Miss Sofie Boons

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About me

As Senior Lecturer in Design Crafts, Sofie is currently reviewing the embedding of Craft and Design skills across the School of Art, teaching on a variety of programmes, whilst working towards the development of a new MA Designer/Maker course, launching in September 2025. Furthermore, Sofie is supporting Will Grant (Associate Director for Postgraduate Taught Provision), with the execution of a Business Case reviewing, streamlining, and expanding SoA postgraduate provision. 

 
Sofie is awaiting the award of her recently completed PhD titled: ‘Neo-gemstones®: An Alchemical Jeweller’s Exploration of Lab-grown Crystals and Related Technologies, Proposing Innovations Whilst Challenging Context, Terminology, and Underlying Assumptions.’ Her supervisory team included Dr Sarah Bodman, David Huson and Dr Laura Morgan. In her PhD she is investigating the design implications, possibilities, and limits of utilising man-made crystals in the development of jewellery designs. To support her research, she successfully secured funding from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), after which she was successfully awarded a Mary Somerville-Lehrauftragsprogramms scholarship. She is now continuing her research through a UWE VC ECR grant, and the Bridge Funding. Sofie's research has been featured on BBC Points West News, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and the BBC World Service. For more information about her research, visit www.neo-gemstones.com.
 
She collaborates with Frank Menger and Liz Hingley on the development and ongoing delivery of workshops, lectures and exhibitions of the SIM Project (https://www.thesimproject.com/).
 
Sofie continues to support the British Academy of Jewellery as an educational consultant, and hosts the BAJ podcast, for which she records and edits monthly episodes.
 
Sofie previously worked at CFPR as a RA and Craft Council Research Fellow as part of E3 Research England (2019-2023). She collaborated with the team using and developing equipment, novel ideas and projects, and led a range of large funding applications. She organized a conference ‘Touch: Reflections on Making’ in collaboration with the Crafts Council.
 
Prior to joining UWE she worked at BAJ, where she supported the owner in the role of Head of Academy carrying responsibility for the overall leadership and management of the educational institution and its team of approximately 40 members of staff. During her tenure as Head of Academy the Academy achieved the Matrix Standard, BAC accreditation, successfully passed ISI Inspections, and achieved an OFSTED Good Grade. Furthermore, the Academy was registered on ROATP and successfully met quality and performance targets of a number of awarding and subcontracting organisations. In her role Sofie oversaw the development of Level 2-6 qualifications, and achieved validation for the BA (Hons) in Jewellery Design and Production by Kingston University.
 
Sofie obtained the MA 'Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery' at the Royal College of Art, where her work was awarded the Theo Fennell Overall Excellence Award. Sofie was selected as One to Watch by the Design Council and awarded STROOM and Design Vlaanderen grants. Her work has been shown globally at a range of galleries/exhibitions, and pieces have been included in permanent collections. For more information about her personal practice, visit www.sofieboons.com.

 

Area of expertise

Jewellery Design/Manufacturing, Metalwork, CAD/CAM, Rendering, Drawing, Metallurgy

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