has been associated with Malcolm Appleby since the 1970s; the many facets of his work have brought joy to many, each piece sold marking the beginning of a journey of discovery around this senior artist. The Gallery honoured Malcolm Appleby’s seventieth birthday in January 2016, which marked over fifty years of a creative tour de force. Malcolm Appleby has dedicated his artistic practice primarily to engraving and pushing the boundaries of metalwork; constant experimentation has made him a master of his craft and in 2014 he received an MBE for his outstanding contribution to the arts.

2019 marked fifty years since Malcolm Appleby first set up his studio in Scotland and the exhibition 50 Golden Years in Scotland, featuring both jewellery and silversmithing, recognised his unique contribution to the arts. Malcolm’s infectious enthusiasm for his craft, his willingness to work with other artists and his pleasure in sharing his skills is characteristic of his generosity and pre-eminence. The natural world that surrounds Malcolm’s studio informs every piece; the artist’s inspiration unlimited in the abundance of the world around him.

Public Collections include:
The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The Goldsmiths’ Company, London; British Museum, London; Royal Armouries, Tower of London; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; and Perth Museum & Art Gallery

Malcolm’s jewellery collection can be viewed here.

In August 2021 we celebrated Malcolm Appleby’s 75th birthday with Malcolm Appleby & Friends. Previous exhibitions include 50 Golden Years in Scotland in March 2019 and The Gallery also hosted a special exhibition in January 2016 to celebrate Malcolm Appleby’s 70th birthday.

Zoe Arnold

Photography by Fife Contemporary

Born: 1976

Zoe Arnold graduated in 2003 from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London having completed a first class jewellery degree, and set up her own workshop. Having initial interests in being a sculptor, she fell into the jewellery world as a way of satisfying a need to work in fine detail and on a smaller scale. This is very evident in her work, which can be described as a wearable form of art.

I don’t particularly like being described as a jeweller, simply because most peoples’ perceptions of what a jeweller is, or does, are completely wrong in relation to my work. I do make jewellery, but I write poetry, short stories, make automata and larger more sculptural works. In the past an artist would have had many strings to their bow, but now society likes to file us under comfortable titles, and these don’t always fit.

Miki Asai

Born: 1988

Miki Asai is a graduate of Silversmithing and Jewellery from The Glasgow School of Art. Miki’s intricate jewellery collection is strongly based on the Japanese aesthetic that finds beauty in impermanence, imperfection, transience and the ephemeral.

‘My work is based on the Japanese philosophical concept called Wabi-sabi, which means finding beauty in imperfection and transience. I read a book on the subject that said, ‘things are beautiful because they are fleeting.’ This can apply to various aspects of life, whether it be emotions or something as simple as a bunch of leaves in the street. The fact that everything will one day be nothing is beautiful; flowers grow up and then they die, that is the nature of life.’

She has won several awards for her work during her studies including the Prize for Graduation Work at Musashino Art University 2011, Japan Jewellery Designers Associations Student Class Award 2012, Japan Craft Design Association Student Class 2014, The Goldsmiths’ Craft & Design Council Awards 2016 Design Section Pearl Jewellery Award and the Japan Jewellery Design Association General Category 2017.

Ash & Plumb

Born: 1988, 1987

Place of Birth: Edinburgh and Perth, Western Australia

Ash & Plumb was created by design duo Barnaby Ash and Dru Plumb, born of a desire to honour naturally sustainable materials; crafting unique and functional works that breathe life into the living spaces they inhabit.

‘In an increasingly mass-produced culture, we have decided to walk a different path; paying tribute to traditional craft in a modern context we realise classically formed pieces that allow the natural beauty of the material to shine. We consider ourselves editors not creators of nature’s finest work. For this new collection, we wanted to symbolise the strength that comes with a diverse and physically connected community; communities that we have all been so starved of in recent times and yet are so essential to our sense of belonging and support systems. Each piece we have created is unique in character and form whilst bearing a familial aesthetic that brings them together, celebrating the magnificent diversity within our native hardwoods that mirrors that of our own human counterparts.’ – Ash & Plumb

Ash & Plumb present their second solo exhibition with The Gallery in June-July 2024 – Echoes.

