Background
She was born in Charlton, one of the nine children of Alfred Champion, a fireman, and Mary Ann Champion.
She was born in Charlton, one of the nine children of Alfred Champion, a fireman, and Mary Ann Champion.
She attended the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1904-1906.
There, under the jeweler Frederick James Partridge, she learned a wide range of techniques for working in metal, wood, and enamel. She was heavily influenced by Art Nouveau design and the work of C. R. Ashbee. In 1906 she went to Branscombe, Devon where Partridge rented some cottages for his students.
The couple spent two years in Looe, Cornwall before making their permanent home at Trewoofe in Lamorna.
Ella Naper worked from home producing decorative enamel and horn work jewellery. Naper sold much of her work through events such as "Arts and Crafts Exhibition," "Woman"s Art Exhibition," Liberty"s in London and, after 1924, Newlyn Art Gallery craft exhibitions.
During the First World War, Ella Naper and Laura Knight collaborated on the design of several pieces of painted jewellery and enamel plaques, including Two Dancers (1912). In 1915, Naper and Knight exhibited several of these pieces in a joint exhibition, with Lamorna Birch, held at the London Fine Art Society.
Naper received commissions for mayoral chains and war memorials, including one in Exeter Cathedral and also designed the memorial to the artist Benjamin Leader in Street Buryan"s Church.
After 1919 Naper, together with Kate Westrup and Emily Westrup, ran the Lamorna Pottery, which continued in production until 1935. She is one of the models in Harold Harvey"s painting The Critics (1922) and was also painted by, and produced some work with, Gluck. Naper features in several works by Laura Knight, including Spring (1916-1920) and is the model Knight is seen painting in Self Portrait (1913).