Jewellery fit for the Queen

And really, it all came about by accident.

"I was always making things when I was a boy. My primary school in Durham really inspired an interest in history. I used to go to the cloisters at the cathedral and look up at the shields in the ceiling. Then I would go home and make models of them in plywood."

When he was invited to make a brooch to be presented to the Queen on her visit to the North-East last year, he chose a version of the Tree of Life, as carved in stone by craftsmen in Jarrow in the Eighth Century, treasuring the link with the past.

Pride in the region's past is an intrinsic part of Les's work. Most of his designs, including a special collection for Bede's World in Jarrow, are based on the sort of decoration you would find in the Lindisfarne Gospels. Yet his work is not a slavish copy of the old designs, but a new twist, giving them fresh life.

But the piece that inspired him was, of all things, a badge for a motorbike. Off work as a teacher because of a long stretch of illness, he rebuilt an old motorbike that had been lying around for ages. Then it came to making the BSA badge, a tricky piece of work that he really enjoyed doing and which set him off on a new path.

In his forties, he enrolled at Cleveland College of Art, part-time at first and then full-time and is full of praise for the help and training he received there.

Five years ago, at the end of the course, his design was chosen by Cellnet for the Player of the Year award at Middlesbrough. And since then he's designed trophies, badges, ceremonial jewellery for a number of councils, corporations and businesses. "Jewellery was always a bold statement," he says

Many of his designs are built up in painstaking layers, giving a solid 3D effect. Others solve surprising problems - like the pectoral cross he designed and made for the Bishop of Durham, cleverly engineered so that it automatically righted itself so the Bishop didn't have to keep turning it back the right way. That cross was built up of nine layers and took plenty of experimentation to get it just right.

He recently made a spur, inspired by Hotspur, hero of the North, for the Northumbrian Association. "Through the culture of the North-East I think we can learn a lot about the relationship between work and life."

But he makes lighter jewellery too. Wife Viv - an artist in her own right - has a wonderful collection of pieces he's made for her, including a bracelet with a knotwork design, based on the Lindisfarne Gospels, and set with garnets. Many of the smaller pieces, including versions of the brooch presented to the Queen, are available at prices from around £20 to £250,depending on materials.

He works very much in the way that jewellers and silversmiths have worked for hundreds, thousands of years, using traditional tools, even the same style of settings. He and Bede's craftsmen could easily compare notes across the centuries.

He regularly takes part in craft displays and demonstrations - there's still a lot of the teacher in him - and enjoys explaining the skills and effort that goes into each piece.

The work is slow, intricate and time-consuming. A brooch can take 40 hours, but he relishes the time spent, saying: "Today there is so much emphasis on speed, on instant happiness and gratification. I'm trying to demonstrate that if something's of value, then you have to work at it."

* Small ranges of Les Howe's jewellery can be seen at Bede's World, Jarrow; The Chantry, Morpeth; Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland; The National Trust shops at Lindisfarne and Seahouse; Bears plus Crafts at Carrville, Durham.

Les will be giving demonstrations of his work at Bede's World, Jarrow on Saturday August 4; The National Glass Centre, Sunderland on Wednesday August 8, Saturday and Sunday August 18 and 19 and Saturday and Sunday September 1 and 2.

Published: 27/07/2001