UK
Professor Stephen Bottomley is the Head of the School of Design at Glasgow School of Art. Previously he has led the schools of Jewellery and Fashion and Textiles at Birmingham City University (2017-2021) and department of Jewellery and Silversmithing at Edinburgh College of Art (2008-17), as well as teaching at a range of other Universities for over thirty years.
A contemporary jeweller, his work is in the National Museums of Scotland, the British Museum and the Cominelli Foundation Collection, Italy. His work combines the ancient techniques of jewellery making with evolving and contemporary materials and technologies. Materials include vitreous enamel jewellery combined with metals and other industrial. Inspiration comes from the rhythm and patterns found in oriental motifs and mathematical geometry through layers of embossed repetitive patterns and textures.
Bottomley has curated exhibitions and inter-disciplinary projects in Chicago, Lake Garda, Beijing, Shanghai and Munich. A past chairman of the Association for Contemporary Jewellery (2005-07) he was proud to be connected to the AGC when it was founded. Bottomley is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths since 2017.