Edinburgh jeweller

Fancy bezels, prongs and bails online course, Jewellers Academy It's Black Friday again and even before the day arrived there were lots of deals around (and surely more to come). Black Friday is fairly new to the UK but it's always good to look out for a deal! Here are some of the best I've seen for metal clay artists. Do share any I've missed in the comments and I'll add them in Clay, materials and tools Cookson Gold has discounts on clay and tools I haven't seen any other discounts on metal clay but there are a lot of discounts on gemstones and beads out there including Beads Direct and Kernowcraft . Elsilver  also have discounts, it's worth checking out their 25% off offer on dies. Online courses Jewellers Academy has 50% off their courses including 3 metal clay courses. Tip: buy the bundle with Julia Rai's metal clay charms course and my stone setting torch fired course as it's the same cost as my course on its own! There's al...

50% off this brand new online metal clay class  In the last couple of weeks, I've been fortunate enough to have had a preview of this new stone setting course by metal clay artist Julia Rai . Fancy bezels, prongs and bails is an online course from Jewellers Academy . I've watched the whole thing as I was working on making sure Julia's excellent notes lined up with the order of the videos (there are 11 individual videos in the course). The downloadable notes are now done and the course is currently in pre-sale and will go live on 13th November 2018. AND if you buy before then, you can get 50% off! When it goes live it will be £79 but right now you can buy it for £39.50 (and I really recommend that you do). What will I learn? This course covers stone setting in silver clay. It is for those that have some experience of working with silver clay. If you've done one of my taster or beginners classes then it will be good for you. You will learn How to set an ir...

The lastest issue of Making Jewellery magazine is out now and it’s a metal clay special. I’m really pleased to share that the editor Sian commissioned me to write an article for it on hallmarking metal clay. It is a topic I have spoken on at the You Can Make It residential conference organised by Metal Clay Ltd . To research it I visited the London Assay Office to take a tour (definitely worth getting a tour of your Assay Office if you get the chance, it’s very interesting). My article is on pages 30 and 31 so I hope you have a read! This special issue of Making Jewellery magazine is absolutely fantastic for metal clay artists so do get a copy of it if you can. It’s available from the larger WH Smiths and some supermarkets. If you're not in the UK you can still purchase a digital copy . Artists featured include Anna Mazon , Joy Funnell , Julia Rai , Lisa Cain  and  Tracey Spurgin  and they share some fantastic techniques and projects. Well worth a read.

I'm really excited to have been asked to teach at the You Can Make It 2017 metal clay residential conference in Dorset in March next year. When? 24-26th March 2017 Where? Springfield Country Hotel Leisure Club and Spa , Grange Road, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5AL, England What? YCMI is a residential metal clay conference held in a spa hotel in Dorset. There is a selection of full day masterclasses , hands on sessions , demos and talks to choose from taking place over the weekend. There are so many techniques and projects you can learn over the course of the weekend - check out the website for all the information . There is also the chance to get to know other metal clayers, take part in a charm swap (where you make a number of metal clay charms and swap with others to build up your own unique bracelet) and the ‘Your favourite make’ competition, visit the Make it Market and more. The event is sponsored and subsidised to make it as affordable as possible. Check out the ...

I'm beyond excited to announce that I will be teaching at the You Can Make It UK residential metal clay conference, 24th-26th March 2017.  There are metal clay artists travelling in from all over the world including Wanaree Tanner Anna Mazon Julia Rai Tracey Spurgin Joy Funnell To be in the know use this link to  sign up for updates about the conference .  I will post on the blog when the YCMI website is up and running and let you know about the classes I'll be running.

This blog post was originally written for the London Jewellery School blog which you can read here The Metal Clay Masters Registry is a structured program of metal clay projects that are independently evaluated. You work at your own pace and on your own to complete the pieces to the specifications of the project. There are fifty projects in all and after you have passed ten you are designated as having attained one level e.g. Masters Registry I, on passing the next ten you have attained Masters Registry II etc. At the time of writing no one has completed all fifty projects. There are two people in the world who have attained mastery level 4 (passing 40 projects) and they’re both British! They include visiting LJS tutor Julia Rai and Lesley Messam . There are British artists currently at all levels. What are the categories? There are fifty projects altogether in five categories (ten projects per category). The categories are Construction Colour Materials Met...

I have been very fortunate to be able to attend masterclasses in metal clay with a number of fantastic artists. I spend a large proportion of my income on doing this as it is my passion and I know that by spending a couple of days with someone you learn so much more than you ever will from a book (although I love books too!) I am now looking at the masterclasses for 2014 (I'll write about those in a future post!) but I thought I would think over what the artists I have studied with so far have taught me. Not just techniques as there have been too many of those to list, but a general ethos to inspire and inform my work. Julia Rai is a British metal clay artist, fantastic teacher and director at the Cornwall School of Arts Craft and Jewellery . She was the first person in the world to achieve Metal Clay Masters registry level 4 (there are 5 levels). I have taken five accredited courses with her and have learnt more every time. I think the main thing I have taken from studyin...

