Well it’s that time of year again when I pack up my hammers and tools and head off to a silversmithing course. Since I began working for myself I make a point of taking one week every year to attend a skills workshop or masterclass. I’ve found this really beneficial as it gives me the opportunity to learn new skills and also meet other makers. It also helps to reinvigorate your work, I always learn something that inspires a new design or piece of work.
This year I’m attending a silversmithing workshop in Birmingham which is being given by Samantha Chilton. The four day hand raising workshop will concentrate on various silversmithing techniques allowing us to explore these techniques through our own individual projects.
The other great thing about doing this course in Birmingham is that I will be in the heart of the Jewellery Quarter for a week. This will give me a chance to do some long overdue tool shopping! I started a wishlist some time ago of all the tools I wanted so I’m going to use my lunch breaks to shop around and find exactly what I’m looking for. As the name suggests the Jewellery Quarter is packed with all things jewellery related so there is no shortage of tool shops and stone suppliers.

Here’s the link for the Birmingham School of Jewellery summer courses. While it’s too late for this summer’s courses it will give you an idea of what is on offer so you can start planning for next year!.
I hope to blog from Birmingham and as always will take lots of photos which I can post next week.
Till then…

Recently I wrote about melting down your old gold to make new items of jewellery. (Part 1 of Melting Gold and making charms). With no sign of gold prices decreasing it’s a handy way of  reducing the cost of a new piece jewellery and also gives you the chance to do some spring cleaning.

I have been making gold charms for a customer that wanted to add to her existing charm collection. The idea of these charms is that they would act a little decorative gold spacers between the larger charms to give the bracelet a two tone look.

After rolling the wire to the correct thickness and cutting it into the required lengths I begin shaping the charms on a stake.

As working the metal can make it quite hard it is important to anneal the metal regularly. This involves heating the metal to make it soft and more malleable.

Here’s a picture of some of the charms that I have made. As they will be sitting with lots of other more ornate charms I kept the designs quite simple. I’ve also incorporated some silver into the design to highlight the two tone effect. It’s amazing what can be done with some odd earrings and broken chain!