Julie Blyfield

Born: 1957

Place of Birth: Melbourne, Australia

Julie Blyfield makes jewellery, small-scale vessels and sculptural objects in her studio nestling in the garden of her home in Adelaide, South Australia. Inspired by the botanical landscape in Australia, Julie’s favoured medium of expression is silver. This she uses in its softer pure form as well as in its stronger alloyed form – sterling silver. Her jewellery and vessels are characterised by seductive textured surfaces created using traditional silversmithing techniques such as hammering, chasing, punching and piercing. Rhythmical repetition is a key element of both her design process and her aesthetic, and the use of colour is also apparent. Following the traumatising Australian bushfires of 2007, Blyfield echoed the scorched colour and searing heat with enamel paint and startling glints of gold and silver set against charred blacks and ash greys.

‘My work is inspired by the botanical landscape in Australia, which I interpret in my metal work using the technique of ‘metal raising’ and ‘chasing’. I enjoy exploring and collecting plant specimens from rich and diverse environments such as the Simpson Desert in the north of South Australia and further south around the coast of Kangaroo Island. Working with both pure silver and sterling silver as my preferred choice of material, I texture the surface to create individual pieces in the form of vessels and also more sculptural pieces. During the making process, I enjoy the way the metal ‘moves and shifts’ in almost unpredictable ways to create the organic forms which shimmer with the silver textures or colours derived from nature.’ – Julie Blyfield, 2016

Public Collections include:

Aberdeen Art Gallery; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; V&A, London

Elizabeth Jane Campbell

Born: 1989

Place of Birth: Scotland

Elizabeth Jane Campbell graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2013, and then spent a year as Artist in Residence at Glasgow School of Art before establishing her own studio in Edinburgh. Elizabeth’s award winning jewellery has been exhibited across the UK and abroad – most recently in Milan, Munich and America.

‘My recent work explores the connection between colour and shape – taking inspiration from colour theory, colour connotations and visual literacy. Using vitreous enamel enables me to achieve fantastic colours which I contrast with simple oxidised silver settings. The surface finish of the enamel is really important, as a gloss or matt finish can really change the quality of the enamel colour. Each piece is hand finished to highlight the vibrancy of the colour.’

Permanent collections include:
The National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; The Goldsmiths’ Company, London

Elizabeth was the subject of a solo exhibition in March 2020 – Colour Connections. Read our blog for an insight into her studio and the inspiration behind her work.

Susan Cross

Born: 1964

Place of Birth: Ledbury

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.

Jack Cunningham

Born: 1953

Place of Birth: Glasgow

Jack Cunningham trained at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee and was head of silversmithing and jewellery at Glasgow School of Art; he was then Head of the School of Jewelley at Birmingham City University. He is a contemporary studio jeweller whose particular interest is narrative jewellery, being that which tells a story or makes a statement through visual imagery.

‘I am motivated by the construct of our relationship with family, place, of recollection and memory, life and death. I am also interested in the dialogue that is consequently established between the maker – the originator of the artefacts statement, the wearer – the vehicle by which the work is seen, and the viewer – the audience who thereafter engages with the work.’
Public collections include: National Museums of Scotland, Musee des Arts Decoratif in Montreal.

He has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad and was a shortlisted finalist for the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2000.

Michelle Currie

Born: 1985

Place of Birth: Vale of Leven, Scotland

Michelle Currie is currently Artist in Residence at The Glasgow School of Art Silversmithing and Jewellery Department after graduating with a First-Class Honours degree in 2020. Her unique practice combines traditional Silversmithing techniques with her love of Science and Astronomy. For her recent collection, Michelle visited the Physics and Astronomy Laboratories at The University of Glasgow, learning from Technicians and Scientists about their world leading research into Black Holes and Gravitational Waves. This unique collection is the result of an exploration into the unseen forces that govern and shape our world. By combining silver and precious stones with ferromagnetic materials containing iron particles, Michelle captures the exciting variety of textures and movement created when exposing iron particles to neodymium magnets. She creates her own mixtures of iron particles that are sculpted directly onto magnetic field lines using the invisible structure as a canvas to capture the explosive moments as static ominous wearable sculptures.

