Pioneering Ring Makers
A WORLD OF INVENTION
Pioneering Ring Makers
Rings from the Goldsmiths’ Company Collection 1961–2021
Gerda Flöckinger CBE (b. 1927) changed the course of modern British jewellery during the 1960s and 1970s as a teacher and as a maker with an instantly recognisable style. Her pioneering course at Hornsey College of Art influenced a whole generation of makers.
Wendy Ramshaw OBE (1939–2018) was a ground-breaking British post-war artist jeweller; she presented her iconic sets of stacking rings on turned acrylic stands, emphasising their strong sculptural role. The minimalistic rings of the German artist Friedrich Becker (1922–1997), with their invisible settings, were key to the development of Modernism in contemporary jewellery.
Scottish craftswoman Professor Dorothy Hogg MBE (b. 1945) makes work of breath-taking precision. The Company recently commissioned a pair of her iconic silver cube rings, one with a single ‘leg’ of 18 carat French green gold. As Head of the Jewellery and Silversmithing Department at Edinburgh College of Art from 1985 to 2007, Hogg has been an incredibly influential teacher.
“I explored alternative ideas to the round ring…”
— Dorothy Hogg, personal correspondence
Contemporary jeweller Emefa Cole, inspired by landscape and architecture, uses the ancient lost wax technique to cast exquisite, sculptural rings in gold and oxidised silver.
The Goldsmiths’ Company continues to build its collection of rings and plays an important role in supporting contemporary jewellery. The beguilingly simple, intimate and endlessly flexible form of the ring continues to offer long-lasting challenge and enjoyment to both makers and wearers.
[1] Amanda Game interview with Dorothy Hogg, 2021
You may be interested in
A WORLD OF INVENTION Introduction
Our online exhibition examines the role of design drawings in the art of the contemporary silversmith. Explore the exhibition, and the stories behind the drawings, by clicking on the images. Shown alongside the finished pieces which have been made from them, these designs take us to the heart of the creative process. A maker uses a drawing to feel their thinking. It is a way of exploring the world and translating a concept into silver.
In Conversation with Dorothy Hogg
Upon the recent announcement of the acquisition of a series of seminal works by Scottish jeweller Dorothy Hogg for the Goldsmiths’ Company Collection, jewellery curator and Liveryman, Amanda Game sat down with Dorothy to uncover the secrets behind some of her most important pieces. Dorothy Hogg studied at Glasgow School of Art and the Royal […]
Amanda Game in conversation with Dr Dora Thornton
Amanda Game discusses brooches in her own collection with Dr Dora Thornton, Curator of the Goldsmiths’ Company Collection. Amanda Game is an independent curator and Liveryman of the Goldsmiths Company who has enjoyed a 40-year career organising exhibitions for galleries and museums in the field of contemporary metalwork, silver, ceramics and jewellery. We are showing […]