Penny Gildea trained as a fine jeweller and achieving a City and Guilds certificate in fashion jewellery and later a diploma in jewellery design at Mid Warwickshire College of Further Education. While there she became interested in enamelling and made it a life-long study.
She went on to receive awards both in this country and abroad. After studying engraving and diamond mounting at the School of Jewellery in Birmingham, she went on to teach enamelling there for some years. 
She has been chairman of both the Guild of Enamellers and the British Society of Enamellers. While she was chair of the BSOE she took a prominent part in two prestigious exhibitions: Heart of the Heat and Enamoured. 
Today, she works from home making simple wearable jewellery, high-fired enamelled copper bowls and miniature landscaped on silver in transparent enamels.