There are elemental themes that indicate in which decade Bill’s jewellery was made, but good design is timeless and pieces from every stage of his career still attract attention and compliments when worn, so many years after his death.

Like all artists who manage to maintain a career over a lifetime, Bill experienced his share of financial and other difficulties. There is a marked contrast between the large pieces and bold designs of more successful times of the 1990s and the meagre cast works incorporating thistles and luckenbooths that he created in the 1970s when he moulded ranges of work for Scottish craft shops appearing in small towns with the emerging Scottish tourism industry at that time. You can see the impact of financial constraint on his designs from this period and it is these pieces that most frequently appear for auction online. This decade was the hardest time for Bill and the family, when the price of silver soared and the then new labour government introduced luxury goods tax. My father was always a little conflicted by loyalty to the political culture of his Clydeside upbringing and his quest to put food on the table.

He was however really happy at the end of his life, partly due to the fact that big flashy earrings returned to fashion after disappearing for the duration of the 1990s.