ABOUT BISHOPSLAND

Integrity in Making. Wholeheartedly

Training and education in the craft of silversmithing

Respect for materials, for craftsmanship, for honest endeavour, for excellence.

Bishopsland is an internationally recognised Postgraduate Centre of Excellence. The one year full-time residential course is designed to provide a bridge between a University degree and the ability to forge a career as a self-employed silversmith or jeweller. There is strong focus on core silversmithing and jewellery skills, honed via one-to-one tutorials and coaching, and Masterclasses given by Malcolm Appleby, Rod Kelly, Ndidi Ekubia, Bryony Knox and other distinguished master makers. Please go to Who’s Who for more on our tutors and Masterclass leaders.

BROWSE OUR PROGRAMME

Skills Training | Mentoring | Education | Incubation

We believe the transference of craft skills is vital to preserving our cultural heritage. With your support, we can continue to mentor and train craftspeople, create opportunities for them to connect and learn from one another, and establish a strong network of skilled craftspeople across the UK and beyond.

Bishopsland Cohort 2024/25

We are delighted to welcome our new cohort to Bishopsland

Aimée Mackay

Aimée is a graduate of K2 Academy of Contemporary Jewellery. Her inspiration comes from nature, from being outside and reading about wildlife and plants, both rare and mundane, from the exotic bowerbird to the humble wasp. She takes joy in the small details; weeds and moss, lichen, and tiny insects.

Her studio brims with twigs, bones, bird nests, and other curiosities, all waiting to inspire new designs. Aimée sits among objects she has collected; drawing and selecting shapes and textures to become new pieces. So much of our nature in this world is overlooked and disappearing. Finding new plants and animals to provide inspiration and introducing them to others is important to her.

Primarily working in precious metal, she also enjoys experimenting with organic materials, incorporating the natural world within her work.

Instagram: @aimeeleemackay

Website: Aimee Lee Mackay

Anna-Karina Henderson

Anna mostly takes her inspiration from nature, which offers such a diverse resource of shape, colour, and texture.

She makes things that look simple, but often require quite technical know-how because she likes to include some kind of movement in her pieces.

As long as they are tactile, slightly unusual, and beautiful, she is happy.

Instagram: @jewellerybyannakarina

Chamine Ghuss

Chamine uses the universal term of perspectives in the process of her jewellery and objects.

We live in a world flooded with opinions, where definitions are lost in translation. We will inevitably see different perspectives. Visual cues surround us, and the design of our environment can affect our choices. A choice can be forgotten – there are more than two sides to a story, therefore consider all angles. Within her work the philosophy of perspectives is a perception of respect, that we all have our own opinion.

The visual language of perspectives is followed by the compositional elements. The core of her plan is extracted from investigating construction lines. Building a trustworthy set of lines lets you keep the blueprints- it gives you the option to use the same lines to invent a new sequence. Construction lines are a choice of how you want to start. They are instructions that awaken and guide the visual language of her objects and jewellery. Every line, shape and angle will create a new conversation of arrangements.

Instagram: @cham.ina

Cynthia Yang

Cynthia is a jeweller who likes to explore the limits and capabilities of metal through small-scale silversmithing. Influenced by man-made and naturally hollow forms, such as wind instruments, corkscrew willow, and vases, her work attempts to translate these into wearable pieces. A focus of interest in Cynthia’s work is tube making and how metal can perform as a hollow material.

“In my work, I attempt to create large forms that their visual impact outweighs the physical. The challenges that I create motivate me to think outside of the box and problem solve imaginatively.

These hollow forms are extensions of myself and how I move and twist my body to create them. I nudge and coax the metal into shape, using the weight of my movements to control how far it goes before meandering the metal into its next curve.”

Instagram: @xinthia_jewellery

Dan Worrall

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Dixin Zheng

Dixin is a jewellery designer and metalsmith concentrated on developing proficiency in both modern and traditional silversmithing techniques; including laser welding, raising, chasing and repoussé.

During her undergraduate studies at Central Saint Martins (UAL) from 2019 to 2022, Dixin focused on creating jewellery. She then immersed herself in the fundamentals of silversmithing at Royal College of Art during 2023/24.

Dixin’s works reflect her constant observation and elaboration of our surroundings, allowing audiences to perceive and resonate by different engaging approaches.

Instagram: dixinjewellery

Finlay Grant

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Helenka Boden

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Jamie Watson

Jamie Watson is a playful maker who combines movement and illusion with the traditional skills of the silversmith. He first discovered his love for the craft while studying an Applied arts degree at Wrexham Glyndwr university. He found a sense of peace and joy in the act of manipulating the metal with a hammer in one hand and a tool in the other. He chases lines that weave under and over each other symbolising the nonlinearity of the path we each take in life.

Jessica Awaritefe

Jessica considers herself a metal artist in training who makes jewellery and object d’art inspired by her love of the natural
world; art to wear and to look at, bringing beauty and truth into the everyday through metal.

For her, becoming a goldsmith and metal artist is a calling, a gift she’s been graciously given to steward. Her influences stem from the Japonisme era when western goldsmiths were influenced by the novelty of Japanese art being brought into the continent. Through her study of nature and the art life of Japan she aims to imbue
these influences in everything she makes.

Instagram: @jessaah