Edinburgh jeweller

The Mary Ward Centre , one of the places I teach, has a Creative Arts Open Day on Saturday 9th May. I am giving a talk on selling your Arts and Crafts online between 1 and 2pm. Tickets for that and other free talks are now available to book via Eventbrite Here's some more info The Mary Ward Centre Creative Arts Open Day is the ideal opportunity to get expert advice on our courses and what it's like to study here.  You will be able to speak to tutors and students to find out more about the courses on offer and you can join a series of free workshops and talks all day.  You can book a free one-to-one portfolio review of your creative work. Events and workshops will include -  Portfolio Review  - One-to-one review of your creative portfolio, with advice on how to move forward and any appropriate courses available (booking essential).  Selling Your Art and Crafts Online  - Presentation on a range of options for selling your creative work through on...

This is a reblog of a post I wrote for the London Jewellery School blog. The original post can be found here Recently I taught the first of a new class, ' soldering in metal clay '. I originally pitched the class idea to Sunita, the manager at the Jewellery School, because I feel there are a significant number of metal clay jewellery makers that don't have a traditional silversmithing background or who lack the confidence with soldering. This class helps to fill that gap in their experience. During this one day class you make silver clay stud earrings, cufflinks and a brooch. Sample pieces from the soldering on metal clay class at the London Jewellery School You then torch fire the cufflinks and learn how to sweat solder cufflink backs onto them. You will also learn how to sweat solder stud posts onto the back of your silver studs. Finally, you learn how to solder on wire to make a brooch pin. You practice first on copper so you can get a feel for the proces...

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Some of my sketches I spent some time last week with a colleague from the LJS, Zoe Harding , working on technical drawing for jewellery making. Zoe has worked designing for Vivienne Westwood and Swarovski and regularly designs costume and fine jewellery this way. As a metal clay artist I tend to draw sketches of pieces before I start work but the material is more forgiving than precious metal: if I don't like a piece I can just scrunch it up and start again! However, I am interested in wax carving (see my first ring here ) so I wanted to practice my orthographic technical drawing particularly. This is drawing a piece from three angles (see image below). I have to practice but I feel I got a good grasp of the basics with Zoe's expert help. Source

Print by Jody Pham

A friend of mine recently had a baby girl. Many of my friends are having boys (!) so this was a great opportunity to handmake her a silver pendant.  I wanted to make it personal so I decided to make a mould from a shell. I collected this shell a few years ago, the day after her mother and father were married on the island of Herm (near Guernsey). Herm is a tiny island that I totally fell in love with. I'd love to live there but sadly there are no houses for sale! It has a lovely vibe and the aptly named Shell beach! The day after the wedding I spent a few hours there lounging about and sifting through the shells in the vicinity of my picnic rug. I took a few home with me to use in jewellery making. As you can see I have added her initial to the back of the pendant. The baby is obviously too young to have the piece but I hope she will enjoy wearing it when she is older.

It was Business Week at the London Jewellery School last week and I wrote a few blog posts for this. Here is one I wrote that was originally published by them If selling your work in a jewellery shop or gallery feels like a step too far why not consider renting a shelf? Jewellery artist and tutor Anna Campbell writes about the pros and cons of selling your work in shops. Selling your jewellery online is a rewarding experience but nothing beats seeing your work on sale in an actual shop. Jewellers and galleries will often expect a low wholesale price in order to make their money and this can be off-putting. However, there are now more and more options to rent a shelf in a shop to see how your work sells. How do I find somewhere to sell? Local shops I would recommend going into local shops and cafes that sell handmade items and ask. Many shopkeepers are interested in having goods that are locally made and have a story to them. Go in prepared to show your jewellery but ...

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