A QEST Scholarship made it possible for Siân to return to coppersmithing a decade after her apprenticeship.
After ten years as a full-time parent of four, she enrolled at London Metropolitan University and completed an MA by Project (Metal) in twelve months. In the same year she built her first workshop and began a small business making one-off pieces of bespoke copperwork and undertaking commissions.
In 2011 Siân was awarded a Churchill Fellowship and travelled to France, Greece and India researching the origins of coppersmithing – and in 2019 she represented Great Britain in UNESCO’s 1st International Festival of Handicrafters in Uzbekistan.
After years of research into how female metalsmiths appear in archaeological and historical records, Siân completed a PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2025, finally concluding the studies which her QEST Scholarship had enabled her to begin, some twenty years earlier.
Coppersmithing continues to be the bedrock of all Siân’s activities and her passion for this beautiful and ancient craft remains at its core.
