1985

At the first Annual General Meeting, held 16 March 1985 at the Craft Council Gallery in Waterloo Place, London, the first Executive committee was formally elected:

Chairman: Maureen Carswell
Vice Chairman: Ian Robertson
Secretary: Alex Placzek (Raphael)
Treasurer: Edward Heath
Executive Committee: Georgina Follett
Endre Hevezi
Ruth Rushby
Jane Short
Guide Jane Skyme
Erika Speel

During the year, the Executive organised for members to send work to 4 international exhibitions, Tokyo, Aaron Faber, New York, and Laval, Canada.

They also organised a Slide Symposium and lunch at the Crafts Council in October 1985 with a talk by Elizabeth Holder on the photography of enamels. Elizabeth, a jeweller who studied photography under Hans Fischer in Düsseldorf, answered questions on common problems, illustrated by her own slides and then photographed some members’ work to demonstrate setting up and lighting and useful ‘tricks’ of the trade.

Society members Amal Ghosh, Edward Heath, Ender Hevezi, Iris Hudson, Terry Jones, Pat Johnson, Evangeline Long, Ian Robertson and Elizabeth Terrell exhibited in Contemporary British Enamels at Shipley Art Gallery.

‘The society owes a big debt of gratitude to Alex. She acted as treasurer for thirteen years. She was very ably supported by Gudde on the practical side, Gudde being a whiz on her Apple Mac. As well as all the secretarial work they produced the newsletter for a number of years, right up to when Pat Johnson took over. All the committee meetings, as well as many other activities, were hosted by Alex in her home – and there were a lot of committee meetings! Leading up to the first AGM we had seven meetings and in the following year we had nine meetings.

I served as chairman of the society for five years, and for our fifth AGM in 1989 I organised a combined Exhibition, AGM and workshops in Durham. This was with the help of Evangeline Long, who had found the venue for us at the Durham Light Infantry museum. This sounds a rather unlikely venue, but they had an excellent gallery space. The society went on to arrange a number of international conferences/workshops, two at West Dean, one in Cambridge and another in Oxford. We established contact with a number of international enamelling groups, exhibited widely both at home and abroad.

The International Association in Images never got off the ground, but BSOE is still here twenty-five years on. I wish Melissa and the present committee every success in taking us into the next twenty five.’

© 2009 Maureen Carswell.