Heather Williams - Music Teacher, Oboist and Jewellery Maker

Portrait and interview - 1993 

Heather has been a professional musician for the past forty years and was one of the earliest music students at Dartington Hall, commencing her studies under Imogen Holst in 1945.  She then went on to study the oboe at the Guildhall School of Music and in Amsterdam, before playing for a short time with the Scottish National Orchestra.  She taught music at Dartington Hall for thirty years.

Heather was at one time, married to William Elmhirst known as Bill, the youngest of two children born to Dorothea and Leonard Elmhirst, founders of the utopian community at Dartington in Devon.  It went on to become a magnet for composers, poets, dancers, playwrights and artists.

Since 1989, Heather been able to devote more time and thought to her long interest in crafts.  Through her close connection with Dartington Hall as a pupil, student and teacher, she has been strongly influenced by such people as Kurt Jooss, Imogen Holst, Bernard and Helga Forester, Susan Bosence and the jeweller Breon O’Casey.

Heather works in silver and other metals, making rings, brooches, earrings and scarf-holders.  The designs she creates evolve as she works; a discarded metal cut-out may be enough to trigger an idea for a fantastic animal or object.  She makes her own ‘findings’ which sometimes look unusual but have a simple practicality.

Update:  Not Known