SKEELS is a growing jewellery and product design company. It was established in Cambridge in 1994 by Rebecca Skeels. Rebecca is now based in Farnham, Surrey after completing a residency and solo show at South Hill Park Arts Centre, Berkshire.
Over the past 17 years, Rebecca has worked on commissions as well as her own collections of unique hand made cufflinks and pendants to inspirational furniture and games. These are exhibited through, galleries, shops, craft shows and trade exhibitions.
In 2009 Rebecca became senior tutor for the undergraduate Three Dimensional Design and Product Design courses and is the Jewellery and Metalwork Pathway Leader at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham. Rebecca has more recently become cluster leader on the MA course at the University for the Creative Arts, working with students across Interior and Architecture, Jewellery, Glass and Ceramics specialist areas.
As a member of the Board of Directors for the Association for Contemporary Jewellery (ACJ), Rebecca encourages jewellers to network online. The Association for Contemporary Jewellery is devoted to the promotion, representation, understanding and development of contemporary jewellery.
Very recently, Rebecca became a Trustee for the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham. The New Ashgate Gallery is a non-profit educational charity, which promotes contemporary visual arts and crafts to as wide a public as possible.
Through research and experimentation with alternative materials, Rebecca produces a number of one-off pieces to complement her existing ranges. This led to managing and running a symposium/exchange with the Jewellers and Silversmiths Network (JSN) and the Critique Collective Network in San Francisco in 2010. The JSN is a group run by its members for its members with the aim of getting to know other makers.
Rebecca’s recent collection of bird inspired rings and pins are made from a mixture of metals, from metal clay, brass, steel and silver using a variety of processes including casting, hand building, soldering, texturing and oxidizing. The legs of the ducks, chickens and crows become individual display stands of the jewellery when not worn.
Rebecca intends to expand her recent collections with more research and experimentation, taking opportunity of new, developing and different materials and technologies. Research will also take place to develop the method in which jewellery and metalwork is taught, widening the understanding of how we learn and the knowledge of the jewellery and metalwork industry.
