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...

I'm excited to announce that tickets are now on sale for the Creative Craft Show at Glasgow SEC in October. This was such a fun event last year, I'm really glad I'm doing it again this year! There are so many fab exhibitors and lots of retail therapy especially for crafters - definitely bring a shopping trolley! I will be exhibiting some of my jewellery work, doing some demonstrations and answering questions on my stand. I will also be teaching a silver clay workshop each day in the Creative Den. Tickets for the workshop are purchased separately from the entrance tickets and do need to be purchased in advance. My silver clay classes sold out early last year so don't delay! Workshop at last years Show Here are all the details What? T he Creative Craft Show When? Thursday 25th October - Sunday 28th October 2018 Where? Glasgow SEC Tickets Click here to buy a ticket > Currently £10 per person (early bird price) 90-minute silver clay workshop with...

I was commissioned to write an article for Craft Business magazine on using silver clay for business and it's been published! My article is in the April 2018 issue, page 30. You can download a copy for free here >

I'm looking forward to attending the You Can Make It residential metal clay conference in just a few weeks time. Although I'll admit I'm not looking forward to the train journey! This time last year I still lived in London and so the journey was only a few hours. This time I live in Scotland and it's likely to be at least 7 hours on the train. I looked at the option of flying but I'm teaching soldering and need to bring all my equipment. I didn't fancy getting there to find my butane torches had been confiscated at the airport! I'll do a blog post on my epic journey! I've just checked, it's 470 miles away. Last year I only had to travel 130 miles. Anyway, I've been getting ready for the conference, writing some notes for my workshop sessions, making sure I have all the materials and samples I need etc. One of the fun things I've been preparing for is the charm swap. We make charms and then swap them with others at the conference and make a...

If you are reading this blog then you probably already know that I make jewellery with a material called metal clay. It's not a well known material so I was really pleased to see it featuring on a programme on BBC1. The programme is called Countryfile and a metal clay artist called Emma Mitchell was featured, interviewed by Anita Rani. Emma talked about the mental health benefits of getting out into the countryside and getting inspiration from nature and natural surroundings. They picked leaves and other natural materials and used them to make moulds and silver jewellery. It's fantastic that silver clay was featured on TV as it raises awareness of the material. The metal clay world is quite small but I haven't met Emma yet although she is also teaching at the Y ou Can Make It metal clay conference in March so I am looking forward to meeting her there. You can watch the programme here on the BBC iplayer until 6th March 2018 (but only if you're in the UK unfortun...

I'm really excited that the silver clay tutorial I wrote for Making Jewellery magazine had been published. I was even more excited that my work was chosen for the front cover! I was commissioned to write the tutorial by Sian Hamilton, the editor of Making Jewellery magazine. Each issue has a theme and the theme for issue 114, January 2018 was fire and ice. I was asked to make six different pieces, write the step by step instructions and take photos as well. It's a lot to do and I didn't have a long time to get it done. I started off thinking about designs. I actually started making a totally different piece but I woke up one morning and decided it wasn't complex enough for a tutorial. It was two days of work and I had to start from scratch but some elements of the idea did stick. I decided to make lentil beads. These are round beads that are domed. It's an interesting project that works well in silver clay with lots of possibilities for beginners and mor...

Black Friday has arrived and along with it an astounding amount of offers in my inbox and on facebook. For an American tradition it really has found some traction here in the UK! Don't get me wrong, I will be looking at whether I can get some christmas present shopping done but I noticed that there are some great offers out there for metal clay artists to invest in their own training or to stock up on supplies. So, with that in mind, here are the deals I've seen that are worth a second look 1. 20% off day and evening classes at the London Jewellery School As you probably know, I work for the London Jewellery School. If you'd like to take a class with me there you can see my teaching calendar for 2018 here (it is possible that there will be some changes but right now I am the one due to teach the classes listed above). For me, learning face to face with an expert tutor is the quickest way to develop your skills. It allows you to ask questions and practice with feedb...

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 ...

Last week I taught a diploma class at the London Jewellery School which covers three different ways to add gold to silver clay. Gold is an expensive commodity ( 3g of gold clay costs £259.95! Yikes!) but there are other ways to get the look of gold at a more affordable cost. 1. Keum boo Keum boo is adding gold leaf to silver. This is done after the piece is made and polished. The metal needs to be heated (I use my jewellers torch), the gold leaf added to the hot metal and burnished on. (Example of this in the photo above is the heart at the right of the image) 2. Gold paste Gold paste can be painted onto fired silver. I find it is best to do a few layers and I torch fire the piece between layers, burnishing the metal to ensure the gold is well adhered (Example of this in the photo above is the christmas tree at the bottom of the photo) 3. Gold nugget Adding a small piece of gold can enhance the silver clay design. The gold is embedded in the clay when it is wet and...

Silver handprint pendant, London Jewellery School It's been a fun week teaching some more advanced silver clay classes. First up was Prints and Drawings in Metal Clay at the London Jewellery School . This one day class is about making photopolymer plates featuring your own designs, drawings, child's drawings, hand prints, paw prints etc. The photopolymer plate can then be used as a mould to make silver clay jewellery. We had a lot of fun trying out our own drawings, printed images and taking our handprints! Unfortunately this class won't be running anymore at the London Jewellery School but I am happy to do it as a private tuition . Fingerprint jewellery, London Jewellery School I then also taught a fingerprint jewellery class at the London Jewellery School. This also uses silver clay. We looked at a couple of ways to take fingerprints, how to use letter stamps and carve letters into the clay to make some lovely finished pieces.  I also advised about setti...

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.

When I go to museums and see jewellery that has been found on archaeological digs I am always amazed at how current it looks, how it could have been made today. We still use many techniques that would not have been out of place hundreds of years ago and yet technology has moved on to develop methods that would be incredible to those jewellers from yesteryear. Here I look at some of the key innovations that have taken the craft of jewellery making in new directions Roman gold rings with stones, 3-4 Century AD from the collection at the British Museum 3D printing Examples of 3D printed jewellery from Fathom and Form jewelry 3D printing allows us to use a machine to ‘print’ a 3 dimensional object. This innovation is becoming more utilised in jewellery making in many ways including to make samples and test pieces in resin or plastic to print in wax ready for casting in metal for printing directly in plastic or metal Printing in wax for casting...