Charles Frank (Fred) Barnes, Phil’s father
Phil was born in London in 1952. His father, Charles Frank Barnes – known as ‘Fred’ Barnes - was a master enameller with his own company, C.F. Barnes & Co. In 1967, at the age of fifteen, Phil decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and serve a full-time apprenticeship with him.
Phil in 1971 with his Jacques Cartier award and the winning piece based on a stained glass window
Whilst still an apprentice and at just 19 years of age, Phil entered the UK industry’s most prestigious skills competition covering design and craftsmanship; the Goldsmiths’ Craft & Design Council (GCDC) Competition.
Phil’s Cartier Award winning piece
The GCDC Competition has been sponsored by Cartier since the 1950s and the ‘Cartier Award’ is given for work showing exceptional and outstanding craft skills, serving as a benchmark of the highest technical quality. The award is noted as the perfect way to celebrate craftsmanship that manifests near or actual perfection and is only given if a piece achieves this standard and is not necessarily awarded each year, but in 1971 Phil became the youngest ever recipient of the prized Cartier Award.
Phil engraving as a young apprentice
At the time of his apprenticeship, the C. F. Barnes workshop was being used by the major London fine jewellery and objet houses including Cartier, De Vroomen Designs, Elizabeth Gage, Garrard and Asprey. As an apprentice Phil went to evening classes to learn design, engraving, drawing and art.
By the age of 25 Phil was a one-third partner in the firm with responsibilities for more complex pieces of enamelling including grading, a new technique, with one enamel colour bleeding into the next.
Phil at his enamelling bench
In June 1978 Phil became a Freeman of the Goldsmiths’ Company and was awarded the Freedom of the City of London. When his father retired in 1983, Phil set up his own workshop in Clapham, London.
Phil had by now established himself as a highly accomplished engraver and enameller and was well known in the elite world of the jewellery trade. He counted among his expanding client base Theo Fennell, Stephen Webster, Shaun Leane and Henn of London.
Phil engraving the Peacock Dish in his Yoxford workshop
After working in and close to London for almost 40 years, in 2005 Phil decided to move to Suffolk and set up his workshop in Yoxford. He maintained a select client base, taking on special commissions and developing his own pieces.
Phil proudly posing by the advertising banner for the 2012 Festival of Silver at the Goldsmiths’ Centre in London
After his move to Suffolk Phil exhibited with British Silver Week, first at the Goldsmiths’ Hall in 2008 and later at the Pangolin Gallery, London in 2012. During this period, Phil concentrated on designing and making his own pieces, inspired by his love of nature and his surroundings in Suffolk. He was doing more engraving, which he loved, and which constituted almost ninety percent of the work in a piece. His designs sometimes included words, where letters were carved out of the solid metal by recessing the background and forming the shapes. It demonstrated his precision and accuracy in engraving, which was needed to make the lettering look perfect. Phil had entered the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council competition a number of times already, but this period enabled him to enter a finished piece each year.
Phil enamelling in his Yoxford workshop
His love of his art and craft is clear in this extract from a talk he gave at the Southwold Arts Festival in 2017:
“All of my work revolves around enamelling, the design and surface decoration being the most important thing to me. I try in my work to introduce colours together through the blending and mixing of shades to complement each other and to enhance the coloured stones used within the piece. Engraving also plays a large part in my work, the creation of cells, the line of design and the use of different textures and what they will bring to the piece is always a challenge”.
Floating Materials Lidded Beaker
“Even with a long standing enamelling career behind me, I still get excited about the process, the effects and look only enamel can bring. The transparency and clarity of the coloured glass reflecting back from a brightly engraved background still thrills.
What cannot be forgotten is enamelling is an art, a craft and not a science. Even when it seems you have followed every correct procedure, there is always the ‘unknown’ factor and it is this that makes enamelling such a challenging and rewarding medium in which to work. It is one that will always want to be bettered and improved, and when all these factors of the craft blend together there is nothing more beautiful or stunning than a piece of fine enamel work.”
