QEST Alumni at Collect 2026 

Alice Walton 
Caroline Fisher Projects, S3 

Alice Walton is a ceramic artist known for intricate, labyrinthine forms that have gained international recognition. With a forensic eye, she creates complex, multi-layered works enriched by nuanced tonal blending. At Collect, she presents Cladonia in stoneware and porcelain with Caroline Fisher Projects, ahead of a larger Norfolk exhibition exploring contemporary making in relation to Bolwick Hall gardens. 

^{Photo © Max Bainbridge}  

^{Photo © Sylvain Deleu} 

Ella Porter 
Thrown Contemporary, S4 

Ella Porter graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 2014, following a foundation year at Camberwell College of Arts, UAL. A QEST Scholarship supported her MA in Ceramics & Glass at the Royal College of Art. At Collect, she shows with Thrown Contemporary, including Jade Beaded Sculpture (2025), hand-built in glazed stoneware. 

Andrea Spencer 
Design & Crafts Council Ireland, E28 

Andrea Spencer is a glass artist based in Ballintoy on the North Antrim Coast, creating delicate flameworked sculptures and installations inspired by nature. Showing with Design & Crafts Council Ireland in Four Seasons, she works at the flame in a dialogue between control and spontaneity, using traditional and experimental techniques to shape intricate, expressive glass forms. 

Cara Murphy  
Design & Crafts Council Ireland, E28 

Cara Murphy presents Long Grass Teapot with Design & Crafts Council Ireland. A QEST Scholar and Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, she is also an Associate Academician of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts. Her silver tableware features in major public and private collections, including the V&A, the Silver Trust and the National Museum of Ireland. 

Jacqueline Cullen 
Goldsmiths’ Fair, W1 

Jacqueline Cullen draws inspiration from dynamic natural phenomena, from lightning-slashed skies to intergalactic space. Tiny diamonds cascade from hand-carved fissures, creating jewellery that is dramatic, sculptural and wearable. Showing with Goldsmiths’ Fair, her work explores structure, texture and light through bold material contrasts, balancing geological intensity with contemporary glamour and refined craft excellence. 

^{Photo © Alun Callender} 

Anna Lorenz 
FIVE Collective, W4  

Anna Lorenz works across jewellery, silversmithing and sculpture with a refined, minimalist aesthetic. Using gold and metalworking techniques, she explores geometric structure, space and layering, while questioning material transformation and creative engagement. Showing with FIVE Collective, she presents Double Bowl, a silver vessel that reflects her precise, architectural approach to form and surface. 

Caitlin Murphy 
Society of Designer Craftsmen, W15 

Caitlin Murphy is a third-generation Northern Irish silversmith based in Reading. Her practice centres on folding and weaving metal, challenging traditional silversmithing conventions. At Collect, she exhibits with the Society of Designer Craftsmen, presenting woven metal paintings in anodised titanium. She will also speak in a Collect Booth Talk alongside SDC Trustee and ceramicist Kayley Holderness. 

Alex O’Connor
Society of Designer Craftsmen, W15

Alex O’Connor is a Cornwall-based silversmith whose work is rooted in a background in Fine Art and Sculpture. Her silverware is defined by a sculptural understanding of form, balance and surface — combining traditional techniques with a contemporary visual language. Alex will present ‘Garniture (Twelvemonth)’, a series of five vessels that began in February 2025 during a month-long residency at The Hugo Burge Foundation, Marchmont.

Ikuko Iwamoto 
Cavaliero Finn, W17 

Ikuko Iwamoto, a 2025 QEST Scholar, is a London-based Japanese ceramicist creating porcelain tableware and sculpture inspired by microscopic natural forms. Showing with Cavaliero Finn in Verdant Pulse, her work explores transformation and sensory awareness. Through delicate structures and subtle surface detail, she invites viewers to reconnect with optimism and vitality through crafted form. 

^{Photo © Tian Khee Siong} 

Frances Priest 
Cavaliero Finn, W17 

Frances Priest, a QEST Trustee and Scholar, is an Edinburgh-based ceramicist known for intricate, colourful works that reinterpret global languages of ornament. Showing with Cavaliero Finn in Verdant Pulse, her ceramics reflect themes of renewal and movement, drawing on pattern, history and surface to create visually rich pieces that celebrate craft’s enduring decorative traditions. 

Kamilah Ahmed:
Collect Open 

Embroiderer Kamilah Ahmed presents The Life Above for Collect Open, the annual showcase of ambitious, craft-led installations. Rooted in Dhaka’s layered cityscape, this suspended embroidered textile installation honours the city’s weavers and the Jamdani tradition. Presented in partnership with Spinocchia Freund, Collect Open highlights bold, experimental approaches to contemporary craft practice.