Inventive metalworkers scrap it out for arts prize worth £30,000

Eight metalworkers whose works range from tea sets to hammered silver vases are in the running for the £30,000 Jerwood Applied Arts Prize.

Eight metalworkers whose works range from tea sets to hammered silver vases are in the running for the £30,000 Jerwood Applied Arts Prize.

Nearly 80 craftsmen and women submitted work for the prize which features a different applied art - such as jewellery, ceramics, glass and furniture - every year and is focusing on metal for the first time in 2005.

Corinne Julius, one of the judges for the award, said yesterday: "In the past four to five years, metalwork has become the most inventive and exciting area of contemporary craft. It's noticeable that, taking all the arts, that metalwork is the most dynamic. There is both an intellectual content and a skill in making that is very exciting."

All the artists work in Britain but five were born overseas. The youngest, Junko Mori, was born in Japan in 1974 and came to London to study before setting up her studio in Manchester. She uses traditional blacksmithing techniques. The eldest, Frances Brennan, 53, who lives in London, came to metalwork later in life and only began training in 1996.

The other contenders are: Ane Christensen, 32, from Denmark, who creates work out of a single metal sheet; David Clarke, 37, whose works in silver are already collected by the V&A; Chris Knight, based in Sheffield, who makes tea sets; the Swiss Hans Stofer, 47; Simone ten Hompel, 44, a German; and Hiroshi Suzuki, 43, another Japanese, now based in Worksop.

Ms Julius said several of the shortlist - including Clarke, Ten Hompel and Stofer - were teachers who had led a revolution in metalwork which can be seen in everything from large architectural structures to art objects and functional objects for the home.

Many of the artists from overseas had found Britain a liberating country to be in, she added. "Britain has become an interesting place to work. It is very free," she said.