International Bead and Jewellery Biennale 2026
The International Bead and Jewellery Biennale is one of the foremost opportunities in the world for beadmakers and glass jewellery artists to showcase their craft to an international audience. This year marks a significant milestone for the exhibition, as it expands for the first time to include jewellery alongside beadwork, reflecting the growing number of artists who work across both disciplines and the remarkable creative possibilities that arise when glass is used in wearable art. Held at The World of Glass in St Helens, the Biennale welcomes artists, designers, craftspeople, and students of all nationalities, with all glassmaking techniques represented and glass as the key design element throughout.
The 2026 exhibition is a juried show, with entries assessed by a distinguished international panel of glass artists, curators, and specialists in bead and jewellery making. Submitted works must be predominantly made of glass, though other materials may be incorporated, and all pieces must be original works rather than part of a production line. The resulting exhibition is a celebration of skill, imagination, and innovation — demonstrating just how far artists around the world are pushing the boundaries of what glass can do when worked at the smallest and most intimate of scales.
A full list of the participating artists in this year’s Biennale can be found below. Details on their individual pieces will be shared closer to the exhibition opening date in August. Information about the jurors who selected the exhibition — and the expertise and perspectives they each brought to the selection process — can also be found below.
We hope to welcome you in person to The World of Glass in St Helens this summer to enjoy this exhibition.
Participating Artists
Olga Alianova
Matilda Brifah
Madeline Bunyan
Estelle Burton
Simi Eliott
Manon Fontaine
Alessia Fuga
Claire Hall
Xiaozhe Huang
Katherine Huskie
Richard Jones
Sebnem Kurtul
Freya Laughton
Shongedzai Matangira
Harsh Nowlakha
Claudia E Ponce de Leon C
Patricia Sage
Federica Sala
Laura Sandoval
Opal Seabrook
Annie Vedovell
About the Jury
Rajesh Gogna is an award-winning British artist and educator who has worked in the field of contemporary design and craft for more than 25 years. Since establishing his practice in 1998, he has built an international reputation for innovative contemporary craft, exhibiting widely across Europe, China, and the United States. His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, National Museum Wales, and the Kamm Teapot Foundation. His creative and academic research focuses on innovative design thinking, material exploration, and the preservation of craft skills for future generations.
A freeman of the Goldsmiths’ Company, Gogna actively supports the craft sector through leadership, mentorship, and service on selection and judging panels, including Goldsmiths’ Fair, Made in the Middle, and the Goldsmiths’ Craft & Design Competition. He previously served as Chairman of the Association of Contemporary British Silversmiths, the leading organization for contemporary silver in the UK. He is currently Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Design Crafts program at De Montfort University, where he oversees a multidisciplinary curriculum specializing in glass, ceramics, and jewelry.
Sarah Rothwell is Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Design in the Department of Global Arts, Cultures and Design at National Museums Scotland, where she is responsible for collections of glass, ceramics, metalwork, jewelry, and industrial design dating from approximately 1945 to the present. Her research focuses on Nordic and British modernist jewelry, contemporary craft—particularly ceramics, glass, and jewelry—20th-century European art and design, and elevating overlooked voices within contemporary craft and design history.
Rothwell has played a leading role in advancing scholarship and public engagement in contemporary craft. She co-curated and hosted the 2022 Craft Scotland Conference: The Power of Glass alongside Dr. Jessamy Kelly, exploring glass as a vehicle for social and political commentary during the UN International Year of Glass. She has also served as a guest curator for European Ceramic Context 2024 and European Glass Context 2021, and curated the exhibitions Modernist Jewellery and Art of Glass for National Museums Scotland in collaboration with the National Centre for Craft and Design. In addition, she supports the craft sector through her service on the Board of Craft Scotland and the Council of the Society of Jewellery Historians.
Laura Simone has had a lifelong fascination with art, beginning with oil painting at age eight. Her interest has since expanded across a wide range of media, including paint, leaded glass, wood, metal, furnace glass, and fused glass. Laura’s artistic journey led her to St. Louis and Third Degree Glass Factory, where she developed a passion for flameworking and spent five years as an adjunct instructor for Washington University in St. Louis flameworking and glass sampler courses under the mentorship of Libby Leuchtman. Over the past decade, her primary focus has been glass, exploring techniques ranging from intricate beadmaking and miniature sculpture to borosilicate construction and non-traditional pâte de verre.
Simone’s multidisciplinary practice incorporates stained glass painting, Venetian-style micro-mosaics, and experimental applications of glass paints and enamels, bringing together her interests in both traditional and contemporary techniques. Based near Corning, she creates work in her multi-medium home studio while teaching and serving as a teaching assistant at The Studios of The Corning Museum of Glass and other studios throughout the United States.
