Rachael Colley

Rachael Colley thinks through materials, producing cutlery, jewellery and sculpture which are explored in experimental dining events, exhibitions, installations and visual art projects. Based in Sheffield, the UK’s ‘Steel City’, she creates ambiguous eating implements that challenge our collective connections with food and communicate aspects of her lived experience as a sufferer of the autoimmune disease Systemic Sclerosis. Through the elevation of food waste as a luxury material, her jewellery questions traditional notions of preciousness and value, highlighting broad societal issues surrounding consumption and encouraging reflection on the waste we generate.

Rachael is a senior lecturer in jewellery and metalwork at Sheffield Hallam University. She gained a BA (Hons) in 3D design, specialising in jewellery and silversmithing at Loughborough University in 2007 and went on to obtain an MA in goldsmithing, silversmithing, metalwork and jewellery from the Royal College of Art in 2010. Pieces from her multi award-winning Sha-green jewellery series are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts and Crafts Itami, Japan and Le Arti Orafe, Florence, Italy. 

Recent exhibitions include; Itami International Craft Exhibition, The Museum of Arts and Crafts, Itami, Japan (2019); Body Control: Jewellery and Fashion at the Boundaries of the Human Body, Museum Arnhem, The Netherlands (2019-2020); Growth & Evolution International Jewellery Exhibition, Yunnan, China (2020); Eco Sight, Amber Trip XVII International Baltic Jewellery Show, Vilnius, Lithuania (2020); Preziosa Young, Germany, Italy and Spain (2020-2021); FOOD, Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre, Bury, United Kingdom (2021).

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