About Keith
Following on retirement from a career in Higher Education and many stimulating years teaching aspects of 3-D Design with Silversmithing and Jewellery, plus 16 less enjoyable years as Head of Design Department through to Sheffield Hallam University, Keith has joyfully returned to pursue his passion for design and carefully producing useful artefacts in silver and in other metals, for Companies, Public Institutions, Religious Groups and for private Collectors, both to commission and via exhibitions.
Since 1990, assisted by either of his three daughters or more regularly by his son Joe, he has taken part in many significant UK and International Shows so that his essentially hand-manufactured products that range from drinking vessels to flower vases, platters, bowls and candlesticks, have been widely exhibited including in Melbourne, Munich, twice in San Francisco, at three events in New York and frequently in London.
Having established his mark as a designer/silversmith and in related metalworking, in 1990 he received national recognition for his then new products bringing a refreshingly new look, feel and an enhanced appeal to contemporary pewterware. Today, his work both in silver and in other metals is still vigorously engaged and examples may be viewed in various museums and forms part of many private collections. He has served as an External Assessor for many Design Degree Courses in the UK, is a founder member of the ABDS (now the Contemporary British Silversmiths), for many years a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, is a Liveryman of The Goldsmiths‘ Company and a Freeman of The Pewterers‘ Company and listed in the Design Index at Goldsmiths‘ Hall and on their makers‘ directory. There are also several notable examples of metal works in the public domain achieved jointly and in close collaboration with Alex Brogden, Chris Knight and Brett Payne, all similarly established colleagues.
Rationale
By his patient and particular approach to designing and working with metals such as pewter, brass and iron, Keith Tyssen is bringing the highly disciplined ‘eye’ of a designer-silversmith to a range of materials often overlooked. He suggests, “this is a more refined and critical approach which gives to my work in other metals, both a personal and carefully considered design and manufacturing response”.
His thoughts on design are direct:
“Any design should be apt, well-conceived and realised through a well managed combination of invention, good technique, material, construction and thoughtful finish. These things together are essential ingredients for arriving at a fine quality product, and good design is all of that. I prefer design that makes a bold visual statement, but calmly (mostly) and well-tempered enough to equip an article with a reassuring presence, enabling it to stand alone, yet to harmonise within its setting. For me, this forms a major part of the appeal of any good design, no matter its market value or social status. It happens that silver in particular, is a naturally responsive, purifying and almost magical material to touch, to work with and to use. Described as ‘a noble metal’, silver's many natural and material qualities are complimentary to my best efforts to capture presence and appeal within the work.”
Since his student days, Keith Tyssen has regarded Pewter as an undeservedly sidelined material. Lead-free modern pewter offers many special qualities deserving of a more sophisticated visual design and manufacturing approach. There are several reasons why Pewterware manufacturing undoubtedly is in need of investment in order to promote it strongly and confidently with a decidedly contemporary image. This delightfully tactile metal alloy has integral qualities that can take it beyond the usually 'fusty' image bestowed on it by the majority of manufacturers and those many dreary downmarket ‘giftware’ proprietors! Pewter is also a ‘green’ material, timely and in waiting to be re-discovered by the marketplace. Enjoyment of its particular properties is why Keith has devoted much time to producing a series of carefully considered Pewter vessels.
Biography
With his present studio/workshop at Persistence Works, Sheffield S1 2BS (since 2002), Keith Tyssen is a designer of contemporary silverwork who became established after completing 3 yrs. of postgraduate studies at The Royal College of Art in London in the 1960’s with successes in national design competitions and winning significant commissions for elegant and finely made silverwork coming out of the workshop he opened in Sheffield in 1963. In 1968 he was made a Freeman of the Goldsmiths’ Company which had earlier commissioned his 1966 prize winning entry in the Topham Trophy Design Competition to add to their fine collection of Modern Plate. Over the years he has been commissioned to make further major pieces for The Goldsmiths’ Company as part of their generous policy of making gifts of contemporary silverwork to Universities, Colleges and to The Church, by way of encouraging others to commission examples of suitably modern silverwork.
In 1990, at London’s ‘Top Drawer’ Show (then at Crystal Palace), Keith Tyssen exhibited his first ‘experimental’ product made in Pewter, a double-wall pewter Bowl (303mm. Dia.) and it won the ‘Best New Product’ Award. One of this design together with a later design, a larger bowl, have been purchased by the V&A Museum permanent collection.
His initial success at London’s ‘Top Drawer’ Show was repeated in 1995 with a further ‘Best New Product’ Award, for his double-wall pewter Beaker, and adjudicated by Ilse Crawford and Joseph Ogundehin.