LYNN ADAMS

Ten years ago I left behind my business career of 25 years to begin serious professional training and turn what was an avocation into a second career. I enrolled as a full-time student at the Sir John Cass Department of Art, one of the premier art and craft institutions in the UK. My training consisted of a formal introduction to the traditional aspects of silversmithing and jewelery-making as well as some of the design work associated with an art college degree. This combination gives me lots to consider.

I love the movement associated with metal – I prefer forging and chasing to piercing and engraving. Enamel, the same – it is alive and takes experience to keep more or less under control. I enjoy combining elements of the various crafts in unusual and challenging ways. My current focus is jewellery, mainly with enamel, but I would be a very different jeweler if I did not also have a strong training in silversmithing techniques.

On completing the Higher National Diploma (the UK’s traditional BA-equivalent in technical subjects) I left London to move to Lyme, New Hampshire. Although I loved the city, most of my design is inspired by nature. I am attracted by the multitude of layers – of colour and light and texture – found in the wooded countryside here in New England. I feel most satisfied when I can suggest their richness and complexity in my work.