Phil in 2016 with the Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company, Timothy Schroder, receiving a Gold award for engraving
Phil was extremely proud of his background, his craft and his long association with the Goldsmiths’ Company. Through many years he had either entered pieces in the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Competition or had been one of the judges for the enamel sections.
‘The Southwold Beaker’ is the only piece Phil designed without any enamel to showcase his consummate skill as an engraver and it won him a gold award in the Goldsmiths Craft and Design Council competition in 2016
By 2017 Phil had been awarded thirty-five Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council awards for enamelling, engraving and designer finished pieces.
‘A Craftsman’s Journey’ is the story of Phil’s early life as an apprentice, his developing career as a master enameller and is illustrated with full colour images of his work
When Phil was asked what success meant to him, his passion for his craft was obvious in the extract below from the book:
“It’s not the money, I think it’s the recognition, I already have a reputation through working for other people within the trade but no-one outside the trade really knows that. What I am relishing a bit more now is people looking at my work and wanting it, and they are collecting it. That wouldn’t have been conceivable ten years ago.”
Phil’s stand at the Pangolin Gallery in London
“I might have made a piece and felt lucky to have sold it, I’d have probably knocked it down in price about three times because I thought I needed the money but now images of my work are going out there on social media and I just cannot believe the responses I get. I know that doesn’t necessarily bring me any money, but there were four pictures of a vase being engraved and 40,000 people saw it, and I thought, ‘My god’. I’ve put images of a piece online and within an hour I have reached 1,200 people, I like that!”
Phil’s Abstract Vase No.1, the last piece he would complete, was purchased by the Goldsmiths’ Company in 2019
Phil was delighted to finally have a piece of his work in the Goldsmiths’ collection and was invited to attend Goldsmiths’ Hall in February 2019 where the purchase of his vase was announced by the Prime Warden.
In the same year Phil was asked to talk about his work, his passion for his craft and what inspired him by an organisation called ‘Inspirational Artisans’.
‘A Well Crafted Life’ is an account of his thoughts on his working life and his craft.
Phil’s technical guide about engraving and enamelling covering all aspects of his working methods
The passing on of knowledge was important to Phil and in 2019 he achieved his ambition to leave a written record of his way of working when his book ‘Engraving and Enamelling – The Art of Champlevé’ was published.
Winner of the Jacques Cartier “Craftsman of the Year” Award 1971
Awarded Freedom of the Goldsmiths’ Company in 1978 and Freedom of the City of London in the same year
Master to three apprentices
Judge for the enamelling section for the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Awards
Part time lecturer at the Sir John Cass School of Art and Design for 15 years
He was a visiting lecturer on enamelling for many years, teaching at such places as the Royal College of Art
and UCE Birmingham and has given numerous master classes throughout this country and abroad
Phil showed his work in travelling exhibitions with the Goldsmiths' Company in Boston, San Francisco and Frankfurt
and exhibited at Goldsmiths' fair London and British Silver weekChairman of the British Society of Enamellers for 5 years showing his work in various exhibitions with them across
Europe and the USAWinner of 35 Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council awards for enamelling, engraving and designer finished
pieces from 1971 to 2017A founder member of the Institute of Professional Goldsmiths where he served as Chairman
Former Trustee of the Hand Engravers Association of Great Britain, his paperweight ‘Mythical Creature in
Blue’ is part of their permanent exhibition in the Clockmakers’ Museum, within the Science Museum in London
He features in the short “How it was Made” film series which forms part of the permanent display within the
Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria & Albert MuseumPhil was a member of the Guild of Enamellers and the Buddy Scheme he proposed was adopted by them in 2019
Phil taught engraving and enamelling to two recipients of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) – Naomi Neville and Harry Forster-Stringer
Phil was involved in developing and teaching on the pre-apprentice foundation course at the Goldsmiths’ Centre, London
Former Suffolk Craft Society member
Finalist in the Heritage Craft Association Marsh Christian Craft Trainer Award 2013
Winner of the Balvenie "Master of Craft" Metal section 2012
Accolades and Acknowledgements
His contemporaries said of him:
“Phil and I became really good friends and colleagues and he enamelled all my pieces. From the very beginning the majority of our jewellery were combination pieces, where we used coloured gemstones and enamel. We always had to make the decision if the enamel was to match the colour of the gemstone or if we wanted to create contrast, which could be mellow or stronger. Phil was one of the very best enamellers in the world and very famous for his beautiful enamel grading. Phil had such talent for using just the right colours needed to work with the gemstones.”
