Nicola Lillie graduated with a first class honours in Contemporary Design  Crafts from Hereford College of Arts, where she designed and made wearable objects.

 

Also, meet Mark. He is an engineer, and in the process of changing Nicola into his wife also changed her whole perspective of craft and manufacturing. She is now excited by precision, offset with (seemingly) random composition; and by presenting objects which might appear 'dirty' in a very neat way. 

 

Their joint venture of rennovating a victorian property sparked an enthusiasm for architecture which was continued on for Nicola whilst on their honeymoon to New Zealand. This took the form of unusual or understated architecture such as sheds, shacks and run down buildings. Valueing their 'having been valued', Nicola now aims to take these ideas and create interesting conversations with them and the interactor over space, value and meaning.

 

Working in mostly precious metals; Nicola employs the uses of oxidisers, precious and non precious metal leafs and enamel paints as well as matte natural finishes for the silver to create the colour palletes she has identified within her imagery. She also beats the metal with old tools to imbue the energy and texture seen in the architecture.

 

Nicola won HCA's Henryka Live Brief Competition in 2013/14 and has won the Goldsmith's Precious Metals Bursary 2015.

She was chosen in June to be one of Craft and Design magazine's 'ones to watch', and also won the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair 'best business award' which is supported by madebyhandonline.com.