 | Grant Macdonald
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George Grant Macdonald was born in London in 1947. At 14 Grant Macdonald went to the small jewellery workshop of one of his father's patients and ended up making a small silver spoon and he was hooked. Studied at the Central School and Sir John Cass College until 1969 and then set up a small workshop with Paul Podolsky in Albion Street which gradually expanded. It was here in the early 1970's that he pioneered a process of electro-texturing, a method of electroplating under controlled conditions to produce various types of texture and nodulant surfaces, relating to the form of the underlying metal. As a production decoration it could be used on a wide variety of silver items, from cufflinks to goblets, keeping trade costs attractive to retailers. In 1976 he took over Gerald Benney's Bear Lane workshops when Benney moved out to Berkshire. To keep his large workforce going he first relied on the American market but in 1979 MacDonald received an enquiry from a palace in the Middle East which opened up a whole new market for him. The Gulf States would then become the backbone of his business, making luxurious royal gifts in gold and silver using traditional patterns of a particular country on new designs. By now his Southwark studio workshop had 20 employees combing traditional crafts with new industrial skills. Grant Macdonald had an exhibition in the Silver Gallery at the V & A in 1997 and was elected a member of the Court of Assistants of the Goldsmith's Company in 2000. In 1998 he completed a one and a half ton, eighteen foot high Cross and Orb to go on top of the rebuilt Dresden Cathedral.
His work is also found at 10 Downing Street, Lichfield Cathedral and over 20 City Livery Companies.
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