On a quiet morning by the Kent coast, Heather Blake walks into her local fishmonger. While most customers leave with fish fillets wrapped in paper, Heather asks for something different: the skins. Smooth, iridescent, and often discarded, they’re the overlooked by-product of the day’s catch. To Heather, though, they hold extraordinary potential - raw material that can be transformed into shimmering, sculptural jewellery.

This fascination with fish leather is just one part of Heather’s unconventional path into jewellery. Her creative journey began not at a workbench but in the ateliers of Italy, designing footwear and developing complex metal components for shoes and bags. She soon found herself drawn to the craftsmanship behind these tiny details. At the same time, she was experimenting with leather jewellery of her own - though often frustrated by her limited technical skills, especially when something as simple as attaching a brooch pin eluded her.

What began as frustration, grew into a determination to learn. Heather’s work is now defined by her curiosity for unusual materials and her love of historical objects - where ancient signet rings meet discarded fish skins, where coastal finds spark sculptural forms, and where the boundary between tradition and experimentation dissolves. And now, through the Shine 2025 annual new talent showcase and its associated training programme, Heather has stepped out of her studio to share this journey and the inspiration behind her new collection, Tiamat, in her own words.

From Leather to Luxe: Discovering Jewellery

'I got started in jewellery because I was working as a footwear designer and developer in Italy. Increasingly in my work, I was dealing with complicated metal components in shoes and bags, and I really wanted to know more about them so I could better translate the designer's vision to the manufacturers. At the same time, I was making my own leather jewellery but struggling with how to attach things. I got quite frustrated by the level of craft I had.'

'Eventually, I moved back to the UK and my work became more office-based, which I didn’t enjoy, and I wanted to make again. I thought, ‘I’ll explore making jewellery’, and started with short courses. I really enjoyed it, so I took the plunge and enrolled in a year-long jewellery design and manufacture course at the British Academy of Jewellery, which ended becoming a two-year journey, as I continued straight on from a Level 3 to the Level 4 Diploma. Then COVID hit, and I decided to take the plunge once more and pursued a Master’s at Central Saint Martins.'

Inspiration from Leather and Shoemaking

'I still work with leather a lot and with the materials and techniques of shoe making, though not in shoes themselves. It’s really complicated, and trainers have taken over, so people aren’t really demanding the sorts of shoes they did in the past, sadly. Shoes have many technical requirements - they have to hold a body, the heel can’t break, and they must fit perfectly. Jewellery, on the other hand, can be more playful and conceptual. You can explore different ways of wearing it, so there’s a bigger range of possibilities.'

The Tiamat Collection: Signet Rings Reimagined

'The collection I’m showing at Shine is called Tiamat, named after a Mesopotamian Goddess of the Sea and Creation. The collection draws on two strands of inspiration: my coastal environment and historical jewellery, particularly signet rings. I’ve reimagined the form of the signet ring in fish leather to create bracelets, then scaled these forms down into rings. The collection also includes brooches, incorporating a mix of materials.

I spend a lot of time in museums, especially the British Museum and the V&A, focusing on historical artefacts, stone carving in jewellery and leather. I reinterpret the signet ring in fish leather to make bracelets, rings, and brooches, using silver, jade, and different leathers. Techniques include weaving and stone carving. There’s now a wonderful opportunity at the V&A to go in to handle objects. I studied five signet rings there, including Roman and 16th-century examples, deeply looking into their construction, materials and shapes.'

From Shoreline to Studio: Crafting with Coastal Finds

'Living on the Kent Coast has also inspired me – it’s a really beautiful area where the dramatic chalk cliffs meet the sea. The chalk reefs are a beautiful habitat for fish and seaweeds. I walk daily on the beach and collect things on the sand that inspire me, take photographs, and make sketches. Sometimes I incorporate these found objects, like mermaid purses, into my jewellery. The mermaid purses have a kind of natural transparency, lots of different tones of yellows and browns, so they make beautiful beads.

