Edinburgh jeweller

Last week I wrote a blog post for the London Jewellery School challenging people to dig out old, forgotten jewellery and giving it a new lease of life. You can read it here in a slightly altered form! Hands up if one of your favourite hobbies is buying jewellery supplies? Just as I thought! Whether it’s a trip around the bead shop or a splurge online we all love the excitement of the new. But this easter, we challenge you to think differently and use what you already have. Everyone has a box or a drawer of jewellery that they just don’t wear. Maybe pieces that you’ve bought, maybe things that have been given to you or things you made yourself. I have a box that has some old bracelets in. When I started this project I realised I hadn’t opened the box for ages! In the box I found this bracelet. Before It’s just a high street piece but I wore it a lot a few years ago. However, as you can see,  the elastic was stretched out of shape and it was no longer wearable. So

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This is re-blogged from a blog post I wrote for the London Jewellery School  that was published last week In the jewellery workshop – making your own pickle Jewellers pickle is an acid used for getting rid of firescale on metal, particularly after  soldering . Many people are wary about having it in the home, especially those of us with small children or animals. I made do without having it in my home jewellery studio for quite a while because I work in professional jewellery studios where I could easily just pickle my pieces when I was there for teaching. However, I had an urgent commission recently and found I didn’t have time to get to the studio. So, what to do? I googled it (of course) and found that there are ways to make pickle from substances that you have in the home. And so I had a go at making it myself and found that it was very effective and had other benefits. So, this is how I went about it. I found this  blog post by jeweller Jo Hollingsworth  about using vinegar

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As part of my blogging for the London Jewellery School I interviewed Katie Wallace from Katie's bike . I taught her for three days when she attended the six day business bootcamp at LJS and we have stayed in touch ever since. She makes cool jewellery from upcycled bike parts (look at those rings!). You can read the full interview here read more here

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I am now officially a regular blogger for the London Jewellery School ! I have a few posts coming up and I'll be linking to them on my blog. This one is about preparing for summer craft fairs. Click here to read the full post

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I taught a new weekend class at the Mary Ward Centre last month. It was Introduction to chainmaille jewellery . It was a fun class run over two Saturdays. It was popular so I will also be teaching a weekly daytime class in Chainmaille and beaded jewellery starting on Monday 12th May, 3-5.30pm ending on Monday 14th July. Classes do not run on bank holidays. The class is available for enrollment by phone on 020 7269 6000 (the centre is closed from 7th April - 21st April so there will be no answer during those times) . The course description is not currently on the website so if you are interested in enrolling please check after 21st April when the centre re-opens. Here are a few pieces made during the weekend class by my students