meet our makers

Our artists are very important to us. Obviously they make us all manner of lovely, quirky and beautiful things, but in the end what they make defines what iapetus is. So we are very, very careful to make sure we find the best artists and designers around creating items we truly love. Oh, and we only work with artists who we like, so we promise you won’t find any snooty pre-madonnas here!

Find out all about our wonderful artists below….

adele taylor

The lovely Adele Taylor hales from Sheffield and has been a regular at iapetus for the past couple of years. Her quirky work consists of textures and patterns from objects she finds in the environment. These are assembled as truly organic feeling jewellery and small scale objects such as her gorgeous kaleidoscopes or pewter little boxes.

anna ehrner (kosta boda)

Anna Ehrner has been retained by renowned Swedish Glass studio Kosta Boda since 1974. An experimental stylist, her work is distinguished by simple yet powerful shapes and an ability to achieve shimmering displays by using colour in subtle ways. Veils of colour inside the crystal have become something of a trademark in her art glass.

bertil vallien (kosta boda)

Bertil Vallien has been retained by renowned glass studio Kosta Boda since 1963 and is the most internationally celebrated glass artist and designer in Sweden. He has received numerous awards and his work is well represented in leading museums around the world. He is known most of all as the master of the sand moulding technique.

besmo fairly traded gifts

Besmo have been importing into the UK unusual, hand made, environmentally friendly and fairly traded collection of gifts from Africa since 1993.                                                             

cathy miles

Cathy Miles is an English metal smith with a lovely, quirky sense of humour! She uses a unique concoction of wire, found materials and text to depict common bird life. Her works take the form of three-dimensional drawings and creations documenting the belly tickling moments of the everyday.

chris hawkins

Chris Hawkins combines strong design and technical skills to produce striking contemporary jewellery.  The natural world, smooth sculptural forms and bold textures inspire him to create wonderful designs such as his silver scorpion cufflinks and beautifully weighted silver fish pendants.

dwy galon

The Dwy Galon range of jewellery comes from Montgomeryshire, Mid-Wales where dyed pearls are combined with sea shell and leaf charms to create very original and colourful jewellery.  The core of the sea shells and leaf charms is lead-free pewter, cast to the highest standard and beautifully encapsulated in silver.  Added to this are natural pearls in various colours which highlight the stunning and unique designs.

feniom

Feniom titanium jewellery is one of the largest collections of contemporary titanium jewellery available. Offering a fantastic range of engagement rings, partner and wedding rings, there are so many styles to choose from with Feniom, who are based in Belgium. Part of their unique design includes the combination of titanium and silver, rubber and titanium with 18ct yellow gold. Many include diamonds to add that extra sparkle.

fiona mehra

Fiona Mehra (aka Fiona Alison Berry or FAB for short!) trained as a diamond mounter at the School of Jewellery in Birmingham. Much of her inspiration comes from the Wiltshire countryside where she lives, especially from the wonders of the stone circles at Stonehenge. Fiona is drawn towards the ancient jewellery that has been revealed in Wiltshire burial mounds, and also to the work of Egyptian, Roman and medieval times.

glover & smith

Set up in 1994 by Judy and Ed Glover, Glover and Smith has become a name associated with quality, contemporary pewter design and manufacture. All of their products are made in their own Wiltshire workshops by highly skilled craftsmen who carefully create every piece using traditional methods to the very highest standards. Producing lead-free pewter bowls, spoons, cake slices, butter knives and letter openers, you’re sure to find something you’ll love.

goran warff (kosta boda)

Goran Warff, the grand old man of Kosta Boda?s designers. Few, if any, have such a deep feeling for the glass melt as Warff, who has always shown special interest in preserving the traditional skills of the master craftsmen in glassblowing and glass cutting. The play of light within the clear volume of the glass and the endless optical phenomena that occur as the glass diffracts the light are a recurring theme in Warff's art and design work.

hotmetal (jo mitchell)

Hotmetal was established in 1990 by artist Jo Mitchell. She creates beautiful designer jewellery in a variety of materials ranging from silver through various coloured metals to glass. Jo studied Graphic Art at the Bath Academy of Art. She then worked as a graphic designer before deciding to pursue her long held interest in jewellery design.

