Stephen
Bottomley
Head of School of Design
School of Design
biography
Stephen studied at the Royal College of Art (1999-2001) MPhil ‘CAD/CAM and the Jeweller, Making with New Technology’. Other studies includes a MA Design (University of Brighton), including a semester at Rhode Island School of Design, USA, a BA Hons 3D-Design (West Surrey College of Art and Design) and a foundation (Hastings College of Art).
Stephen has worked at Birmingham City University as Head of the Institute for Jewellery, Fashion and Textiles at, having joined in 2017 as Head of School of Jewellery, where he authored a successful ‘Queen’s Anniversary Award for Higher Education’ in 2019. Previously he was also Head of Department of Jewellery and Silversmithing at Edinburgh College of Art (2008-17) and Post graduate Design Research co-ordinator at eca / University of Edinburgh (2014-17). He has been BA Hons Course Leader of Metalwork and Jewellery and Sheffield Hallam University 2004/08 and taught across a variety of Further and Higher Education courses at the South Coast College Hastings (1990-2014).
Research interests
Stephen leads the Drawing Threads Cluster, a group that explores the boundaries of existing studio-based practices and asks how overlapping, yet distinct, disciplines can bring new understanding of a subject’s shared material craft heritage. His
PGR supervision interests
Craft practice based + led research in Contemporary Jewellery, Enamel & Metalwork. Research that extends the traditional boundaries of heritage skills, explores new audiences through new technologies or by developing interdisciplinary approaches to making and
Current PGR students
Yitong Zhang, A Contemporary Investigation into the Poeticity of Metal Art Language
Sheng Zhang, Form, Space & Light: the transformation from concepts of architecture to the creative practice of contemporary jewellery and silversmithing
Caiyang Yin, Viral versus Longevity: A Comparative Study and Creative Practice of Contemporary Jewellery Incorporating the Cultural Dissemination Strengths of Internet Memes.
Catia Lamerton Viegas Wesolowska ‘The Site-specific porcelain enamel murals in architecture and the work of Stefan Knapp (1921-1996)
