Edinburgh jeweller

I wrote a blog post for Jewellers Academy on how to have a sale without having a sale. I am not a fan of discounting handmade jewellery, particularly if you can make to order. However, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up I've looked at 5 ways to have a sale without devaluing your brand and ways you can clear out old stock. Take a look at the full post here

School's (nearly) out for summer and although I will be doing some teaching at the London Jewellery School, I have a lot of spare time looming. So, I've decided to set myself a summer blogging challenge to write something five days a week. About what I'm up to, where I'm going, what I'm making - that kind of thing. Today I am in my home town enjoying being looked after by my parents (had a lovely cooked breakfast and a roast dinner is coming later - veggie for me of course!). It has been a very busy term and I always find it a challenge to shift gear and I'm hoping that this project will help give me a bit of focus to clear up my work bench, learn new things, use up resources I've got and connect with more people. It's also a way to connect with my obliger tendancies! I have really enjoyed reading and re-reading Better than before by Gretchen Rubin who writes about happiness and how to form habits. I realise, from her description, that I am an ...

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

As I teach on some of the business courses at the London Jewellery School  I was asked to write a little piece on blogging for Make and Sell Jewellery magazine . It has now been published! I am looking forward to getting a copy of the magazine for myself.  The London Jewellery School is running a business week promotion this week and are offering 20% off all day and taster business courses:  http://buff.ly/1dq8CTL  - plus the Business Bookcamp:  http://buff.ly/1dq8CTM  if you book between 2 and 9 February 2014. To get your discount call 020 3176 0345 and book your class quoting BIZWEEK20. Find out more here:  http://buff.ly/1dq8B24

As a business tutor at the London Jewellery School I was asked to write a blog post for business week this week. I wrote it on using social media to have a conversation and not just to transmit information. You can read the full post here

I've been playing around with a free online photo editing programme called  picmonkey . You upload your own images, play around with them and then add quotes (like the one above). It's a fantastic, easy to use tool, particularly for blogging and pinterest . This is a photo taken by Gary  in my home town. I love it and am pleased with the quote I chose. It's actually harder that you'd think to choose quotes to go with an image! My tip is that I have found it best to find the quote first and then find an image to go with it. Do have a look at picmonkey. It's free (although there is a paid option we haven't used it for this image). We've enjoyed an afternoon playing with it! Let me know what you create by adding a link to the comments section below.