Interview with Sarah Rogers, Rojhe Design

We spoke to jewellery designer and maker Sarah Rogers about how a Dewar Arts Award will support the development of her work.

The Trustees of the Dewar Arts Awards are delighted to announce that we have a new £90,000 fund to support ambitious, talented young people across Scotland who have a passion for traditional rural and craft skills.

Sarah Rogers, a jewellery designer and maker, is the first recipient of an award from this funding stream. We spoke to Sarah to find out more about how her Dewar Arts Award will support her work.

 

To find out more about Sarah’s work, visit her website at www.rojhedesign.com. You can also follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

To find out more about our new funding stream, read the news article here: New funds to support talented young people across Scotland

2010 Awardee: Jennifer Gray

I would like to express my gratitude to the trust for awarding me with such a generous grant and assure you that I will be entering my studies in London with full enthusiasm and total dedication to justify the faith shown to me by the Dewar Arts Awards.

Biography

Motherwell born and bred, Jennifer graduated with a first-class degree from the Glasgow School of Art in 2006. Since then she has lived and worked in Glasgow, London and the Isle of Skye on various collaborative design projects.

Her work has been shown at Dazzle, Gallery Marzee (Holland), The Collins Gallery (Glasgow), The Roger Billcliffe Gallery (Glasgow) and Goldsmith’s Hall. In 2006 she won the Joint Incorporation of Hammersmith Memorial Prize and since then has won a host of awards and bursaries in recognition of her work.

Until recently Jennifer was a part-time lecturer with Glasgow Metropolitan College and Artist in Residence at the Jewellry and Silversmithing Department of the Glasgow School of Art. The work produced as part of the residency is on show in the AIR10 exhibition in galleries throughout the UK.

Jennifer is already acknowledged as a fine jeweller, but is considered to be equally talented as a draughtswoman and as a sculptor. She has recently completed a successful commission for a series of silver ‘beasties’ to serve as table place-markers and based on the Queen’s Beasts.

Jennifer has been accepted onto the highly prestigious MA course in Silversmithing at the Royal College of Art, London. For further information about Jennifer’s work, see www.jennifergray.co.uk.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Awards will help support Jennifer during her postgraduate studies at RCA. After demonstrating excellent progress in the first year, Jennifer’s award was extended for a second and final year.

I would like to express my gratitude to the trust for awarding me with such a generous grant and assure you that I will be entering my studies in London with full enthusiasm and total dedication to justify the faith shown to me by the Dewar Arts Awards.

2009 Awardee: Pauline Edie

I would like to say thank you, this grant will be a great help to what would have been an incredibly difficult year financially.

Biography

Edinburgh-born Pauline graduated with a first-class degree in jewellery and silversmithing from the Glasgow School of Art. Her degree show exhibition stood out due to her range of designs, skilful making and an exceptional overall display.

Since then Pauline won in 2009 the Hammerman Award and the Goldsmiths Company Precious Metal Bursary Award and a professional development award from the Scottish Arts Council. Her work has been exhibited at London Dazzle, New Designers at Islington Business Centre, Bovey Tracy, Devon and in January 2010 is on show at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh and at New Beginnings 2010 at the SDC gallery in London.

Pauline has been accepted by the prestigious Bishopsland Educational Trust which aims to give new graduates the opportunity to produce work and gain skills to enable them to become designer/makers. As part of the course, Pauline will exhibit in high-profile shows such as Collect, the international art fair at the V&A.  For more information, see: www.paulineedie.com.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award has been given to help Pauline pursue postgraduate study in jewellery and silversmithing.

Since the Award

Pauline writes “when I look back over my year at Bishopsland, I can see how far I’ve come.” In early 2010, Pauline was selected to be part of the month-long National Museum of Scotland exhibition ‘Meet Your Maker’, followed by the V&A touring exhibition ‘Silver from Bishopsland’.

Later, she was invited to take part in the prestigious applied arts fair ‘Collect’ at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Since leaving Bishopsland, Pauline and some fellow students have formed a collective of designers and will be showing at the Liverpool Design Festival and the British Craft Trade Fair.

I would like to say thank you, this grant will be a great help to what would have been an incredibly difficult year financially.

2008 Awardee: Lynne MacLachlan

I am very grateful for this help, without which I would not be able to undertake my studies at the Royal College of Art.

Biography

Paisley-born Lynne MacLachlan is one of several jewellers supported by a Dewar Arts Award. Graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone College, Lynne won both a Goldsmith Precious Metal Bursary and a Cross Trust Vacation Award in her final year at college.

Lynne’s work intriguingly weaves together such disparate areas as craft and computing, mathematics and nature and she creates exquisite and wearable jewellery from shapes normally associated with biological organisms, as referenced in the work of D’Arcy Thompson.

Lynne is also winner of the Scottish International Education Trust’s Visual Arts Prize which is given to a student at a Scottish art college. A piece of her work has been purchased by the Dundee University Museum. Lynne is a jeweller whose future is assured.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award is helping to fund Lynne through the first year of an MA at Royal College of Art in London. During the year she was short-listed for the Argent Young Jewellry Designer of the Year.

