Stephen Bottomley
Jeweller
/
MunichJewelleryWeek2024
Published: 06.08.2025
News!
5 new pieces have been added to the artist's profile.
- Website Glasgow School of Art
- Website GSA Radar
- Website Design Research Clusters
- Instagram Stephen Bottomley
- Mail:
- stephenbottomley
hotmail.com - s.bottomleygsa.ac.uk
Bio
Stephen Bottomley lives in Scotland and Head of the School of Design at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) and Professor of Jewellery Culture and Innovation. Previously he was Head of School of Jewellery (2017-2022) and the School of Fashion and Textiles (2019-22) at Birmingham City University, he also led the Department of Jewellery and Silversmithing at Edinburgh College of Art / University of Edinburgh (2008-17).His work combines the ancient techniques of jewellery making with a wide range of contemporary industrial materials. Techniques typically include vitreous enamel, embossing press-forming and etching. Inspiration comes from nature, oriental motifs and mathematical geometry layered through embossed repetitive textures.
Bottomley has curated many exhibitions, including Chicago, Lake Garda, Beijing, Shanghai, Munich. He is a member of the International Jewellery College Association (IJCA), and a prior chairman of the Association for Contemporary Jewellery (2005-07) and is an active member of the Associazione Gioiello Contemporneo. He has been a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths since 2017. His jewellery works are represented in the National Museums of Scotland, the British Museum and the Cominelli Foundation Collection, Italy.
Statement
My jewellery is rooted equally in the past as the present. I am inspired by historical contexts, origins, and the traditions of the goldsmiths’ craft and how their creative possibilities can be extended by modern technology. Form, pattern,colour, surface, proportion, and rhythm are all important elements in the vocabulary of my jewellery in both precious and non-precious materials. Recent work has evolved from a captivation with vitreous enamel, a long-lasting and intoxicating material with a rich historical tradition but one open to contemporary interpretations through modern applications. I have become entranced by enamel’s ability to transform surfaces through soft saturating colour and the hard brilliance of glass. It possesses the power to animate inert pattern and shape with light, warmth, and reflected movement.CV 
Events
Publications
News!
5 new pieces have been added to the artist's profile.
- Website Glasgow School of Art
- Website GSA Radar
- Website Design Research Clusters
- Instagram Stephen Bottomley
- Mail:
- stephenbottomleyhotmail.com
- s.bottomleygsa.ac.uk
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