James Dougall

Following a successful career in fine art and antiques I have fulfilled a long held ambition to become a silversmith and jeweller. Under the tutelage of internationally recognised designers Andreas Fabian and Elizabeth Callinicos graduating with a first class honours degree in 2009.

My unusual approach to design for silver is based on an exploration of shape and form, combined with function in an attempt to find new ways of addressing the ways the medium is perceived in a rapidly changing world without viewing silver as an end in itself, therefore allowing my work to be unique yet approachable, useable.

The objects I produce often incorporate other materials and new work re-evaluates shagreen for both its durability and decorative merits in a way which enhances the traditional skills I use to produce my work.

Despite being a recent entrant to the designer silversmith world my work has already won numerous awards and has been exhibited at a number of venues, not least at Goldsmiths Hall, and through these opportunities I have been privileged to study under the world renound silversmith and engraver Malcolm Appleby and legendary silversmith Stuart Devlin.
Current major projects include a Hanging Pyx for Holy Trinity Church, Cookham, one of  only a handful of such objects to be designed for an Anglican setting in the UK within the last century.

I am a member of the UKs foremost association for designer makers in my field, Contemporary British Silversmiths, as well as the Association for Contemporary Jewellery, The Decorative Arts Society and have recently been selected for membership of the Oxfordshire Craft Guild.