There have been a couple of very welcome developments for silver clay artists here in the UK in the last few days. Firstly, Aida have announced that silver clay prices are to be cut between13-14% with immediate effect. This follows an increase of 30% that came into effect on 1st June 2012 (see my blog post on this here ). Art clay is not at the price it was pre-June this year but it is still pleasing to see that prices can go down as well as up! The best price I have found online in the UK today is at www.metalclay.co.uk but make sure you shop around. The other piece of very exciting news is about the Rio Rewards PMC Certificate . It has previously only been available in the US. However, Lisa Cain and Julia Rai from the Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery have arranged for it to be taught in the UK in May 2013 by Rio Grande senior instructor Patrik Kusek . Many serious silver clay artists have taken the Art Clay certifications available in the UK but this well recognised PMC...

I have finally received my magnetic polisher after about seven weeks wait and I've stocked up on some clay - I'm ready to go! I have started to look at a few metal clay/jewellery competitions. They give an interesting focus and a deadline to work to. I have found the following competitions. If you know of any more I'd appreciate it if you would add it to the comments section at the bottom of this post. London Jewellery School student competition This competition is open to anyone that has taken a class or is booked to take a class in the future. I have taken a few classes with them. The deadline is next Friday so I don't know if I'm going to make anything new particularly but I think I'll enter something. Art Clay Guild competition The Art Clay Guild theme for this year's competition is 'Fantasy, Myth and Magic'. This has really got me thinking and sketching over the last few weeks. The closing date for this one is 31st August so I have a l...

The final day and I knew that I had a lot to do. Sandra and I got in for about 9.10 again and I started building my box bead. I'd been worried about it but I quite enjoyed it once it was mostly secure! I will make one again. In fact, I may have to because it didn't pass! My sides are too close to the edge. I had wanted to fire it anyway but Julia recommended I take it home to see if I could make it work. We had a lot to do today and I learnt loads of new techniques. I soldered three jump rings I'd made into a chain. I was very pleased with this as I have previously done a silversmithing course and really didn't get to grips with soldering. I also made a necklace clasp first time. My earrings were a bit of a triumph this time! I love the shell mould stud earrings. The posts stayed in and didn't need re-firing which was a relief. They look great, a good size. I enjoyed the keum boo and the liver of sulphur made the gold I added really pop out. The gold painted dome ...

What we're making over the next two days! After a lot of thought I decided to do the level 3 directly after the level 2. This was primarily because of the travel time and costs. It takes about 5 hours to travel from the jewellery school to my home on a week day and at least an hour longer on a Sunday. It also costs about  90 pounds. However, from my experience, I think I would probably recommend that people do those levels at separate times. I went into the level 3 not yet having passed level 2. I had two pairs of earrings that had to be made again and three pairs of earring wires to make. So I did feel a little behind going into day four and a little worried about the increase in complexity. At this level we are making two brooches, three pairs of earrings and a box bead. There are also some techniques that we will be learning including clasp making, soldering and chain making. I am looking forward to seeing how to use keum boo (adding gold leaf to silver clay) and correctly u...

Ring, resin charm, domed earrings, leaf charm, bezel set pendant The final day of the intermediate course. Sandra and I arrived at about 9.10 and got started straight away. There was a lot of finishing to do! Everything had come out of the kiln OK which was a relief! I spent a lot of time on my bezel set stone pendant. I really don't like it! But at least it passed in the end. I had to raise the stone up slightly with copper wire to get it to sit right - such a nightmare! Took three attempts! It polished up pretty well and is slightly reminiscent of a peacock feather which was the plan. I don't think I'll be doing a bezel setting again! We had to make some domed earrings which was done by laying the clay over ping pong balls. I used a cuttlefish as a texture and I was quite pleased with it but unfortunately it didn't pass because the texture on the two earrings are so different. I then had a nightmare when drilling them, the hole is not in the right place. So I sus...

Our tasks for the next three days! I am back once again at the  Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery  on the  Intermediate Silver Clay course . There are six of us on the course from as far afield as Ireland. The course is three days and we have a whole list of things we will make during this time. This is a certificated course so things have to be made to the correct standard. It puts the extra pressure on but at least it means the qualification is worth something, you don't just get it for turning up! Today I made a band ring, two bracelet charms and a pair of carved silver earrings. I don't tend to make band rings. Silver clay shrinks when it is fired so sizing rings can be a problem. It is also not really as strong as sterling silver (although soon this won't be a problem with silver clay !) so it isn't something I would make to sell. However, I have made rings before on courses so I felt OK with making this one. I have textured it with a basic diagonal line and...

I spent a very informative and experimental weekend learning how to use Bronze and Copper Clay at the Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery which is fast becoming my second home! The tutor was Carol Douglas who showed us some of her work which was both inspiring and intimidating! There were four of us on the course, with varying experience (I was probably the least experienced of us all). Carol spent some time at the beginning of the first day explaining about the issues of using bronze and copper clay. They aren't as easy to fire as silver clay, with most types having to be kiln fired in charcoal. Results can still be mixed and pieces can end up needing to be fired again. Because of our experience Carol let us loose on lots of different projects at the same time in order to experiment with the clays. I found this really helpful because I was able to try out lots of different techniques that I wouldn't normally try in order to see what came out well. I made a number of differen...