David Watkins - Artist in Jewellery, a Retrospective View (1972 - 2010)

David Watkins represents a driving force in British design. His work has been internationally collected since the early 1970s. His is a unique voice. He began his career as a jazz pianist and sculptor, and his practice and understanding of these two disciplines reverberate throughout his work, bringing to it unexpected directions and innovations. At a formative moment in the 1960s Watkins had worked on special effects for Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, the film 2001, designing and creating model spacecraft to high levels of demand and precision. Evidence of this experience can be seen in the earliest of his works on display - a silver and white enamel necklace and brooch echo the beauty of space probes and the moon landing station.