Meet the team…
The Stratford School of Jewellery opened in 2020 and the Stirchley School of jewellery in 2023 to teach both educational and recreational jewellery and silversmithing. The school is proud of it’s teaching staff and is made up of a number of specialist tutors and coaches to deliver a wide curriculum of creative classes that spans across a contemporary understanding of what jewellery can be.
Each tutor is award winning and experienced in all aspects of the jewellery making industry with a long history of teaching experience and professional credentials.
Sara Preisler
Sara Preisler, has been creating since 1989. A post graduate from Birmingham’s famous Jewellery School, Sara also comes from a long family history of jewellers, clock makers and iron workers dating back to the 16th century France, her own father was a renowned diamond cutter and precious stone expert in the Brighton Lanes, England. Sara is an international multi award winning jewellery designer.
Since establishing her jewellery business, Sara has designed and made jewellery which has been sold all over the world creating notable collections for clients such as The Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam, The RSC, The V&A and Selfridges London to name but few alongside making and selling her own collections in various shops and galleries internationally.
To add to this, Sara has been an established university lecturer for over 20 years where up until recently she had tenure at Liverpool Hope University, on its Bachelor of Design Course and specialises in the teaching of Professional Practice in their School of Creative Arts.
Louise Collins
Louise has always enjoyed creating and started her creative journey with a pottery studio where she ran pottery workshops, also ,going into schools and other venues. It was here where Louise came across the magical silver clay and began learning all about this wonderful medium; culminating in gaining the Higher Diploma in Art Clay and becoming an accredited senior instructor. Louise has been teaching silver clay since 2016
Silver Clay is a recycled product . Silver particles are combined with water and a binder to create a clay like substance . Once fired the piece becomes solid Silver and is Hallmark quality. Louise works with pure and sterling clay as well as copper and bronze. Louise loves the way the clay captures intricate details and is able to be sculpted to create wonderful imaginative pieces.
Christine Davies
Christine Davis is an award-winning jewellery designer. She completed her degree at acclaimed Birmingham School of jewellery in 2010 gaining rapid recognition from The Goldsmiths Association and has since worked for over 15 years at the heart of the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter rising rapidly to managing production for the Betts Team’s manufacturing workshops.
Alongside this professional workshop experience, Chris has continued with her own collections and has exhibited her intricate geometric work in galleries both in the UK and Ireland. Her time in business sees her also teaching traditional hand making skills at many levels, from university, within public schools and doing summer retreats. She is passionate about passing on her love and knowledge of making beautiful jewellery.
Zoë Millman
Zoë is a Birmingham based jewellery designer and maker. She is self-taught and an avid all-round crafter. She studied History of Art (BA) and Museum Studies (MA) with the hope of one day becoming a curator, but then entered academia for a while before becoming a full-time maker. She established her small jewellery brand, The Cluttery, in 2017 while working in research development for a local university. In 2019 Zoë became a full-time maker and a year later launched her first laser-cut collection.
Zoë uses her background in the arts and social sciences to inspire her designs and is particularly passionate about 20th Century design history, which is evident in her Art Deco and mid-century themed pieces.
Judith Brown
Judith Brown has been making jewellery since 2004. Originally from an Embroidery background she has developed her own methods of stitching, wrapping and twisting wire to create her intricate, feminine jewellery.
Judith has exhibited nationally and has made collections for many shops and galleries including The British Museum.
Based in the Staffordshire Moorlands Judith is one of our specialist tutors where her workshops are a chance to explore the fine techniques of working with wire, precious and semi precious beads, vintage elements and mixed materials.
Judith has plenty of teaching experience with both recreational groups and more formal class groups and which offers her students the opportunity to learn innovative and contemporary wire working methods at various levels under her expert eye.
Helen Cooper
Helen has been involved in the creative arts most of her working life. After completing her degree in 3D design she worked as a potter, textile designer, seamstress and started doing some teaching for Art Space, a charitable organisation.
This confirmed her earlier desire to go into teaching and after completing her PGCE she gained a teaching post at a secondary school, quickly becoming head of KS3 Art and 9 years later securing a Head of Art post.
After more than 22 years teaching experience she made the decision to concentrate on creating a range of workshops for adults whilst also spending more time on experimenting with developing her own art work using a variety of techniques and media.
Her observational responses to nature are recorded in 2D and 3D using pen, paint, fabric, threads, glass, paper, print making etc. This enthusiastic approach to experimenting and her encouraging and calm manner ensures each student feels inspired and able to realise their own creative potential.