james newman

James Newman established his design studios in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter in 1999 after gaining a BA (Hons) in Jewellery and Silversmithing from UCE, Birmingham. All of his pieces are made in house with new ideas and collections in constant development. James explores themes include the juxtaposition of textures, sculptural forms and the use of tactile elements in his fabulously glittering work.

justin duance

Justin Duance's jewellery is very much influenced by Cornwall's countryside and the surrounding ocean. His work is designed and created to highlight the contrasts between the textures of the land and the sea, using a combination of wood, gold, silver and resin to give his pieces an organic feel. Justin's work is designed to change with wear and time, making each piece totally unique and personal.

keith tyssen

Keith Tyssen is a world-renowned metal worker. Based in Sheffield, he designs and hand makes substantial, functional articles in pewter or sterling silver, including his hand-forged paper knives. His work has featured in numerous exhibitions in Britain and overseas.

kjell engman (kosta boda)

Kjell Engman, born in 1946 began his career with Kosta Boda in 1978 and he now has his own studio at Boda glassworks. A tirelessly productive visual artist with unbounded imagination and a passion for narrative, who finds free expression through both utility glass and art glass. He gets his inspiration from the most diverse sources, not least from the animal kingdom and the world of music and entertainment. He often works on large installations in which he also combines elements of sound and light. He is frequently commissioned for public works both in Sweden and abroad. He is personally responsible for one fifth of Kosta Boda’s catalogue range.

lucy tom

Based in Cirencester, Lucy Tom is the maker of quirky, but nevertheless, beautiful items for the home. In our opinion, her greatest success by far is her range of colourful and fun door stops. The idea for a Chicken Doorstop came about one rainy afternoon when Lucy was stuck for a way to use the leftover fabric from her interiors business. After a few days cutting and stitching this furnishing accessory was 'hatched'. She has now expanded the range to include more exotic animals such as hippos and elephants.

lyn antley

Lyn Antley went to Art School with the intention of becoming a Textile Designer, but after taking a jewellery course knew she wanted to work with metals. Lyn creates witty and imaginative jewellery inspired by her travels to far away places, fairy stories she has read to her children, and the tiny birds and creatures that live in the hedgerows near her home in Worcestershire (England).

melanie tomlinson

Melanie Tomlinson is best known for her printed tin automatas, but has recently moved into creating gorgeous layered tin brooches inspired by her passion for nature.                     

multiply designs

All of Multiply Designs work is handmade in solid pewter by Chris and Nicky Algar in Nottingham. Multiply create quality, unusual gifts for every special occasion including weddings, christenings, valentines day, mother's day, as well as gifts for romance and friendship - gifts to treasure. They can also work to commission for your special event – just us for more information.

nick hubbard

Since 1996 Nick Hubbard has been creating jewellery inspired by his love of miniature comic related art memorabilia. You will be amazed by the detail and intricacy of his unique designs; a figurative collection of oxidized silver pieces and charms bearing words and messages. Many pieces have moving parts and small doors that open to reveal fine gold detail. Nick's jewellery has become extremely collectable.

olle brozen (kosta boda)

Retained by Kosta Boda since 2000, Olle Brozen is a designer with a mixed background that includes working as a carpenter and as a glassblower in Japan. The Japanese influence is clearly visible in his first sketches for Kosta Boda, a series of stylized patterns inspired by nature. He has also attracted attention with his Round-Trip series: simple, powerful images of vehicles travelling through the city and countryside. Highly simplified patterns and decorations with playful, almost naive subjects, created on a computer, are characteristics of Olle Brozen’s designs.

paul finch

Paul Finch was inspired to make jewellery during his travels in Asia. He has been working as a self-taught designer jeweller since 1998 and is now based in North Cornwall. He uses a variety of techniques to create distinctive ranges of jewellery which are characterised by simplicity and elegance. His trapped range has natural shell-like forms combining subtle stone sets and silver pieces enhanced with 18ct gold.

