(cont)

“I suppose it was a wake-up call.” The artist says. “It made me question what I was doing and what I really wanted to do.”

At the time Richard was working with existing pieces of jewellery and whilst his technical skills were constantly improving he says he missed the opportunity to express a sense of creativity. It wasn’t until 1988 that he was able to set up on his own and finally realise his freelance design ambitions, in conjunction with the then Enterprise Allowance Scheme. This year represents the 20th anniversary of Richard’s career as a freelance designer and will see him create a 20 year retrospective exhibition of his work in Lincoln later this year.

Today, Richard makes around 500 pieces annually including five exclusive ranges for the Cathedral gift shop consisting of anything from bangles to cufflinks to brooches embellished with tiny doves.
A particular passion for the artist is in creating works which represent couples and for this reason, Richard prefers to involve the couple rather more than most artists.

“A wedding or engagement ring is the essence of a couple’s togetherness.” He says. “I meet the couple and we discuss any interests they share followed by any possible way of representing them visually. I’m always open to ideas and when I do eventually start designing the piece I have no set ideas or preconceptions. It’s a very organic process.”

Once the clients are happy with Richard’s proposed design, work begins and Richard even invites the couple along to his workshop to help him make the product, enabling people to claim they’ve at least helped to make their own wedding rings.

The artist favours the technique of mokumé gane – the art of fusing metals together – to produce work with different tones and colours, and the majority of his work uses platinum, gold, silver, copper and brass.

Whilst he loves making a living from his craft, artistic integrity is never far from Richard’s mind, and whilst he concedes that a degree of commercialism is necessary to ensure survival, he’s determined to produce pieces that are as individual as his customers, and to support the proliferation of art in the county by continuing to attend exhibitions such as the annual Fools and Angels exhibition at the Sam Scorer Gallery which attracts over 700 attendees each year, retaining