Farrah Al-Dujaili

 My design methodology revolves around the act of drawing as an intuitive and subconscious process; geometric and organic components ‘grow’ alongside each other to create hybrid forms not overtly floral, but organic and playful.

I apply drawing materials of pencil, crayons and watercolours to a surface of enamel paint. This gives a material link to my design methodology, enforcing the dialogue between drawing and making.

Laura Bradshaw-Heap

For me, art is about a shared experience, between artist, viewer, participant.
My practice seeks to create a social experience within marginal community groups with little or no experience of the creative arts. For me, the end product is not the jewellery produced by the group.

Rather the producing of jewellery is a means for developing a social experience within the group. It is these social experiences, of which I become a part of, which then inform my work.
My aim within my work, regardless to its final outcome and form, is to strive towards a complex concept, rooted in theory, which is portrayed with simplicity of material and technique.

Within my practice I always aim to seek a balance between practical making, writing and curating. For me, this balance between critical thinking and practical development is an essensal part of growing my practice, ideas and rational.

Melanie Codarin

elanie’s work is inspired by ‘graphic’ forms, natural and man-made, She modifies or even mutates the things we see, and create new contexts for them so they take on a new life, and new perceived meanings for the wearer. She enjoys seeing the narrative organically unfold and the influence that different materials have on the new forms.

Creating a dialogue between her practice as a graphic designer and new practice as a contemporary jeweller the strong, graphic narrative to Melanie’s work is playful and looks to communicate and engage through message, material choice, form and composition.

The computer, as well as hand drawing, play a key role in her creative process, as does the use of mixed media with a particular preference for wood and its derivatives. An important part of her practice is ethically sensitive production choices and sourcing of materials.

Melanie graduated with an MA in Jewellery Design from the Sir John Cass, London Metropolitan University in 2010.

Katie Lees

As a 2009 graduate of the Glasgow School of Art Katie dedicated her final year to the exploration of the perhaps incongruous concept of creating finely crafted jewellery, of silver and semi-precious stones, from the heavy industrial aesthetic of the shipbuilding history that has moulded the city of Glasgow. The language is drawn not only from the pragmatic forms and robust engineering of the ships themselves but also from the remnants of industrial steel sheds, from sheets of rusted steel and dock stanchions of weather washed wood that define the river Clyde along its length. The industrial aesthetic is not self conscious but prosaic and through a process of photographing, drawing and painting, condensing, repeating, and printing she has derived a body of work which extracts the essence of these evocative forms.Whilst undertaking a years residency at the Duncan of Jordanstone School of art Katie continued her exploration of our industrial surroundings and how they effect our everyday lives.

Yu-Ping Lin

Yu-Ping’s work is process-based and structurally complex. She is never without a sketchbook where her ideas evolve so she is constantly drawing with brush strokes. The inks sometimes bleed into the Chinese rice paper and at other times they develop into more in-depth ideas and detailed images. She also practices paper cutting/folding where the ideas of 3D structures originate.Her work focuses on the notion of Origami and Chinese paper art, architectural structures, interaction and seduction of pattern; the original pleasure captured by the structure of organisms inherent in nature.Yu Ping graduated from Birmingham City University and obtained MA degree in Jewellery, Silversmithing and Related Products.

Grace Page

Based in Birmingham’s famous Jewellery Quarter Dr Grace’s work is inspired by the bold claims and wild exaggerations of Victorian so-called ‘Miracle Cures’. From melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels to hangovers and bad hair days there is nothing that Dr Grace jewellery cannot cure.Combining equal quantities of metalwork and mixed media, along with a smidgen of irony and a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek humour she creates antidotal accessories – saving the world one piece of jewellery at a time! Grace is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Birmingham School of Jewellery.

Natalie Smith

Natalie’s work explores the ideas of growth, transformation and disintegration. She finds inspiration in surrealist science fiction, which is rich in atmosphere and imagery. Many of the books describe apocalyptic landscapes and alternate worlds that are on the brink of geographical catastrophes. In these dramatic dreamscapes there are no utopias, emphasis is placed on mental explorations and evocative journeys of the isolated humans.

She creates her pieces by combining permanent and temporary materials such as textiles and sugar. She likes the pieces to have a constantly changing structure and once completed, begin their transient lives. Depending on how they are cared for they may dissolve in humid conditions, change colour or melt like an ice-lolly on a hot day revealing the materials underneath. The evolution of the piece is something that interests Natalie greatly. She does not attempt to try and control what happens to the pieces after they are finished. She likes an element of surprise.

Natalie Studied Textile Art at Winchester School of Art, Graduating in 2002 and then went on to do an MA in Jewellery, Silversmithing and Related Products at the School of Jewellery, BCU in 2009-10.

Anna Wales

Anna’s work is designed to create a powerful visual impact along with an enticing tactility.  It features a combination of felt and silver, and oxidized silver with polished precious metals, which are arranged to form stark contrasts or subtle transformations throughout a singular piece.

Much of her inspiration comes from the manipulation of the materials themselves, through the creation and integration of different textures and forms and through observing the growth of her pieces as she constructs them, which in turn plants the seeds of new ideas. Visual references come from nature and the many juxtapositions that can be found there; hard next to soft, rough with smooth and stiff structures against free fluidity. She aims to ensure each piece is aesthetically distinct, pleasingly tactile, and sensual to wear.

Anna studied Jewellery at Middlesex University graduating in 27 and then went on to do a years residency at Bishopsland Workshops.