‘I am ever captivated and inspired by the beauty of the intrinsically interwoven nature of ‘Science and Art,’ sharing the pursuit of knowledge and an understanding of our place in the universe. Although often communicated in different ways, the fields are deeply connected by curiosity and the need to explore the unexplored, making sense of our observations and experiences.’

Michelle’s has received multiple industry awards such as a Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Award, Goldsmiths’ Centre Precious Metal Bursary Award 2020 and received a prestigious ceremonial mace commission by The University of Glasgow to be unveiled in 2021. Michelle’s graduate work has also been awarded both the Fife Contemporary New Maker Award 2020 and the Incorporation of Goldsmiths Graduate Award 2020.

Ella Fearon-Low

Born: 1975

Place of Birth: London

Ella Fearon-Low mixes materials to create playful sophisticated contemporary jewellery that references historical forms. These forms are themselves a layering up of different visual and cultural references. Having studied at Morley College Ella now works from her London studio to develop and hand produce small collections and one off pieces.

‘Materials are key to my work, often having been collected over time, awaiting the right project to bring their qualities to the fore. They include brass to balsa, sea worn plastic to gold, and pearls to Lucite as well as a treasure trove of found objects. I enjoy the conversation between precious and non-precious components and often position them side-by-side.’

Awards include: Goldsmiths’ Craftsmanship and Design Council Awards 2020 – Bronze, Goldsmiths’ Craftsmanship and Design Council Awards 2018 – Bronze

Grace Girvan

Born: 1981

Place of Birth: Orkney

The unique landscape of the Orkney Islands provides inspiration for Grace Girvan’s work. She enjoys beach combing and uses the objects that she unearths on her expeditions in her work, combining found objects such as pebbles, driftwood and shell with precious metal and enamel. Her work is evocative of her inspiration, through a restrained colour palette of soft greys, blues, greens and browns she conveys the washed out, sun bleached colours of the sea and shore.

Public Collections include:

Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, Aberdeen

Choi Keeryong

Photography by Jaro Mikos

Born: 1976

Place of Birth: South Korea

Originally from South Korea, Choi Keeryong came to Britain to complete a Master of Design at Edinburgh College of Art and in 2010, continued to embark on a PhD in Glass and Architectural Glass. Keeryong has exhibited widely across the UK whilst investigating the similarities and differences between cultural groups in terms of their aesthetic perceptions of visual experiences, particularly in relation to unfamiliar materials and surface imagery.

Choi’s motivation for creating this body of work is to explore how the ambiguity of an individual’s cultural interpretation can help to create the state of “uncanni-ness” in the audience’s visual experiences. He believes that this ‘uncanni-ness’ provokes emotions and feelings and Choi manipulates this powerful tool within his artistic practice to promote the awareness of stereotypes in an individual’s cultural understanding. Developing inlaid colouring techniques inspired by the ancient Korean “Saggam” pottery allows him to explore the state of ambiguity in visual experience by delineating geometric patterns and counterfeit letters onto glass artworks and encapsulating them in between the layers of transparent glass. The use of historical symbolism of tea and the popularity of English manufactured ceramic teapots are the metaphor for the cultural stereotype in both West and East.

‘My artistic approach is inspired by my personal experiences of being in-between-ness in terms of my current cultural location.’

Choi’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally including SOFA Chicago, USA, International Glass Prize 2015, Belgium, and Collect, London, UK. Choi received the Glass Biennale 2015 National Glass Centre (NGC) Residency Award and was been selected as a Loewe Craft Prize 2023 finalist.

Public Collections include: National Museums Scotland; Museums and Galleries Edinburgh (City of Edinburgh Council); Oriental Museum, Durham University; The National Glass Centre, Sunderland; Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, USA; Corning Museum of Glass, USA.

Andrew Lamb

Born: 1978

Andrew Lamb graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2000. He completed his Masters at the Royal College in 2004 and now exhibits and sells his award winning jewellery worldwide, with work featuring in prestigious public collections in the UK and abroad.

