Edinburgh jeweller

Examples of beading by beginners I invite you to join my Beautiful Beading class at the Mary Ward Centre , Holborn, London on Mondays 3-5.30pm. During the class, which is suitable for beginners and improvers, you will learn how to make earrings, including shaping your own earring wires bracelets - using different materials and multi-stranded bracelets necklaces lariats We will also look at design and inspiration and you will have the opportunity to work on your own projects with my support. The Mary Ward Centre is a lovely place to learn and classes are very affordable for those on a budget. The course fee includes tuition and findings (wire, stringing materials, use of tools etc). It also includes beads for the first few weeks of class. You will then be advised about the projects and be able to purchase your own beads in your own choice of colours. The class started this week with an induction but you can join on Monday 28th September and you won't have mis...

I will be speaking at two free career development open days at the Mary Ward Centre, London next month. They are on Wednesday 16th September and Saturday 26th September. The visual arts day has been designed for artists and would-be artists to consider their next steps. Wednesday 16th September & Saturday 26th September WRITING AN ARTISTS STATEMENT  10am-1pm, Room 14 Award winning script writer and poet Colin Pink will lead a workshop to help develop effective and exciting statements which sum up an individual artistic vision. LUNCH 1–1:30pm, Room 11  VISIT TO COCKPIT ARTS 2–3:30pm A short walk from the Mary Ward Centre, Cockpit Arts provides support and studio/workshop spaces for a wide range of creative artists, designers and craft makers. After a short talk, we shall visit several makers in their studio spaces, including jewellery, textile and glass designers and their businesses. PUBLICITY ON A SHOESTRING 4–5:00pm, Room 14 Re...

I live east of London so don't often venture over far to the west where the main museum quarter is. However, yesterday I was meeting a friend for lunch in Kensington and decided to go to the jewellery gallery in the Victoria and Albert museum . Kensington has some of London's best museums including the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum - all of which are free to visit for all. It's definitely a great place to go for a day out, with Hyde Park just up the road - lots of free attractions in one spot! I love the V&A and first had a wander around on the ground floor to look at the sculptures. I was particularly looking for the copy of Michaelangelo's David as we have a holiday booked in Florence soon and are going to be seeing the real thing! It really is amazing to see. To think it was carved from one single piece of marble. I then made my way up to the jewellery gallery , my main reason for being there. I had hoped to take some photos there to sh...

Elaine Cox - love all of her work I was happy to get the opportunity to go to the Craft Central open studios this week in London. I love nosing about peoples studios and seeing what they have been making! I particularly loved work by these artists Mandana Oskoui Rhiannon Palmer - handmade concrete jewellery

Enamelled and bejewelled chain from the Cheapside Hoard This week I was really pleased to get the chance to visit the Cheapside hoard at the Museum of London . The collection is made up of priceless jewellery from the late 16th and early 17th century. It was discovered buried in a cellar in Cheapside, City of London in 1912 and is exhibited in it's entirety for the first time. As it is worth so much the security is very high. You are not allowed bags or coats and must pass through a security gate. Once you do get through you are treated to a room full of gorgeous stones and jewellery. I particularly loved the enamelled chain (pictured here) which I stared at for a very long time! No one knows why it was buried which lends to the mystery surrounding this beautiful collection. I recommend you see it if you can.

Yesterday I took my stock to the We Make London pop up shop . It's located in Camden Lock Market , London. My jewellery will be on sale here for six weeks to start with (to see how it sells). I hope to be in the shop in December which is always my busiest sale time. I'm sure a lot of designers would like to be in then too! I enjoyed getting my stock set up. I took along everything as I hadn't sold in a pop up shop before and wasn't sure how much stock I should take! As part of the deal every designer works in the shop for two days so I worked in the shop until about 6pm. I enjoyed the experience as I got to see what the customers were looking at and buying. I got the hang of the credit card machine and hopefully didn't make any mistakes! Takes me back to my shop work when I was at university!

Photo by Alexander James I'm really happy to announce that my jewellery will be sold in the We Make London pop up shop in Camden Lock market, London . My pieces will be on sale from 2nd September until 14th October (and for longer if sales are good). I'll take some pictures of my jewellery when it's on sale to share on the blog. We Make London is a fantastic organisation that promotes UK based designer-makers. I've sold at their handmade markets before, last christmas ( here's my blog post about it ). I've also sold at Camden Lock market a couple of times but the pop up shop is fantastic for me as my jewellery will be available seven days a week and I won't need to be there! Market day is fun but it's a looooong day! So, I've been busy making more stock. I've got a few different pieces in the works at the moment too so I will get some pictures of them done soon!

A day out in London is not exactly something unusual for me as I work in London! But that often means that I go there for work and then come home again and don't take advantage of everything that's here. I was in London meeting a friend this week and decided to go to the National Portrait Gallery to see the BP Portrait Award exhibition . I always enjoy seeing the portraits - abstract and super-real. It's fantastic that it's free to get in to a lot of the museums and galleries in London, and this exhibition is no exception. Here are my favourites from the exhibition. The copyright for each image belongs to the artist. Unfortunately you can't get an idea of the scale of some of these pieces unless you visit the exhibition. What exhibitions have you been to this summer?

