I know February is a bit late to make new years resolution but I’ve had such a busy January. I decided that February was a good a time as ever to turn over a new leaf. Besides the usual eat less exercise more resolutions, I’ve made some silversmith workshop related resolutions that I’m hoping will make for a more harmonious work environment!

I treated myself to new polishing tools before Christmas and so my first resolution of the year must be to mastering one of these. Namely, my fabulous new barrel polisher!

It’s taken a few years to acquire this as I bounced from wanting one to thinking I can do without! As the workshop has been so busy with new jewellery designs and engagement rings in the first month of year, I knew I needed to reduce the amount of time spend at polishes. Having done some research and spoken to other jewellers, I found the best way to achieve my desired polish in the shortest amount of time was to use a barrel polisher. Thanks to recommendations other jewelley designer friends, I chose this one from UKGE

I had planned to spend a full day in January trying different techniques and finishes, and figuring out what works best for my pieces. But for the first month of the year, my polisher was well and truly forgot about. So my first new years resolution is to become a polishing ninja.

My second resolution is the leave my bench tidy every evening before leaving the workshop. Now let just clarify, I’m not a messy person and by other workshop standards my workshop is pretty tidy. But there are always just that few minutes in the morning spent getting set up for the day. As I’m at my most productive in the morning, it doesn’t make sense to spend precious time tidying. New, organised me, will from here on out organize my workspace in the evening as I wind down for the day. My last few minutes each day will now be spent doing a quick potter around the workshop, putting tools away and lining up pieces for the following day while listening to a good podcast.

So there you have it, Eileen’s belated new years resolutions. Of course I will keep you posted on my progress with the barrell polisher. As for the perfectly tidy bench… you’ll have to just trust me on that one 🙂

This week, I’ve been rearranging the workshop to make room my new jewellers bench. I bought the bench from a jeweller who was retiring after 40 years of jewellery making.  Since this was a piece of furniture I was inevitably going to be spending a lot of time at I wanted to ensure sure it was the right choice for me. I initially looked into buying a new bench but they just don’t seem to make them like they used to. They were all a bit light and I wanted a bench that would withstand the pressure of hammering, cutting and soldering without fear of collapse! So when I found this bench with all the years of experience and character that had been in use for over 20 years, I knew I could give it a good home with many more years in a busy workshop.

The height of the bench is extremely important. The bench needed to be high enough so that the jewellery is at at the correct eye level so I’m not hunched over the bench all day.

What makes a jewellers bench different from any other workbench is the semi circle cut out in the middle to form the work space. This ensures you can sit close to your jewellery at all times, with a bench skin or tray allowing you to collects stray pieces. It really is so important! As jewellers, we work with tiny components all day so if you drop something, it will more than likely fall in to your bench tray.

Unfortunately there was one casualty from the move, my bench peg snapped while I was trying to remove it so I’ll have to getting working on make another one. It was nearing it’s retirement anyway. I’m loving working on the new bench. All my favourite tools have found new homes as over the years the previous owner had added handy clips and hooks for the pliers, soldering torch and piercing frame.

Read more about Jewellry Designer Eileen Moylan here