Afterwards, I take the things that I have found home to my studio. It’s full of rocks, shells, seaweeds and even plastic toys. I create big mood boards combining these materials, textures, and ideas. From these, I make drawings and models to explore scale and form. It’s an ongoing, iterative process. It doesn’t really stop. I keep multiple sketchbooks: a small one always in my bag, a large one in my studio, always collecting information and drawing.

I’ve also integrated gem carving into jewellery for the first time, combining it with leather and silver for a new approach. Most work is handmade, but some bracelet bases are CNC milled in Italy, and I outsource casting.'

Bold, Sustainable, Unusual: The Art of Fish Skin

'My work is bold and sculptural, with a real play on scale, texture, and in particular materials. I don’t know if leather has been used in this way in jewellery before. I came to it because I wanted to learn how to make a sustainable alternative to leather, something biodegradable and non-toxic. So that’s what led me to using fish leather, inspired by ancient practices.

I spent a couple of days at the fabulous Leather Museum in Northampton, which is not very well known, exploring their collections. They let me handle the materials up close, including materials used in the tanning process. I was guided by a great curator who was a leather technologist, and we discussed how tanning was done and how you could tan in different ways. So, it started from there. I also researched indigenous practices in Japan and the Arctic, where tanned fish leather was used in clothing, and started to experiment. I concluded that food waste, which contains tannins, could also be used to change the structure of fish skin into leather.'

'Fish skins are usually discarded or used as bait for fishing. I source fish from a local fishmonger who have a very small fleet, just one or two people per boat. Restaurants buying the fish don’t want the skins, so I take them. I use natural components from plant material – for example coffee or red wine - to make and boil up ‘soups’ or ‘elixirs’ for soaking the skins. The tanning process, which sees the skins absorb the tannins, takes from two weeks to two months, depending on the fish skins. Different species have different properties, so mackerel is beautiful but too thin, flat fish like plaice doesn’t work at all, salmon is strong and textured; whereas sea bass and sea bream have a beautiful iridescence. Whilst experimenting, I discovered that sea trout is very strong but less visually appealing, so it could be perhaps used in accessories. It’s ten times stronger than calf leather. 

Once I’ve selected the right fish skins, I process them into leather, which biodegrades over time. Some pieces I’ve had for two years are still in good condition. Under the right conditions, moisture and heat, they will break down. In a normal home, they hold up well.'

From Manufacturing to Handcraft

'In the past, I worked with 20 or 30 different manufacturers at a time and many different clients, coordinating really complex components and bringing them together. Now, I work mostly by hand, relying on myself, although I still use some external suppliers. I’m at the bench a lot.

The Shine training programme has forced me to be a little more reflective about the direction I want to go in. I tend to get very comfortable in my workshop, so the guidance and support I have received has been extremely helpful. When I’m in my workshop, I want to work all the time - I get a little obsessed, drawn into the process, so it’s good to step out of my comfort zone.

I find social media particularly challenging; it’s not my natural place. Being forced to engage with it has actually been good. It’s actually taken the sting out of it, especially the filming, which I was initially really worried about, has it’s actually turned out to be quite fun.'

Audience and Jewellery Philosophy

'My jewellery is for people who appreciate bold, statement pieces. I hope my pieces not only express my creativity, but spark conversation and dialogue between wearer and observer. Fish leather has attracted particular interest, but many people are drawn to the form or colour rather than traditional jewellery. It’s not traditional jewellery, so it appeals to someone with an adventurous, outward-looking style.

I love the Whirlpool Brooch, a circular form with woven leather. It has movement, is bold and eye-catching, and would make a beautiful statement piece.

I’m really looking forward to meeting customers and seeing their reactions to my work. It’s fascinating how a piece takes on a new life once it leaves my hands and hearing their thoughts and suggestions is always inspiring.'

Future Plans and Gemmology

'I’m currently studying gemmology at Gem-A, which I’ll finish in January. This will help with gem cutting. I plan to expand the collection to include earrings, pendants, and necklaces, and hope to participate in more selling shows.

Understanding the different gem materials is crucial - they behave differently when cut, may cleave in certain directions, and require knowledge of crystal structures. This expertise informs both the buying and cutting process.'