His interest in illusion and the mesmerizing visual effects of ‘Optical Art’ are cleverly adapted into his jewellery designs. By incorporating these principals, his aim is to create striking, yet delicately shaped pieces which appear to shift and change as the eye moves across them.

Andrew also finds inspiration in the linear patterns and structures abundant in nature and woven textiles. With these in mind, he uses a combination of fine lengths of 18ct gold and silver wire to construct sculptural, three-dimensional jewellery. The wire, layered, twisted or overlapping to create pieces with rippling textures and subtle colour variations playfully drawing the eye and creating a moment of surprise.

Permanent collections include:

V&A, London; Crafts Council, London; Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum; The Alice and Louis Koch Collection; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; The Goldsmiths’ Company, London; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; Galerie Marzee, The Netherlands; The Royal College of Art, London; The Royal Mint, London; Museums and Galleries Edinburgh; V&A Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent.

Ruth Leslie

Born: 1993

Place of Birth: Edinburgh

Ruth has been designing and making playful, sculptural jewellery since 2015. Her eponymous jewellery collection is made by hand using recycled silver and gold and is inspired by both the subtle details within fabrics as well as the intricate constructions within textile machinery. Ruth finely twists wire using an old-fashioned hand drill which is then cut and wrapped around frames to create tactile, refined forms – like dangling architecture.

Her collection comprises of clean, elegant structures that stand on their own as well as showcasing her signature twisted-wire details. These are bold yet classic designs that transcend seasons and trends. Each piece is handmade by Ruth in her Edinburgh studio.

Grant McCaig

Born: 1974

“Working in silver is inspiring and creative, technical and expressive. Using the traditional techniques of the silversmith as my foundation, I build pieces that explore the relationship between functionality and self-expression. I want my work to be individual in design and concept and give pleasure to the user. There is something magical about silver. When it arrives in the brown paper and card board packaging, which is promptly unwrapped and examined, a voyage of discovery begins. I have never once look at a sheet of silver and thought nothing of it. My mind skips to the possibilities and the ideas that I originally purchased the metal for tend to pale in the face of the endless possibilities that lie before me. Soft and rounded, or crisp with sharp edges and plain bold surfaces! Silver, you will find, can do it all.” – Grant McCaig

Heather McDermott

Born: 1989

Heather McDermott studied Jewellery and Silversmithing at Edinburgh College of Art before completing an MA in 2011. She then returned home to the town of Aird, in the Isle of Skye, where she takes inspiration from the ever-changing shoreline and landscape.

“The tideline of Skye is a treasure trove of unique objects discarded from the urban environment and deposited by the power of the Hebridean swell. Here rope, wood and plastic take on a subtler identity as wind and wave shape and re-shape form and colour. These inspirational scenes are developed and translated in my work by utilising shapes and colours. Unconventional in size and structure, each piece is an expression of sculptural form and is designed to create a statement. The continually changing shoreline is my constant source of inspiration and my current collection ‘tidal surge’ is the contemporary interpretation of these surroundings.” – Heather McDermott, 2016

Jacqueline Mina

Born: 1942

Place of Birth: Buckinghamshire

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.

A Lecturer at the Royal College of Art from 1972 until 1994, Mina has made a significant contribution to art education and has provided a great source of inspiration to her students; many of whom have become distinguished jewellers. Winner of the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize for Jewellery in 2000 for ‘consistent innovation and a significant contribution to contemporary jewellery… for subverting and taking precious metal techniques to the extreme’, Mina also received an OBE for services to Art in 2012. In 2011, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths honoured her career with the retrospective exhibition, Dialogues in Gold, which brought together a selection of her work spanning almost her entire career to date. It included pieces that are still regarded as seminal today; ground-breaking pieces for contemporary practice in precious metal. This was followed by Touching Gold, an exhibition which toured the UK.

