Rachael Colley is an artist and senior lecturer in Jewellery and Metalwork at Sheffield Halam University. She creates jewellery and sculpture which challenge our collective connection with food, as well as communicating aspects of her lived experience with the autoimmune disease systemic sclerosis (SSc). By exploring materials and sustainable design approaches, she reappropriates traditional leatherworking processes and applies them to organic food waste, referencing the internal wasting away of skin and connective tissues caused by SSc.
Colley is a member of Heritage Crafts and received their award for innovation in environmental sustainability in 2024. As recipient of The Art House’s Crafting the Future residency, she intends to spend her time in Wakefield researching critically endangered crafts including sustainable paper making and dyes, as well as pigment-making using organic materials from our Urban Gardens.
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Images courtesy of Rachael Colley, Assistive Objects, 2025. Photographer Chelsea Abbott.