Rising Stars Spotted at New Designers 2017
New Designers is the UK’s most important graduate design exhibition, full of innovation and fresh thinking. Every year the Goldsmiths’ Centre talent spots up and coming designer-makers who are exhibiting and our judges have selected ten individuals who demonstrate particular talent and skill within Jewellery & Contemporary Design, recognising them for their rising star potential.
This year’s judging panel included Director of the Goldsmiths’ Centre Peter Taylor, Silversmith Clive Burr, Jeweller Paul York, Silversmith Mary Ann Simmons, Executive Creative Consultant Lorna Watson, and Vocational Skills Consultant of the Goldsmiths’ Centre Robin Kyte, who between them have over 140 years’ experience in the industry.
TALENT SPOTTED 2017
Iona Hamilton
Iona’s work is influenced by the visual impact of intricate structures and forms within nature – the concept of the continuous growth in plants and their beauty are the foundation for her silversmithing and jewellery work.
Course attended: University of Dundee
Leszek Sikon
Leszek makes handcrafted bespoke knifes and blacksmith products. Combining modern design and traditional skill to create new and unique objects in a world of mass production.
Course attended: Hereford College of Arts
Yi Feng
Yi Feng creates handcrafted luxurious contemporary jewellery with distinctive layered patterns. Using a Japanese metalworking procedure, Mokume-gane, the metal takes on the appearance of natural wood grain.
Course attended: School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University
Rebecca McDonnell
Rebecca’s work explores how eyewear can be used to frame the face. With a jeweller’s aesthetic sensitivity and attention for detail, she explores non-conventional approaches to design, drawing on Deconstructionism found in interiors and architecture.
Course attended: Sheffield Hallam University
Callum Patridge
Rocking sculptural vessels in patinated gilded metal make up Callum’s unique collection.
Course attended: The Cass, London Metropolitan University
Allie Anderson
Allie’s work is defined by a minimalist aesthetic, focussing on the textures and form of objects. She takes inspiration from industrial, urban landscapes, which are taken out of context by being formed in precious metals into visually interesting pieces.
Course attended: Glasgow School of Art
Dominika Kupcova
Dominika is a jewellery designer and maker who aims to create complex, eye-catching structures with an element of optical illusion. Her work is informed by the aesthetic properties of the DNA double helix and DNA testing outcome – a fascination with the intricacies of human genetic make-up, uniformly structured yet individual.
www.dominikakupcovajewellery.com
Course attended at: Glasgow School of Art
Lesley McAlpine
Silversmith Lesley’s sleek vessels feature cube-like surface textures, which mirror the rugged and rocky Scottish coastal landscapes.
Course attended: Glasgow School of Art
Paula Sloane, PS Jewellery Design
Paula, the founder of PS Jewellery Design, creates distinctive, one off pieces of jewellery on a commission led basis.
Course attended: Glasgow School of Art
Jacob Haggarty
Jacob is a professional blacksmith and artisan craftsman forging steel through considered design combined with an experimental process. His tactile pieces invite the viewer to ingrain the textures of his work into their memories.
www.jhaggarty.wix.com/jhaggartyblacksmith
Course attended: Hereford College of Arts
Goldsmiths' Company Jewellery Winner
Sponsored by the Goldsmiths’ Company, the winner of the Goldsmiths' Company Jewellery Award receives a one week work experience placement with a leading Master craftsperson at the Goldsmiths’ Centre.
Miki Asai
Miki’s jewellery is inspired by intangible and those fleeting and changeable phenomenon, and how this portrays the nature of everything in the world. Her aesthetics and concept are strongly based on her Japanese aesthetic that finds beauty in impermanence, imperfection, transience and ephemerality.
“Technically outstanding, this gold brooch is a modern interpretation of the historical technique 'entremble'. Refined enchanting and exquisite.”
Course attended: Glasgow School of Art
Goldsmiths' Company Silversmithing Winner
Sponsored by the Goldsmiths’ Company, the winner of the Goldsmiths' Company Silversmithing Award receives a one week work experience placement with a leading Master craftsperson at the Goldsmiths’ Centre.
Andrew Fleming
Andrew explores the subject of silversmithing and its relationship to the built environment. Having studied architecture, he is fascinated by temporary construction processes within architecture, such scaffolding and formers.
“An interpretation of building and construction processes applied to silversmithing design. These whimsical, precise and beautiful vessels show a modern twist on ladles.”
www.andrewflemingsilversmith.com
Course attended: Glasgow School of Art