Stephen is Professor of Jewellery Cultures and Innovation, a previous head of school at at Birmingham City University (2017-22) and a Head of Department of Jewellery and Silversmithing at Edinburgh College of Art (2008-17) and was additionally Post graduate Research Director (Design) post merger with the University of Edinburgh (2014-17).
Stephen’s jewellery has been widely exhibited and is held in the National Museums of Scotland and British Museum, among other permanent collections. He has curated and co-curated several international exhibitions including ‘FERROcity- Iron in the city’ an exhibition of 22 artists which opened in Munich during the international Jewellery Festival and as invited as a special exhibition to the Beijing Biennale in 2019. He was invited to become the European Head of International Jewellery College Association (IJCA) at Beijing Institute of Fashion, China. He has curated other exhibitions, projects and inter-disciplinary workshops, in Chicago, Lake Garda, Beijing, Shanghai and Munich.
Papers have been presented at International conferences and published in the Journal for Jewellery Research, as well as articles for the Art Jewellery Forum. He has reviewed grant applications for the Research Council Hong Kong since 2018. Recent innovation and enterprise partners include the Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022, the BBC and Craft Scotland.
Stephen was returned under ‘Art and Design’ in the 2008 RAE by Sheffield Hallam University and in 2014 REF by the University of Edinburgh and by Birmingham City University for the 2021 REF.
Details of Outputs:
i) Principal Investigator 'The Adorned Afterlife Network' (Paper) established by Bottomley in 2015 with a University of Edinburgh’s Challenge Investment Award. Bringing together a network of international researchers from Design, Archaeology, Forensic Anthropology, History and Museology to examine hidden objects of adornment and share discourse by film and symposium and analysis through high-quality speculative multidisciplinary research.
ii) 'Like a Rolling Stone' (Exhibition and publication). (Bottomley & Cross) followed the 2016 workshop that invited ten international contemporary jewellery makers to visit the geological sea/landscape of North Berwick, Scotland and respond to themes of relocation, transplantation, camouflage, identity and materiality in the works they made. The Italian Cultural Institute Edinburgh funded three Italian Goldsmiths, as part of the 2016 Year of Italian Innovation, Architecture & Design, joining seven UK Jewellery artists.
iii) "FERROcity- Iron in the city' (Exhibition). Co-curators Bottomley & Turrel exhibited the praxis of twenty-two contemporary artists. Each answered a call at the end of 2018 to respond to one common element, iron and for works to be shown within the mineral collections of the Bavaria state Mineralogische Staatssammlung, München, during International Jewellery Week, 2019. The show was invited to Shanghai (Nov/Dec 2019) after Beijing’s International Jewellery Biennale, (Oct 2019. In Beijing the International Jewellery College Association (IJCA) met and International Directors were appointed. I am the European director (others included Americas, Oceania, and Asia). Together we work towards future collaborative events / projects.
Four REF Outputs 2014 at University of Edinburgh:
i) Heat Exchange (Exhibition, 2012)
ii) Unsung Heroes (Exhibition) a permanent display Royal Edinburgh Infirmary, Heritage Lottery Fund £22k
iii) Cutting Edge (Artefacts)
IV) Innovation in Enamel (Artefacts)
2008 RAE Sheffield Hallam University
i) TECHTile (Exhibition. Publication)
ii) ‘Something Old, Something New’ (Paper)
2) Research clusters /
Stephen has led two research clusters in the last five years at Edinburgh (RAFT 2016/17) and Birmingham (Craft Cultures 2018-21) with material interdisciplinary practices as a core characteristic. 1. Both clusters are now connected as sister organisations and members collaborate, exhibit, and progress research projects and doctoral study as a benefit.
Doctoral students have included:
‘An exploration of the educational, business, craft and experiential strategies needed for the development of successful UK artisan silversmiths’. 2019 (Hamme G, 2019), ‘Revealing (lost) craftsmanship of South Staffordshire Enamels’ (Grayson.J, 2018) and the ‘Materiality of place: an investigation into the makers approach to material and process as a reflection of place within Northern European contemporary jewellery practice (Legg.B, 2013).
Current supervision includes subjects include; research into large scale enamels on architectural metal outdoor murals, how new computer aided manufacturing and sintering technologies can extend the boundaries of traditional enamel craft, and exploring new interdisciplinary audience approaches to incorporating light and dark in contemporary jewellery in a performative environment.
Master of Philosophy (MPhil), Royal College of Art, 2001
Master of Arts (MA), University of Brighton, 1998 (with an exchange to Rhode Island School of Design)
Bachelor of Arts (BA Hons), West Surrey College of Art and Design, Farnham, 1989
BTEC Foundation, Hastings College of Art, 1986
Fellow Higher Education Academy 2020 SEDA PhD Supervision Teaching Accreditation (Communities of Practice) 2019