poppy treffry

Poppy Treffry’s collection of unique bags, tea cosies, purses, brooches and more is created from her studio in Cornwall. Poppy sketches the world around her, collecting found objects, scraps and cuttings to make rich collages. These drawings are then transformed through stitch into beautiful accessories.

richard hastings

Richard Hastings originally studied pure mathematics at Essex University, where he developed his interest in topology, patterns and surfaces. He later spent a year studying engineering, working with machine tools. His work is motivated by an interest in compactness and in the feeling of a crushing weight. He is also attracted to the distinctive finish of a machined surface. Steel is a medium that suits these ideas perfectly. Often the pieces have many layers and have been through several different processes, which are visible in the finished work.

roman glass company

The Roman Glass Company, established in 1976, brings history to life with its unique collections of silver jewellery inlaid with fragments of genuine, ancient Roman glass. The company is renowned for its variety of designs inspired by remnants of Roman glass uncovered on archaeological sites throughout Israel. The 2,000 year-old Roman glass's unique turquoise colouring is due to the effects of time, the ingenuity of those who developed and refined the revolutionary glass blowing technique and to the elements of nature.

sarah jane brown

Sarah Jane Brown has been working sculpturally with metals since 1994; her new collection launched in the autumn of 2001 is in the form of wire knits. These are moulded by hand, first making the body of the structure then adding details like legs, arms etc on afterwards by hand-stitching them together. Lastly collars, tags and small details are added to give the piece real character and a unique quality that are making them a very collectable piece of art. Her work is very ‘touchy feely’ and can be personalised by gently adjusting the head or the tail to convey different expressions.  Her creations were a step away from her previous 3 –dimensional sculpture which concentrated most on surface texture.

silver sea shells

Using real shells from sustainable sources, Silver Sea Shells coat them twice in sterling silver, then oxidise each piece before finishing each with a high polish. As the shell remains inside each piece is totally individual and remains light, comfortable and easy to wear. All the shells used are classed as 'Common' or 'Abundant'. Silver sea shells are anxious to use shells from sustainable sources only, and will carefully research each shell and are advised of any that should not be used.

silverfish

Carol Brook (aka Silverfish) has spent much of her time experimenting with different metals and decorative techniques.  Her jewellery is handcrafted to her own designs, mainly using sterling silver, with some pieces being embellished with red and yellow gold to bring out details of the design.  Her style is contemporary and organic, exploring textural effects and contrasts, taking influence from the natural world and surroundings and developing these to form unusual and unique pieces to be worn and enjoyed everyday or saved for special occasion.

stephanie bowen (morpheous glass)

Fused Glass, the technique used to make Morpheus Glass pieces, is an exploration of design and individuality. Stephanie Bowen draws inspiration from colour, pattern, and the glass itself to create truly unique pieces of fused glass. The preparation of each piece takes time and patience to ensure perfect results after firing. It is the combination of materials and individual designs which make each piece of Morpheus Glass fused glass unique. Stephanie says that what she loves most about her work is that the techniques used insure originality every time.

tara kirkpatrick

Tara Kirkpatrick works in silver, rose gold, yellow gold and platinum including diamonds and cubic zirconia. Her individual designs include gemstones set in spirals of rose and yellow gold that give the stones a contemporary edge. If you’re looking for a pair of diamond earrings with a twist, look no further!

ulrica hydman vallien (kosta boda)

Ulrica Hydman-Vallien joined Kosta Boda in 1972. One of Sweden’s best known and most popular artists, whose unmistakable designs can be seen on Ericsson mobile phones and the tails of British Airway’s airplanes, among other places. Ulrica Hydman-Vallien’s most important form of expression is through her glass designs, however, which also played a large part in Kosta Boda’s success in the 1980s and 1990s. She paints her striking and humorous designs straight onto the glass with free and unrestrained energy. Her distinctive female faces, tulips and snakes have decorated classics such as Open Minds, Tulipa and Caramba. Her work is exhibited in museums and collections all over the world.

weya art

All Weya Art creations including their fantastic tin animals are handmade and each is a piece of art and a one-of-a-kind collectable. The purchase of these products helps to provide stable employment and basic needs for many dependants in a time when unemployment and inflation in Zimbabwe are at unimaginable levels.