Last night I attended the first London Jewellery meetup in a pub near Hatton Garden. The inaugural speaker was the fantastic Shaun Leane whose talk was entitled 'From workbench to worldwide'. He was very generous with his knowledge, advice and experience and answered all our questions honestly. The London Jewellery meetup group is free to join and has been created to help new and existing jewellers network and collaborate. The plan is for a monthly meetup with a different speaker each time. Do sign up (it's free to join and attend!) and get notification of future events. 

Yesterday a jewellery making friend, Ann and I set up a stall in Camden Lock market , London. Camden is a very famous area for markets and as a tourist destination in general so we had been planning to see how our jewellery sold there for a while. It's been cold in the UK so the weather put us off but we finally set a date! We had to get there really early to get a pitch but we were happy to be placed in the handmade area and set ourselves up. It was a busy day and we enjoyed chatting to other stallholders and eating the yummy food! I have to admit, I did do better when I had a stall in Spitalfields but we're planning to make it a regular thing to see how it goes.

It's been on my list to go to the Unexpected Pleasures exhibition at the Design Museum , London for a while and I finally went this week (it's final week!). I got the train into London and walked across Tower Bridge to the south side of the river which is something I rarely do and enjoyed (although the wind was a little bracing!). The exhibition was very interesting, prompting lots of thoughts and inspirations to run through my head and some scratching away in my notebook. I plan to give some time to the ideas that germinated while I was there. I've created a pinterest board of pieces I found particularly interesting so do have a look at the photos there.

Country Living Christmas Fair For the first time I visited the Country Living Christmas Fair in London this week. It's one of those things that I keep wanting to go to but then find I'm too late! I was so amazed at the sheer number of stalls that kept going onwards and up the stairs! There were so many christmas decorations, gifts and home items - it was fantastic! Here are a few of my favourite things - things I bought or wish I had! Limited edition print by Emma Hardicker I LOVE this print from Emma Hardicker . Given that I am doing up my kitchen this month I couldn't quite stretch to it but I think I will get it if I can in the new year. Cashmere wrist warmers from Bantam Knits  I am selling at my first market on Saturday (10th November). I am expecting the cold and have been looking out for some fingerless gloves so when I saw these cashmere wrist warmers from Bantam Knits I had to buy a pair - in purple! They are gorgeously soft and very warm (...

On Saturday I went to Old Spitalfields market for the We Make London handmade market . My friend from Grace and Firefly  had a stall there. I manned the stall for a bit while she got a coffee and I actually managed to sell a ring!  I also had a chance to look around the market and enjoyed seeing the mix of handmade items - from jewellery, purses, cosmetics, prints - there was definitely something for everyone. I bought some lovely things! I chose some glass earrings and a fused glass brooch from Grace and Firefly  and a cherry necklace from   Despina Ceramics .  I have applied to run my first stall there is November so I'll let you know if I am accepted!

Our lilly pond, taken by Gary Ullah Photography It is coming to the end of the teaching year for me. I've taught and trained for most of my career but for the first time this year I taught a jewellery making class. I taught Silver Clay Jewellery at the Mary Ward Centre in London. It's an interesting experience. It is different from teaching an academic subject (I teach Psychology there as well). For starters everyone is doing something different and it's not always easy to keep track of it all! Also demonstrating techniques is fine but it can be a bit nerve wracking with everyone watching - you don't want to make a mistake and cut your finger! Oh, wait, I did do that! I did enjoy the classes that I taught though. It's great to have the students for three hours at a time so they can really get engaged with it all. And it was lovely to see what they had made by the end of the course. They all learnt new skills and that's all you can hope for. There will b...

I went to the Design Museum at the weekend to see the Terence Conran exhibition and the Designs of the Year 2012 nominees. It's always great to look at new designs in any medium, it can really get me thinking. There were some really innovative ideas on show in different the categories of the award - architecture, fashion, digital, furniture, graphics, product and transport. The winners in each category are announced in April but these were my own favourites Nominated for Furniture The Crates, Beijing, China - Naihan Li and Co I have always loved this kind of design, where a cupboard or box opens up to reveal a useful space XXXX_Sofa, Eindhoven, Netherlands - Yuya Ushida This is a really clever space saving solution. This sofa can be pushed inwards to make a chair or pulled apart to make a sofa Nominated for Fashion The Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress, London, UK. Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen This was a huge hit for me on the wedding day and I'...

I really had to show you this chain I bought today. I am lucky enough to work really near Hatton Garden, the jewellery district of London. It's a great place to wander around and get inspiration (and see the rather large price tags of some rather large jewels!). I made some heart pendants last night and thought this chain would be perfect. I'll post the complete pendant soon!