Since the Award

Lynne’s work was showcased in our 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Roots to shoots. Find out more here.

I am very grateful for this help, without which I would not be able to undertake my studies at the Royal College of Art.

2007 Awardee: Jonathan Boyd

I would like to thank …. everyone at Dewar Arts Awards for this truly amazing opportunity.

Biography

Aberdeen-born Jonathan Boyd has been designing jewellery to wear since he was sixteen years old. He gained entry to Glasgow School of Art to pursue his passion for jewellery design, where he graduated with a first-class honours degree. He won the Richard Hubbard Memorial Prize while at the GSA.

Jonathan’s work is mostly narrative based and his most recent collection focussed on remembrance and personal memory. His degree show stood out from work by his contemporaries and compared convincingly with mature work by respected British and European makers.

Since graduation, Jonathan has produced both private commissions and exhibited at the major jewellery exhibitions and galleries, including Galerie Marzee (Holland), Dazzle’s Winter Exhibition in London and New Designers Section, which is an exhibition of the 50 best designers who exhibited at New Designers 2006. Jonathan was also runner-up for the 2006 Designer of the Year Award.

Pursuing an MA at the Royal College of Art is the next step for Jonathan to extend his technical skills and to develop conceptually.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help finance Jonathan to pursue an MA in metalsmithing, goldsmithing, silversmithing and jewellery at the Royal College of Art, London.

Since the Award

During his two years at RCA, Jonathan won a number of prizes including the Wadesddon Manor Commended Award and Marzee International Graduate Award and, principally, the Theo Fennel Award for Overall Excellence at the RCA Graduate Show. He was also shortlisted for the Conran Award 2009. Since finishing his MA, Jonathan has exhibited in several high-profile galleries.

Alongside his creative work he returns to the Glasgow School of Art as a lecturer/tutor. Of his work, Jonathan writes that it “addresses themes of written language, text and the object and their complex and intricate relationships.”

April 2014: Jonathan designed the medals for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games (read more here)

January 2013: Jonathan’s work was exhibited as part of our Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, Roots to Shoots.

I would like to thank …. everyone at Dewar Arts Awards for this truly amazing opportunity.

2006 Awardee: Sarah Hutchison

Biography

The professor of silversmithing at the Edinburgh College of Art ranks Sarah as “one of the two remarkable fine metalworkers I have encountered during my teaching career.” The other being Andrew Lamb, Dewar Arts Award winner in 2003.

The most remarkable aspect of Sarah’s work is that within a very ancient craft she has found an innovative way of making silversmithing pieces. By breaking historic ‘rules’ she is developing an entirely fresh way of working.
Sarah is also very unusual in that she works comfortably and skillfully in both silversmithing and jewellery. Sarah injects an entirely feminine and decorative aesthetic to functional objects by including stones and pearls within silversmithing pieces.

Already winner of several prestigious awards, including 2004 Student Designer of the Year, Sarah is “an ambitious spirit” who consistently produces exciting, fresh and radical work.

Originally from Port Seton near Edinburgh, Sarah is ready to take her place on the international arena.

The Dewar Arts Award will enable Sarah to design and produce three large-scale objects in silver and gold and support a study visit to Mexico to develop her ideas.

Since the Award

Sarah successfully completed a magnificant candelabra, a pair of water jugs and a milk and sugar set to go with a teapot (see images in her gallery) during her year supported by an Award.  She would not have made the teaset on speculation, yet it beautifully showcases her incredible talent as a silversmith.

Sarah writes, “My Dewar Award came at a great time for me in my career.  I was feeling confident and inspired to make bigger pieces.  I would never have been able to finance myself and I really have learnt a great deal over the past year.”

2003 Awardee: Andrew Lamb

The experiences I have had meant that having graduated I was in a great position and gave me the confidence to set up on my own

Biography

As an undergraduate at the Edinburgh College of Art, Andrew Lamb, was considered to be one of the finest young metalworkers/jewellers of his generation.  By the time he went on to do a Masters at London’s Royal College of Art, Andrew had won several prestigious UK and international awards for his work, including the World Crafts Council Europe Award for Contemporary Crafts in Munich.

Andrew writes that the award came at just the right time for him creatively.  He had been spending a lot of time mastering new techniques, but was cautious about the cost of the materials he was using.

Receiving the award meant that “I could take the plunge and put to the test my discoveries using white, yellow and red gold, and silver. The results meant I could successfully go on to produce an exciting final body of work which would subsequently lead me to the next level in my career.”

Andrew went on to win a number of major prizes for his final year show. He was also given the very prestigious commission by De Beers to design a piece to be presented by the Queen to John Oxx, trainer of Azamour, the winning horse in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award supported Andrew in the second year of his Master’s degree.

Since the Award

Andrew writes that he is “so pleased and extremely grateful to have been given such a prestigious Award. It goes without saying that the Dewar Arts Award has been massively beneficial and supportive to me at that particular stage in my career.” For more information about Andrew’s work, see www.andrewlamb.co.uk.

The experiences I have had meant that having graduated I was in a great position and gave me the confidence to set up on my own