A group of Scottish designers will today attend a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate British Design including four Scottish jewellery designers - Dorothy Hogg, Adam Paxon, Susan Kerr and Sarah Hutchinson.

The aim of the reception held by HRH The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh is to recognise the contribution of British designers to the national economy and to encourage the teaching and promotion of good design. 

The Scottish designers invited were nominated for making a significant contribution in one of the areas of British Design which include manufacturing, architecture, marketing, graphics, media and crafts.

Dorothy Hogg trained at Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College in London.  She has been course leader of jewellery and silversmithing at Edinburgh College of Art since 1985 and her work is internationally recognised.  She works mainly in silver with highlights of brilliant red using felt or coral beads.  Her jewellery uses simple lines and complex curves to create balance and space.

Adam Paxon is also an internationally recognised jeweller.  He has taught part-time at Glasgow School of Art since 1998 and in 2002 was awarded the coveted Herbert Hofmann prize at ‘Schmuck’ International Jewellery Exhibition in Munich.  He makes one-off pieces of acrylic jewellery and is fascinated by the way pieces can be fixed to clothing or worn on the body.  His pieces are objects in their own right and he sees them as ‘creatures to wear’.

A graduate of Edinburgh College of Art, Susan Kerr develops her jewellery from organic sources and simplifies imagery into bold or detailed cut-out patterns.  She juxtaposes silver with paper, enamel and leather, a material which she feels adds a sensual and tactile element.

Sarah Hutchinson has just started a Post-graduate Diploma at Edinburgh College of Art and last year won the Student Designer of the Year Award at the UK Jewellery Awards and the New Designers Award for Silversmithing from Goldsmiths’ Company.