CFPR STAFF CAREER STORIES 0.1
Sofie Boons
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Sofie Boons is a Research Associate and Crafts Council Research Fellow at the CFPR and an early career researcher. An awardwinning UK-based Belgian jewellery designer, Sofie holds a BA and two masters degrees covering jewellery design, silversmithing, goldsmithing and metalwork. She also runs her own jewellery company, The Alchemical Jeweller. Before joining the CFPR she was based in London, leading a team of 40 staff as head of the British Academy of Jewellery. Her work has been shown globally in galleries, with pieces in permanent collections.
Impressed by the technical facilities and expert knowledge across disciplines at the CFPR, Sofie initially applied for researcher and artist roles. She was particularly keen to undertake a PhD to study the opportunities and benefits of man-made crystals for jewellery designers, and the CFPR were able to offer this as part of the Research Associate role. Accepting the position, Sofie relocated to Bristol, where she started at the CFPR at the end of 2019 and began her PhD study in the spring of 2020.
At the start of her time at the CFPR, Sofie worked with the Crafts Council to co-design the Touch Symposium, which she quickly redesigned as an online event following restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This unique virtual gathering successfully brought together 150 international craft practitioners and researchers, who took part in discussions and practical sessions from their own studios, using material packs distributed in the runup to the event. The Crafts Council fellowship has also provided Sofie additional funding for skills development, and included mentoring sessions with Alma Daskalaki from the Council.
Now three years into her part-time PhD, Sofie is translating her research into real-world application. Alongside a deepening knowledge of the materials and skills associated with jewellery, she has developed her understanding of the cultural approaches to gemstone materials and their surrounding rituals, myths and traditions. And she has explored the environmental impact of mining precious gems, an understanding which she aims to communicate through her artistic practice.
Sofie’s work at the CFPR has unlocked an international network of diverse thinkers from other subject areas and industry partners with whom she is now collaborating. This includes her groundbreaking work with Dr Daniel Rytz of Swiss company BREVALOR
Sàrl, growing crystals emitting persistent luminescence. Using the new material ‘BRG’, Sofie has successfully facetted the world’s first single stone glow-in-the-dark man-made crystal, which is both brilliant when seen in daylight and illuminates in the dark. The Business Magazine has hailed this achievement as ‘a step-change in developing gemstone materials for the jewellery industry’.
Regularly invited to submit journal articles and deliver lectures and workshops, Sofie has addressed students nationally and internationally in institutions ranging from the Hochschule Trier in Germany to the University of Monterrey, Mexico. In these, she considers the use of man-made crystals, their design implications, possibilities and limitations, explores how ideas are transformed through the use of novel materials and engages in practical debate on the ethics of mining precious jewels and ways of minimising waste.
Her lectures have included ‘Questioning the ‘real’ and ‘natural’: A case study on diamonds’, Art of Research 2020, Aalto, Finland; and ‘The Alchemical Dream of Man-made Crystals’ at the Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences Lab, Birmingham University in 2022.
Her journal articles include Crystal growing design method: An investigation into the growing of crystals for jewellery designs, Craft Research, 2022; and Man-made crystals: A review of their historic and contemporary context and use, International Journal of Design in Society, 2021
Sofie is a reviewer for the International Association of Societies of Design Research, the Design Research Society and CFPR’s IMPACT journal. She is a member of the College of Art, Technology and Education Research Committee and a Governor of the British Academy of Jewellery.
Additionally, Sofie’s collaboration with the University of Bristol has led to a new PhD studentship to investigate the growth of rubies and sapphires, doping the Aluminum Oxide with other materials. She is mentoring the student and in close contact with the supervisor in this PhD, which is unique to the UK.
During her time at the CFPR Sofie has received DAAD and Erasmus funding and two emerging scholar awards. Most recently she was also awarded the Mary Somerville Lehrbeauftragtenprogramm.
The funding has allowed her to undertake three residencies in Germany hosted by the Hochshule Trier in the coloured gemstone capital of Europe: Idar-Oberstein.
Along with providing her access to international collaborators, Sofie credits the CFPR with helping her to refine her funding pitches, and providing her the time and space to develop practice based project ideas and develop her skills as an early career researcher. The CFPR has enabled her to collaborate with researchers from other disciplines and learn from their methodological approaches. It has allowed her the opportunity to collect and interrogate data and given her valuable experience in areas such as 3D printing.
In August 2023 Sofie will start a new role at UWE as Senior lecturer in Craft and Design.
