Emily Higham is a contemporary Jeweller who uses the process of enamelling to explore colour and pattern within jewellery. Using a combination of industrial liquid enamel layered over vitreous enamel, Emily creates delicate and aesthetical jewellery pieces that are inspired by the beautiful colours and patterns of honeycomb and the shapes and layers found within beehives.

Emily graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2016 with a BA(Hons) in Jewellery and Silversmithing and in 2017, won the Guild of Enamellers bursary award. Since then, she has been developing and expanding her collection from her studio at home in Preston, Lancashire.

‘Beehives and the beautiful gradient colours of honey and honeycomb inspire my jewellery. I take inspiration from the rectangular shapes of beehive boxes and the layers they are built upon, stacked in a neat uniform line above each other, contrasted with the organic unpredictability of how the honeycomb itself grows and forms around the frames within the hive boxes. These layers are then translated into formed metal and enamel. Resembling the layers built up within beehive boxes, both within the outside of the box and the rectangular slots hidden inside, the enamelling process itself is mainly about layering. One layer of enamel is fired on top of another, thus the process goes on. This process allows me to build up gradient layers of colours, marks and surface patterns which are then drawn into, fired repeatedly and layered together to reveal a collection of unpredictable marks and arrays of colour.’