3D Wendy Ramshaw

Wendy Ramshaw

Wendy Ramshaw is Britain's foremost designer of jewellery. Her achievements have been acknowledged at the highest levels. Wendy Ramshaw works in both the fields of Jewellery and Public Art. She is best described as an artist jeweller, working in both small and a large scale, from millimetres to meters. Her designs are distinctive and innovative.

Wendy Ramshaw's works can be found in museum collections all around the world, while others are worn on an everyday basis. The works range from the very simple, to the very complex. She has continually experimented with a diverse range of materials and new technologies. Wendy first trained in illustration and textile design. Her early jewellery, made in the early 1960s with her husband David Watkins, used screen-printed acrylic and paper. Her signature works are sets of rings, abstract pieces in precious metals and gems. Wendy's on going ring sets won an award “for innovation” from the Design Council in 1972.

In the early 1970s Wendy developed a minimalist style influenced by industrial design. Her work had a distinctive linear purity with blocks of colour. The versatility of her work, gained her many awards. Wendy's later work incorporates colour with a range of materials including gold, silver, glass and perspex. She also used a variety of metal techniques and technical skills including enamelling, anodising and resin inlay. Vibrantly coloured patterns are created with precisely cut and set precious stones.

Wendy Ramshaw's sculptural ring stands are works of art, inspired by a wide range of things, including women from Pablo Picasso's paintings. She also says much of her work is based on the geometry of the circle and the square, the band and the ring. Wendy said, “it's about complication and how far you can push an idea.” Much of her recent work is on a larger scale, including gates, screens and sculptures that ornament buildings and architecture. In many ways, it's like how her jewellery ornaments the body. Wendy's designs have an incredibly geometric quality that are extremely complex.

Ramshaw’s jewellery is severe and at the same time playful. It can be reminiscent of origami or vintage science fiction movie props, or sometimes dark forms with dramatic distortions of scale. Her work shows a connection to industrial design, but it has a warmth about it. Wendy Ramshaw says she never tires of searching for new directions within which to progress. That is why she is considered one of the greatest living jewellery designers. Wendy Ramshaw's elegant and distinctive jewellery designs of ring sets, brooches, earrings and neckpieces will continue to received praise from her peers and the public.