Maura Heslop studied jewellery at Middlesex Polytechnic and later set up a studio in Clerkenwell in London, an area traditionally associated with craftsmen. Her works in the Collection are made from steel, often off-cuts she acquired as scrap. Onto these she traced a design which was then etched using a stopout varnish as the resist before immersion into the acid bath. The pieces were then sawn out of the sheet and small blobs of silver soldered on and filed flush with the surface. Other accents are provided by touches of coloured polyester resin. Her more three-dimensional pieces are in lost wax cast silver, and owe their influence to Benin and Ashanti gold work.

All that glisters: New Jewellery in Britain, The British Council 1992

Glossary

  • Cast

    To form material such as molten metal, liquid plaster or liquid plastic into a three-dimensional shape, by pouring into a mould. Also see Lost-wax casting.

  • Design

    The arrangement of elements or details in an artefact or a work of art.

  • Varnish

    A liquid preparation that when spread and allowed to dry on a surface forms a hard lustrous typically transparent coating. The covering or glaze given by the application of varnish.