Heather Blake is a jewellery designer who combines the materials and techniques of shoemaking with goldsmithing and lapidary. Heather has won many awards for her work, including Accessories Collection of the Year at ITS5, Trieste and in 2025, the GC&DC Award for lapidary and the Gem-A Award. First studying fine art in Manchester, she taught art in London and Hong Kong before returning to London to study footwear at London College of Fashion (LCF) and then the Royal College of Art, where she graduated with a master’s degree in footwear design. Later based in Tuscany, she worked as a footwear designer for Alberta Ferretti, Salvatore Ferragamo, Missoni and Charlotte Olympia. She lectured in design at LCF, Ravensbourne, Northampton University and Polimoda in Italy. Fascinated by metal accessory components, she studied for two years at the British Academy of Jewellery and graduated with a master’s degree in jewellery design from Central Saint Martins in 2023. She is currently studying gemmology at Gem-A.

The Tiamat Collection is inspired by the Mesopotamian goddess of the sea. Her work evokes both the primordial power of the sea, particularly the hinterland between chalk cliff and reef, distinctive to Pegwell Bay on the Kent coast where she lives, and the structural form of the signet ring, which originated in Mesopotamia. The form of the signet ring is scaled up, reinterpreted as bold bracelets, while the shapes of the bezel - circle, square and diamond - are referenced in brooches. The colour variations of jade, echo the colour of the water above the shifting sands of Pegwell Bay. Having worked in the footwear industry for 16 years, Heather is concerned about the environmental impact of leather, and she has developed a biodegradable leather from discarded fish skins, tanned using food waste. These fish leathers are utilised throughout the collection, woven through metal in patterns.