Linda Connelly is an enamel artist. She designs and makes enamelled jewellery and small silver pieces. Her designs are inspired by places and memories. Her work is vibrantly coloured and beautifully finished. Linda uses traditional enamelling skills such as cloisonne, champleve and basse-taille in her own unique style. Her pieces have won multiple awards in the annual Goldsmiths’ Craftsmanship and Design Awards in London.
Enamel Experience
Linda first discovered enamelling nearly forty years ago after her husband bought home an old enamelling kiln from a charity shop. She was immediately entranced by the combination of glass and vibrant colour together with the almost infinite range of possibilities that enamelling offers. Blending and shading different Enamels to build up veils of colour in order to convey mood and feeling never fails to provoke a sense of excitement and anticipation, as no two pieces are ever completely identical. Each piece evolves over a succession of firings, typical anything from six to a dozen or more although each one only lasts a minute or two. Over the years Linda has experimented and explored a wide range of enamelling techniques on silver, copper and steel. These techniques include stencilling; painting; sgraffitto; making and enamelling 3-dimensional forms using copper shim; printing with enamels; plique-a-jour; liquid enamels; foils, mica and lustres.
New Work
Linda’s latest work derives from walking and drawing in landscapes both here in the UK and abroad. Her work has developed from her photos and sketches. These are memories of time spent absorbing the flora and fauna around her. She walks footpaths over marshes and cliffs watching the ever-changing colour and movement of the sea and sky. The pieces reflect her sense of awe and wonder of the natural world around us. Linda begins each piece with hand engraving the silver using gravers to create texture. This mark making reflects foliage and movement of the sea and sky. Next she adds layers of transparent enamels. She uses it like watercolours. Thin veils of touches of colour are built up. Each layer is fired in the kiln for one or two minutes before the next is added. Each piece will have seven or more layers. Then comes the painstaking process of finely finishing the surface. This creates a perfect, smooth and tactile finish. Many pieces are augmented with cloisonné birds using fine silver and gold wire which have painted enamel details.
Linda’s work is designed for special occasions and for everyday; smart nights out and for walking the dog, all with an eye on sustainability using recycled materials where possible to make pieces for today that will become the heirlooms of tomorrow.
See here for Linda Connelly’s CV
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