Who's who in ACJ

Terry is a designer-maker who retired in 2010 from his position as deputy head of Birmingham’s School of Jewellery.

The role of chair is his first formal one with ACJ, though his involvement with the association was initially as a founder-member and deputy to Norman Cherry, the first chair.

His practice has predominantly been concerned with exploration of surface pattern and colour using titanium and anodised aluminium. Most recently this has 'grown' to include larger sculptures in coloured plastics.

Lynne is a designer/maker and joined the ACJ soon after it was founded.
Having originally studied chemistry and worked for many years in the Chemical Industry, jewellery is her second career.
Her recently completed PhD at the University of the Arts London combined both strands of her interests. The use of colour in jewellery has been a dominant theme in her work and she currently uses titanium and dyed anodized aluminium. She is an FGA and an examiner for the Gem-A Foundation Course in Gemmology and a member of the Colour Group (GB).

From her London studio based in the Goldsmiths’ Centre in Clerkenwell, Melanie combines traditional approaches with new applications, creating sculptural jewellery that uses geometry as a tool to explore the relationship of form to the body. She specialises in a bespoke service. Trained in Bermuda, Canada, New York and London; she holds an MA Design: Jewellery from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and is now an Associate Lecturer there. Melanie is involved in jewellery design and manufacture through facilitating creative and professional development – projects undertaken include research, writing, editorial work, teaching, exhibition installation and curation. She has been working on jewellery sector initiatives surrounding skills enhancement and professional development for emerging makers in South Asia since 2010, primarily in Afghanistan.

Caroline as a freelance business consultant, coach and trainer for the creative industries, Caroline has over 20 years' working with national charities, government agencies, galleries and practitioners in the UK and overseas.

Caroline is a specialist in the craft sector and has a particular focus on designing learning frameworks for business training, most recently with World Crafts Council Europe.  She is a business consultant for the Collect Art Fair, an accredited facilitator for the Thinking Environment and expert on exporting, producing an International Toolkit for the Crafts Council and Ceramics Art London.  Caroline is a Trustee for New Ashgate Gallery, Mentor for Arts Emergency, and and Advisor for Radcliffe Trust.

Rebecca Skeels started her business in 1994 after graduating from the University of Wales. Since 1994, Rebecca’s thirst for knowledge and her passion for sharing has led her to graduate from Central Saint Martin’s, MA Project by Design and achieving a PGC in Higher Education from the University for the Creative Arts. Rebecca is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

As a designer-maker, Rebecca’s work has been exhibited across Europe, in the USA and China and she continues to explore ideas and work collaboratively with like-minded designer-makers within different disciplines, utilising different materials. In parallel, Rebecca’s enthusiasm to encourage others to learn and to be creative led her to the position as Course Leader for Postgraduate courses in Craft at the University for the Creative Arts and now Senior Lecturer at the School of Jewellery At Birmingham City University in Jewellery and Objects. 

Anastasia is a jewellery artist, author and lecturer, whose jewellery has been exhibited internationally. Her eclectic jewellery is often project based and driven by a combination of ideas and technical exploration using narrative to explore both the design of a piece and its display when not being worn. Examples of her work are held in the permanent collections of the Science Museum, London and Central Saint Martins Museum.

Having written three technical jewellery books (Thames & Hudson, A&C Black) which have been translated into seven languages, Anastasia is well known as an educator, through her teaching and writing. She regularly lectures at Central Saint Martins and Morley College.

Dr. Mahtab Hanna is a British jewellery artist with a Middle Eastern background who demonstrates true artistry in the field of marrying the indelible art of jewellery with the quasi-science of politics. 

With a PhD from Central Saint Martins and an MA from the Royal college of Art, Mahtab defines Political jewellery as the journey of making both a covert and overt statement of political views using body adornments and art jewellery.  It epitomises every woman’s right of equality in the form of political representation and ideology in the post-truth 21^st century.

Mahtab regularly sits on panels, is invited to speak and featured in numerous publications. 

Karen leads a dynamic career as an advocate, researcher, and maker.  They studied silversmithing and jewellery design at The Glasgow School of Art, before completing a postgraduate residential course in traditional silversmithing at Bishopsland.  In 2022, Karen received their PhD from University of Dundee: bridging physics and craft.

Responsible craft practices and interdisciplinary collaboration are at the core of Karen's work.  Formerly the programme manager for ethical making at The Scottish Goldsmiths Trust; Karen continues to run their own creative business and lectures at The Glasgow School of Art.

Michael Lin is an award winning jeweller who graduated from BCU School of Jewellery.  Interested in narrative and fine jewellery, he is exploring the boundaries between narrative art jewellery and fine commercial jewellery.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, he is familiar with both Eastern and Western values, which enables him to merge different cultures into his work.  Greatly inspired by Japanese aesthetics concepts, he utilises a variety of materials including biomaterial, recycled or upcycled materials, while taking a hybrid of hand making and digital manufacturing processes, creating works that convey his perspective of Japanese aesthetics in a modern setting. 

Joanne Haywood is a mixed media art jeweller, educator, curator and writer. She holds a BA (Hons) in Jewellery Design from Central Saint Martins. Her work incorporates both traditional jewellery, metalsmithing and textiles techniques alongside innovative and personal processes.

She established her own London studio in 2001 and a decade later moved to the Kentish countryside where her studio is surrounded by woodland, orchards and wildlife.

Alongside her own creative practice, she also supports the craft sector through her roles as - Education Manager at the Crafts Council and Exhibition and Events Manager at The ACJ.

Cheri is a professional administrator located in South London. I am not a jeweller myself but do appreciate the talent and creativity that goes into making each glorious piece and I do love to wear beautiful jewellery.

Cheri works part-time for the ACJ as its administrator and is your first point of call for any queries.

Jo Lally is an active member of ACJ Wessex, who has recently completed an MA in Jewellery at UCA Farnham. She has a long standing passion for all kinds of jewellery, but especially anything different, creative and narrative. She has been working on combining words and images in jewellery. She also loves stones, the more unusual the better, and is a qualified gemmologist (FGA, DGA). Jo has a professional background in education, assessment and writing.