Jacqueline Mina’s technical brilliance, allied with her strong artistic curiosity has resulted in a range of sensuous, understated work, which has a rare aesthetic presence in the field of contemporary gold jewellery. Her superb technical accomplishment in manipulating precious metals is combined with a fine, painterly eye. Sources of inspiration include the Venetian Palazzo Fortuny with its textile drapes; featuring devoré velvet with their etched patterns.

Public collections include: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; V&A Museum, London; Cooper–Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York; Crafts Council, London; The Goldsmiths’ Company, London; Leeds Museums and Galleries.

Harry Morgan

Born: 1990

Originally from Manchester, Harry Morgan gained a 1st Class BA (Hons) degree in Glass from Edinburgh College of Art in 2014. Since graduating, Harry has exhibited at the 2015 British Glass Biennale in Stourbridge, where he was awarded the London Glassblowing Award for Emerging Talent. Harry currently works from his studio within Custom House Leith, Edinburgh.

Interested in the intrinsic ‘personalities’ of materials and their capacity to represent ideas, Harry’s current work explores the conflicting relationship between concrete and glass:

“Despite being composed of the same elements, glass and concrete appear as conflicting materials. With unclear borders and internal dimension, glass reflects ambiguity and intangibility. In sharp contrast, concrete is brutally physical; the word itself is used to describe absolutes and certainties. Both materials have strong social, cultural and polarised connotations; from the sumptuous history of Venetian glass to the Utopian concrete of post-war Brutalism. The use of glass in my work draws inspiration from the ancient Venetian glassblowing technique, murrine; where each rod or thread of glass is individually pulled by hand from a furnace. The glass is then arranged into a sequential structure and cast within concrete or precious metal, which binds them as one object. I’m interested in applying these traditional skills in alternative directions.” – Harry Morgan, 2017.

Harry was shortlisted and highly commended for the LOEWE Craft Prize 2019.

Harry Morgan‘s work featured in a group exhibition in September 2019 – Convergence.

Cara Murphy

Born: 1969

Place of Birth: Northern Ireland

Cara Murphy trained at Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. She applies traditional silversmithing techniques to craft innovative and sculptural functional silver tableware, which is inspired by the natural environment, creating a silver landscape for the dining table.

“Using traditional silversmithing techniques the work addresses the concept of a silver landscape that challenges the boundaries of functional silver tableware. The sculptural silver forms aim to challenge the users’ established knowledge of silverware by not alwayshaving an obvious function and questions the user’s perception of function.The use of silver evokes a sense of ritual and ceremony. Functionality has always been a fundamental aspect of the work and for several pieces this is the driving force behind it. Working with a variety of materials, predominately silver, the work investigates the organic grown form.” Cara Murphy

Public Collections include:

Aberdeen Art Gallery, Arts Council an Chomhairle Ealaion, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, National Museum of Ireland, Queens University Collection Belfast, St. Anne’s Cathedral Belfast, The Silver Trust Collection at 10 Downing Street, Ulster Museum Belfast, Shipley Art Gallery and the Irish Embassy Collection.

Jacqueline Ryan

Born: 1966

Place of Birth: London

Jacqueline Ryan spent time at the Fachhochschule in Dusseldorf and after graduating from the Royal College of Art, London in 1991, she moved to Padua, Italy and shared a workshop with Giovanni Corvaja. Jacqueline works exclusively in gold and precious materials to create organic forms characterised by intricate arrangements of repeated elements, bringing to the field a unique voice grounded in the Italian tradition of architecture and design. Jacqueline now has her own workshop in Todi, Italy.

‘Most of my pieces are preceded by studies derived from living organisms, marine plants, flowers, or seeds and other found objects with the occasional aid of macrophotography that capture some of the finer-scale qualities more difficult to perceive with the naked eye. Repetition, naturally occurring in nature, is a recurrent theme that runs through much of my work as well as movement in which the composite shapes and forms from which my work is constructed move and sway with the body and sometimes jingle and rattle – quietly giving the work a pleasant tactile dimension and interacting with the wearer so that the piece may be animated and alive. I feel that my work has completed its cycle when it has found its wearer.’ – Jacqueline Ryan

Public Collections include:

Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, Aberdeen; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France; Museum für Künst und Gewerbe,Hamburg, Germany; Museo degli Argenti, Florence, Italy; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

View and purchase a copy of On The Surface here. This is the publication that accompanied Jacqueline’s solo exhibition in August 2019.

