Helen Dugdale graduated with a BA (Hons) in Jewellery and Silversmithing from the School of Jewellery, Birmingham in 1996. For the next five years, Helen shared a workshop in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, developing her skills and experience. From here, her jewellery was stocked in renowned department store Selfridges, and she participated in trade fairs and exhibitions, including Contemporary Decorative Arts at Sotheby’s (1997) and Top Drawer (1998 and 1999) in London, and Hong Kong Jewellery Trade Fair (1999).  During this time, Helen returned to the School of Jewellery to study for an MA in Jewellery, Silversmithing and Related Products, which she completed in 2001. A period in Northamptonshire followed, where Helen raised her son, alongside making jewellery and gaining teaching qualifications, enabling her to run several weekly classes in silver jewellery making, beading and wirework for Northampton County Council and other venues in Warwickshire. Most recently, Helen has returned to making to develop a new jewellery and metalwork collection.

Helen’s Transcendence collection is inspired by ancient Egyptian funeral rituals and beliefs. It is particularly concerned with the process of mummification: the practice of tightly binding and embalming the deceased to preserve the body and heart in the physical world, enabling the soul to transcend freely and exist in a spiritual world. Intrigued by these ancient beliefs, Helen explores the meaning of mortality, particularly through her copper ‘Hollow Forms’. These vessels are tightly bound at the bottom, while their bindings become free and loose at the top. These beliefs also inspired the materials and finishes in the collection: black patination represents renewal and rebirth; the gold tightly bound around the jewellery is a symbol of divinity and eternal life, resisting decay and preserved over time. Together, these colours express the belief that death is not an end, but a transcendence of mortality.