Celebrating talented women designer-makers is a year round thing at Cockpit, but on International Women’s Day, we like to shout extra loudly about the amazing women in our community!
From award-winning artists to trailblazers leading the charge in sustainable jewellery design, we’re excited to shine a spotlight on the industry-leading artisans bringing creativity and craftsmanship to life in our studios.
Here is a small glimpse into the rich tapestry of remarkable women makers at Cockpit.
One of the OG Cockpit makers, Yen Duong expresses her passion for design through jewellery, focusing on movement, articulation and fluidity to address complexities that go beyond the purely aesthetic. Intricacy and precision are integral to her work, as seen in her trademark Molecule Design Structure. As a long-time champion of sustainability in craft, Yen’s stunning pieces are as innovative as they are a joy to wear.
Judy Bentinck’s mission is to create hats that are beautiful, flattering and perfectly made. Her clients attend events as diverse as royal garden parties, investitures, race days and weddings. (She trained in millinery with Rose Cory, the Queen Mother’s milliner.) With a background in textile design and a celebrated career as a costume designer, Judy’s designs are creative and accessible – and sure to make the wearer feel like a queen.
Artist and designer Amber Khokhar has been creating intricate and enchanting designs, paintings and products in her studio at Cockpit since the mid-noughties. She has the distinction of being the first person commissioned to design a modern carpet for Buckingham Palace, which sits in the Picture Gallery alongside paintings by Holbein, Reubens and Canaletto making Amber a contemporary master of craft (and one of few women) among the Old Masters.
Glass engraver Katherine Coleman studied point, drill and copper wheel engraving on glass and continues to explore and experiment with traditional and contemporary techniques in her workshop at Cockpit. Her clear lead crystal forms overlaid with a thin layer of coloured glass are known for their crispness, texture and fine finish. She was awarded an MBE for services to glass engraving in 2009, and her work is held in many public collections including the V&A and Corning Museum of Glass in the USA.
A ‘metalworker at heart’, Sally Lees combines traditional jewellery-making techniques with explorations of colour through printing and dying aluminium, adding gold to etched silver and experimenting with vitreous enamels. In 2016 and again in 2018, Sally was commissioned by The Houses of Parliament Shop to create a collection of jewellery commemorating women’s suffrage.
With a focus on creating timeless quality pieces, designer-maker Jasmine Carey handcrafts all of the leather and fashion accessories for her Deco 22 brand at her studio at Deptford, including creating her own patterns. Inspired by the simple, clean shapes of the Art Deco and Streamline Modern periods, Jasmine uses a wide range of techniques used in traditional leather craft, such as saddle stitching and burnishing edges, to bring her sleek, anti-trend designs to life.
Katrin Spranger is an activist and multi-disciplinary artist working with sculpture, jewellery and performance. Pushing boundaries through her work, she has experimented with innovative techniques including the development of crude oil into jewellery that melts on the body and the 3D printing of honey into edible art. Through her interactive pieces, Katrin offers a critique on societal norms of beauty and value and challenges us to actively engage with the climate crisis.
Of course this list of ground-breaking women makers wouldn’t be complete without one of the legends of contemporary craft, wood sculptor Eleanor Lakelin. Working only with trees grown in Britain and felled due to decay, Eleanor’s deep knowledge and passionate interest in the natural properties of wood result in forms that encourage us to look at the complexities of nature with a new perspective. Her work is held by the V&A, the National Museum of Norway, and the Museum of Arts & Design in New York, and in 2022 she was a finalist for the prestigious LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize.
Discover even more talented women designer-makers in our directory. Happy International Women’s Day!
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