Paul Scott

Born: 1953

Paul Scott lives and works in rural Cumbria. He has been a professional artist for over thirty years and is best known for his research into ceramics and print. He creates individual pieces that are exacting and critical, blurring the boundaries between fine art and design. A leading proponent of ceramics and print, he has been instrumental in demonstrating the contemporary creative potential of a combination used in industry for hundreds of years to mass-produce decorative wares and tiles. In 2010, he designed thirty linear metres of the record breaking Hanoi Mosaic Mural in Vietnam. Confected, Borrowed and Blue… an Installation by Paul Scott toured throughout 2015 – 2016 at various locations throughout the UK.

‘Over the years, my artworks have commemorated and examined a range of issues, from the Foot and Mouth crisis to the impact of energy extraction and production on our environment… I have inserted nuclear and coal fired power stations as well as wind turbines into pastoral landscapes, exploratory oil rigs in pristine arctic locations – and placed landscapes with fracking rigs onto cracked platters. In March 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan was enveloped by tidal waves following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The ensuing events cut power to water-cooling pumps and nuclear fuel rods melted down, creating the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s) Fukushima series commemorates the event. All works have been made on Willow pattern platters made in Japan. Although the Willow Pattern was originally made in late eighteenth century Staffordshire to imitate Chinese porcelain wares, it is a jumbled confection of designs with decorative details incorporating elements not only of Chinese porcelain but also Japanese Imari ware. It has been produced all over the world. I collaged an erased piece of an old English Willow pattern platter (c.1840) into the scene. I removed the original print and replaced it with an in-glaze print after Katsushika Hokusai’s woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa (c.1830). The nuclear power plant can be seen behind garden buildings.’ – Paul Scott, 2016

Public and Private Collections include:

Victoria & Albert Museum, London; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; Government Art Collection, UK; New York Historical Society, USA; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; The National Museum Stockholm, Sweden; The National Decorative Arts Museum, Norway; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA; Tullie House Carlisle Museum and Art Gallery.

Paul Scott presents a solo exhibition, Scenery, Samplers & Souvenirs, in May 2021. This exhibition presents new artworks which update historical transferwares for the 21st century, including a selection from his New American Scenery series. The exhibition also features work made as a result of his Gardens of Lyra collaboration with Spode and Fortnum & Mason and also presents new works from his Cuttings Series.

Jane Short

Born: 1954

Jane Short has had training both as a jeweller and silversmith, graduating from the Royal college of Art in 1979. She has been enamelling since 1974, using the traditional techniques of champlevé and basse-taille. These individually designed pieces may be richly coloured or make more subtle use of the wide range of colours available to the enameller, and are a painterly and evocative exploration of colour and imagery. Jane also collaborates with other silversmiths and makers to interpret their colour designs into enamel and received an MBE for services to the Craft of Enamelling in 2016.

‘I am endlessly fascinated with the vitality, subtlety and beauty of enamel on silver, and each of my pieces is an exploration into it’s possibilities.’ – Jane Short

Public collections include: The Goldsmiths’ Collection, London; The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Crafts Council Collection, London; The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; National Museum of Scotland; Hove Museum, South East Arts Collection.

Etsuko Sonobe

Born: 1955

Etsuko Sonobe is an established Japanese jewellery artist who trained at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. Over the past twenty years, her striking understated gold jewellery has been exhibited and is collected internationally. There is a formal strength and invention to her pieces, as she says: ‘the form, the material and the structure must relate to one another: I am always aware of this necessity when I am making a piece’.

Please contact the gallery for available work.

