Diana Porter
I wanted to
be an actor. I trained as a teacher, had two children, was a single
parent, did lots of amateur acting, found feminism, worked for
twenty odd years as an arts administrator during which time I did
fascinating jobs such as running theatre companies both in London
& in Bristol, setting up a small scale theatre and community
arts centre in Bristol, running Birmingham Women's Festival. I campaigned
for more money for the arts, for equality of opportunities for women,
disabled people and ethnic minorities; I demonstrated against nuclear
armaments. I got grants for people from the Arts Council of Great
Britain, Local Authorities and Regional Arts Boards. I did budgets,
wrote reports, filled out a thousand forms.
And then in 1990
I went to the University of Central England to do a 3 year full
time degree course in Jewellery and Silversmithing.
I loved the way
that working with metal centred and concentrated my mind; I learnt
about design and form and my teachers pushed me to develop my design
ideas which I now thank them for; I loved the History of Art part
of the course and became passionate about investigating the history
of the involvement by women in the arts and crafts. This was 3 years
to take stock and to create - it was a gift and the jewellery is
an outcome of that.
On leaving college
in 1993, I immediately started my own business making jewellery
in my front room. In 1999 I was awarded UK Jewellery Designer of
the Year! '
Now, at the start of a new decade, I still
cannot believe how lucky I have been. The collections are in about
60 galleries and shops all over the country and in the US and I
have the shop of my dreams with workshops behind it – one
for the 5 jewellers who hand finish my work and another for me –
a room of my own to create and play in! I get to choose beautiful
work to display in the shop from other designers and I meet lovely
people who come from miles around to consult about commissions.
Employees have come and gone, some have stayed – we’ve
had work experience people who’ve then joined us, stayed for
years and have gone on to set up their own jewellery businesses.
We’ve become a limited company and I’ve recently appointed
a co director who has relieved me of all the business side leaving
me to make jewellery, take photos and sometimes do the shop window!
My current concerns
centre around investigating the sources of the materials we use
– the silver, gold, platinum and the diamonds and other stones.
In trying to find ‘ethically’ produced metals, my research
took me to Bolivia where small artisanal miners are working towards
improving working conditions and taking care of the environment