Edinburgh jeweller

Last week I wrote a blog post for the London Jewellery School challenging people to dig out old, forgotten jewellery and giving it a new lease of life. You can read it here in a slightly altered form! Hands up if one of your favourite hobbies is buying jewellery supplies? Just as I thought! Whether it’s a trip around the bead shop or a splurge online we all love the excitement of the new. But this easter, we challenge you to think differently and use what you already have. Everyone has a box or a drawer of jewellery that they just don’t wear. Maybe pieces that you’ve bought, maybe things that have been given to you or things you made yourself. I have a box that has some old bracelets in. When I started this project I realised I hadn’t opened the box for ages! In the box I found this bracelet. Before It’s just a high street piece but I wore it a lot a few years ago. However, as you can see,  the elastic was stretched out of shape and it was no longer wearable...

As part of my blogging for the London Jewellery School I interviewed Katie Wallace from Katie's bike . I taught her for three days when she attended the six day business bootcamp at LJS and we have stayed in touch ever since. She makes cool jewellery from upcycled bike parts (look at those rings!). You can read the full interview here read more here

Ok so I know this is a really basic idea but one worth doing. I have recycled the christmas cards that I was kindly sent for 2011 into gift tags for christmas 2012. It's really easy so hardly needs a tutorial but I did discover a couple of handy tricks. What you need Old christmas cards Giant gift tag hole punch and ordinary hole punch Marker pen Cord or embroidery thread Step one First, I cut the backs off the christmas cards and I started to work out where the design on the card would match up with the tag shape. I found it best to take the back off the tag hole punch so that I could see exactly how it would look. If you don't have a tag hole punch do google it. I got mine in Blade Rubber Stamps in London Step two Once you've cut out all the tag shapes you need a hole to put the thread to hang them on. You can buy a single hole punch but I don't have one of those so I used a normal office hole punch. I marked on the back of the tag where the hole needed t...