Joanne Thompson

Born: 1971

Place of Birth: Annan, Dumfries & Galloway

Joanne Thompson creates special everyday wearable pieces and extraordinary three dimensional necklaces and bracelets which are comfortable, elegant and easy to wear. Joanne studied Jewellery & Silversmithing at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating in 1993, before completing an MA in Jewellery at the Royal College of Art in London in 1995. Her distinctive silver and soft black palette is playful and sensual; elegant movement is integral to her jewellery – beautifully made, beautiful on and loved by women. Ancient chain maille patterns are a constant inspiration. Joanne experiments with the scale, weight, form and texture of the chains, making sculptural forms, necklaces, bracelets and earrings which are voluminous yet light, tactile and extremely durable. Her aim is to create striking contemporary jewellery which can be worn for both special occasions and every day. Joanne is fascinated by unit construction techniques in jewellery making, enjoying the way hard precious metals can be translated into soft forms which flow and stir with the body. Every circle in each unique handcrafted piece is formed, soldered and finished by Joanne.

Jessica Turrell

Born: 1964

Place of Birth: Bristol

Jessica trained in jewellery and enamel at Central School of Art, London. Upon graduation, she set up her own studio in her home city of Bristol. Over recent years she has undertaken a sustained period of research into mark-making using non-traditional enamel techniques. Jessica’s current studio practice includes the production of both jewellery and larger scale enamel work.

“I have developed an approach by which I seek to create work that moves away from traditional enamel practice in order to achieve a more ambiguous and expressive material quality. In both my jewellery and my larger scale work I strive to obtain a tactile delicacy whilst making pieces that reward the wearer’s close attention with an intricate and detailed surface.”

Public Collections include:
Crafts Council Permanent Collection; Fondazione Cominelli Permanent Collection

Tim Willey

Tim Willey is a sculptor, craftsman and applied ecologist. He established his own practice in the North Norfolk countryside, where he manages 12 acres of mixed woodland. This provides him with a continuous supply of sustainable materials and a perfect working environment, which he happily shares with numerous species of birds, mammals and insects. Tim is an active researcher in adaptive construction, open-fired ceramics and experimental archaeology and runs regular practical workshops, often in collaboration with the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, where he can share his knowledge and enthusiasm with others.

‘It is important that my work reacts to the material situation at hand, rather than being the result of an inwardly conceived idea. I like to follow a cyclical and rather seasonal pattern of working; from the planting of trees to the harvesting and processing of timber, and finally through to constructing, which might involve, cleaving, turning, carving, or indeed any action which seems appropriate.’ – Tim Willey

Tim was part of our group exhibition, In the Grain, in April 2021 at The Scottish Gallery.

Misun Won

Born: 1979

Misun Won graduated with a masters degree in 2008 from Edinburgh College of Art. Originally from Korea, her work is associated with the delicacy of highly refined handcraft from the East. Her extensive experience of living and working in both Britain and Korea has given her a broader cultural outlook. It has enabled her to position herself in what she calls “neutral territory” and to examine both cultures with “fresh eyes”. Influences from both countries can be seen in her work: a major inspiration is Korean patchwork, but this highly traditional form is interpreted through Western fractal geometry; creating dynamic structures for her collection.

Misun received a commendation at Goldsmiths’ Fair 2019 for her latest collection.

Yusuke Yamamoto

Born: 1979

Place of Birth: Kanagawa, Japan

Yusuke Yamamoto was born in Kanagawa, Japan in 1979 and now lives and works in North Wales. He trained in silversmithing at the renowned Musashino Art University, Tokyo. In 2011 Yusuke met Anna Gordon (currently the Head of the Silversmithing and Jewellery at Glasgow School of Art) and she invited him to take up an academic research position at GSA in 2012. In 2011 he visited Musashino Art University in Tokyo which has a world class reputation for metalwork, headed by Professor Hiroshi Suzuki.

Yusuke shapes metal by hammer raising and chasing techniques and draws inspiration from the natural world. With each stroke of the hammer, he tries to evoke an expression, atmosphere and emotion.

Public Collections include:
The Goldsmiths’ Company, London; The Clothworkers’ Company, London; The New College, Oxford

Yusuke’s work featured in the exhibition A Japanese Design in August 2020. Yusuke presents new work as part of Malcolm Appleby & Friends, August 2021.

Pinning Our Hopes

Join our mailing list