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Richard F Burns Jeweller

ABOUT RICHARD BURNS

Richard Burns is a UK based artist and jeweller, working from his studio in Dorset. 

 

Richard's great uncle was the New Zealand sculptor and artist, John Middleditch and his great aunt was the Venetian mosaic artist Mary Napier.  Richard's grandmother Virginia Mills, and his mother Imelda Burns, were also accomplished oil painters.  These early family influences had a lasting impact on Richard's journey as an artist.

 

Except for his time at the National Art School in Sydney Australia, Richard is largely self-taught. Richard has studied under a number of renowned jewellers in Australia, New Zealand and the UK over the past twenty years, which has developed a deeper technical understanding of working with precious metals.

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Richard is influenced and inspired by archaeological antiquities, European and Oceanic history, mingled with the Arts & Crafts movement of the late nineteenth century, and the beauty of the natural world.  In essence his work is an interpretative emotive response to the human condition and its interaction with nature.

 

Richard works in silver, gold, gemstones, bronze and mixed-media, using traditional metalwork methods and techniques such as lost-wax casting and hand-construction, but reinventing them from a contemporary viewpoint with a symbolic narrative.  Richard is attracted to the integrity and permanence of such materials and this gives his work a tactile functional quality, along with an aesthetic appeal to be worn.

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Richard’s works are held in private collections, in the UK and internationally and he has exhibited in both group and solo shows.

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All precious metal items are hallmarked at the Goldsmiths’ Company London Assay Office where Richard’s unique maker’s mark is registered.

 

 

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