Heather Croft

VICE CHAIR

I love bowls. I fire the base in the kiln and paint them being inspired by nature, people I meet and a paintbox of colours. An amazing Azure Blue or a Oak Green will make me feel good and that's what I want people to feel when they see my bowls - to feel good.

I am recently retired and discovered the world of enamelling recently and feel I have just found my true vocation. It's a wonderful world full of experimenting and learning. One can never get tired from enamelling as it frustrates and delights you every time.

It's a joy to be a part of this heritage craft and I love sharing this skill with others.

Miranda Sharpe

TREASURER

After studying for an MA at the Birmingham School of Jewellery, I launched my business from the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter in 2001 becoming a part of the vibrant making community there. I have shown my work widely across the UK and ventured into the international market. My first introduction to enamelling was an evening class whilst studying for my MA, led by Penny Gildea. My early collections featured some enamel work but I also used resin with silver which became my dominant material for some years. Needing a change and fresh inspiration I revisited enamel around 2010 and haven’t looked back. 

Bethan Jones

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY

As a jeweller I enjoy incorporating enamel into my work. Enamelling forces you to take the perspective of the student, always exploring the possibilities available and honing the successful processes. The range of results that can be achieved through enamelling and being exposed to so many styles here at the BSoE is an endless source of inspiration. I joined the society as a bursary member in 2012 and have become more involved as my enthusiasm for enamelling and its community has grown.

Charlotte Smith

BULLETIN EDITOR/SOCIAL MEDIA

Enamelling came into my life by accident, when my now-husband came home one day with a kiln, a box of ancient enamels and a book, and deposited them into my workshop (to some derision and confusion on my part I must admit). Much trial and error, and book reading ensued and I fell in love with enamel, teaching myself how to do traditional champlevé. An MA at The School of Jewellery in Birmingham, lead to more experimental work and I am now exploring and discovering different ways to use enamel.

Navah Langmeyer

WEB SECRETARY

A mathematician by training and employment, I took up metalwork and jewelry making at the Baltimore Jewelry Center in 2016 and discovered my particular passion for enameling there in the winter of 2019. In early 2020, I started working primarily with a kiln and basic tools in my home. I create artwork with the colors, textures, and structures of enamels and cold connections, experimenting with techniques and methods in my minimal home studio. I’m inspired by my mathematical background, my love for being in any and all bodies of water, and, most recently, the landscape of my current British home country, particularly the dramatic coastline which I literally incorporate into much of my work. While diverse in style and technique, my work is always bursting with color and texture.

Evangeline Long

Committee Member

I trained as a sculptor at the Slade in the fifties. Years later my husband, an art advisor for County Durham gave me a Schauer enamelling kit to try out and I became hooked!
A chance encounter with Maureen Carswell led to my becoming one of the founder members of the British Society of Enamellers, chairing the committee at one stage. I have also acted as a committee member and have been involved in arranging conferences and exhibitions in Britain as well as attending conferences and participating in many exhibitions abroad. I have worked mainly on copper panels ranging between 15cm and 120 cm in size but occasionally, due to the influence of sculpture, I cut and form three-dimensional pieces before enamelling them.

Kathryn Willis

COMMITTEE MEMBER

I was introduced to enamelling by Ros Conway whilst on my jewellery degree at Middlesex University. From that day I was hooked, loving the ability to play with layers of colour and pattern in a similar way to printmaking.  My work draws inspiration from my local Welsh landscape and textile heritage as well as recurrent themes of growth, repetition and nature. I am a Member of the Makers Guild in Wales, exhibit at various galleries and teach part time.

Belinda Coyne

COMMITTEE MEMBER

My current work is inspired by ancient geological landscapes and the hidden traces of ancestral life. Referring to ordnance survey maps and physically walking the landscape, I trace and record tumuli, dew ponds, paths, river beds and other evidence of past life.

Through the medium of steel and kiln fired vitreous enamel I layer diagrammatic notation with a poetic, visceral response producing folding pocket maps, rulers, measuring sticks and wall panels. I don’t try to represent the landscape, rather foster a sense of placement within space through my use of materials and mark making.

I am interested in creating work that engages with a wider audience and explores the communicative potential of Craft whilst also investigating the challenges of working at (for enamel) a relatively large scale.

Beate Gegenwart

COMMITTEE MEMBER

Beate Gegenwart is a maker and curator who lives and works on the Gower Peninsular near Swansea in the United Kingdom. Originally from Germany, she studied at the University of Wales, Cardiff, and the University of the West of England, completing two Master degrees. Drawing, mark-making, the explicit connections between material, process and maker as well as an emphasis on concept and idea are all central to her practice as an artist.

The bowl has become an important vehicle for me to express stored thoughts, writing and feelings. These bowls speak of movement, absence and rhythms. The insides are inscribed with fine lines and they have a matt, abraded surface; the outsides are a beautiful, rich, glassy black.