“Phil always showed tremendous skill during his long career as an enameller, and worked with me on many pieces of my jewellery. During recent years he developed a joyful exploration into creative experiments, pushing his technical expertise to achieve exciting imaginative concepts. He used great sensitivity when interpreting our pieces. The brooch which Ginnie designed for our retrospective exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall, ‘Harmony in Colour and Form’, depended on Phil’s precise cutting skills to produce the spirals, which were recessed into the gold to give a 3D effect. Over this engraving the enamel was applied in many thin layers to create a seamless progression from soft gold to glowing vivid oranges and rich reds. It was then polished to give a perfectly smooth surface. A true masterpiece.”
— Ingo Henn, Henn of London
— Leo de Vroomen, Jeweller
“Phil and his father before him inspired many people to discover how enamels could bring colour and texture to fine jewellery. Phil excelled at following a design, coming up with solutions not problems. Always a joy to work with, his enamelling and craftsmanship were impressive. I have passed on Phil’s book to my jewellery-making daughter... so Phil’s influence will continue. A difficult act to follow.”
— Roger Doyle, Jeweller
“I first met Phil when I was working on a new commission in 1972. It was obvious from the outset that he had inherited his father’s amazing skill for beautiful enamelling and throughout our years of working together, I only had to discuss any new design with Phil once before he created the finish I so wanted.”
— Elizabeth Gage, Jeweller
“Since winning the Councils coveted Jacques Cartier Memorial Award in 1971, Phil continually participated in the Goldsmiths’ competition with great energy, enthusiasm and sustained commitment. This resulted in Phil accumulating a high number of awards, one of the highest from a single person over the last five decades of the competition, and probably at any time since the GC&DC was founded in 1908.
Phil’s contribution not only promoted and supported enamelling in the competition, he regularly offered valuable feedback and enthusiastically engaged with Council to uphold and enhance industries standards. Phil was also a judge in the competition, this again gave him and the GC&DC added value and constructive support to improve the awards.
He also taught and mentored aspiring enamellers that in turn, entered work into the awards, and Phil was also instrumental in helping Council to further support budding young enamellers learning the craft of enamelling. Phil’s legacy to the competition has been impressive, significant, of longevity and without question, enabled the Goldsmiths’ Craft & Design Council to support, promote and enhance world class enamelling in the UK over the last 50 years.“
— Brian Hill, Consultant and former Chairman of the Goldsmiths’ Craft & Design Council
“The Guild of Enamellers has benefited hugely from the contribution which Phil made to the organisation over the 50 years since its inception. Phil’s skills and talent inspired and motivated members and combined with his great sense of humour, wit and patience he was well loved both as mentor and friend. Phil was immensely generous in passing on his skills and knowledge and fostered the importance of our sharing skills and experiences with each other. He suggested that enamellers and engravers should pair up with a buddy to help, support and teach each other. The Guild has now set up the Phil Barnes Buddy Scheme in his memory. Phil is cherished by the Guild and is one of our greatest treasures.”
— Marion Edwards on behalf of The Guild of Enamellers
“Phil brought his valuable expertise to our Executive Committee. He was a major contributor to the ‘Cut in Clerkenwell’ workshops, which formed part of an ambitious project to create the first archive of hand engraving. The paperweight he designed and made as part of the archive, ‘Mythical Creature in Blue’, forms part of our permanent collection at The Clock Museum housed in The Science Museum, London.”