AMANDA COLEMAN

“As a child I lived in a craft centre in a tiny little place called Staunton Harold in Leicestershire. It was a beautiful place, in the grounds of an old stately home with lots of lakes, woods and cows around. My parents were potters and painters. I had always dabbled at making clay animals to sell for pocket money in the pottery and at the age of thirteen I had already started a little business making buttons and beads out of polymer clay and taking them to sell around the shops in Derby and Nottingham.

I studied 3D design at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design in Farnham. After graduating I opted for a further one year’s residency at the Bishopsland Workshops in Reading and then was fortunate to gain a place at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London to undertake a Masters in Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery.I graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1998 and promptly set up a workshop in Clerkenwell, London with the help from the Crafts Council and the Prince’s Youth Business Trust.

Since then I have been making and developing my designs into jewellery collections that aim to satisfy my thirst for experimentation and new concepts in jewellery construction techniques in a style all of my own.I now live in the beautiful Cathedral City of Lincoln with my husband – a fellow designer who I met whilst studying at the Royal College and our two gorgeous and cheeky little children. I have found that becoming a mother has helped me to get a fresh perspective on my designing. Seeing the world through the eyes of my children has ignited an interest in fairytales, mystery and magic and developed a fascination of bugs and flowers that might have previously gone unnoticed.”