Gerda Flöckinger

b. 1927, Innsbruck

Gerda Flöckinger was born in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1927, emigrating to Britain in 1938. Between 1945 and 1950 Flöckinger studied painting at Saint Martin’s School of Art, before completing courses in etching (1950-1952) and jewellery techniques and enameling (1952-1956) at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London. By 1962 she had established her own practice as an independent maker as well as founding a pioneering course in experimental jewellery design at Hornsey School of Art where she taught Crafts Council Collection maker David Poston . Flöckinger is an internationally celebrated jeweler who has been exhibited extensively worldwide, including at institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Pforzheim Jewellery Museum, Germany. Amongst many others, her work features in the collections of Boston Museum of Fine Art, USA and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France. In 1991 Flöckinger was made a ‘Freeman of the Goldsmiths’ Company’ and in 1998 the contribution she has made to jewellery design and making was acknowledge when she was awarded a CBE. Gerda Flöckinger currently lives in London.

Jewellery techniques and enameling, Central School of Arts and Crafts, 1952-1956
Etching, Central School of Arts and Crafts, 1950-1952
Painting, Saint Martin’s School of Art, 1945-1950