How would you like a luxury holiday in the Devon countryside?
 
Would you like 2+ days focussed entirely on relaxing and making your own beautiful silver jewellery, working with silver clay?
 
How about both of these together??
 
I’ve joined up with the beautiful, peaceful Stoodleigh Court Coach House – a B&B in Tiverton, Devon, right on the edge of the wilds of Exmoor (but also super close to Tiverton Parkway train station, that has a direct connection to London Paddington), to organise 3 night silver clay jewellery making break.
 
This is a luxury break – with everything included – all your meals, a lovely ensuite bedroom for 3 nights, 2 full days of jewellery making tuition (plus extra optional mini sessions all 3 evenings, and on the final morning), and all the materials you’ll need (including silver and gemstones) to create at least 3 different silver jewellery projects. 

​The details; -
Where?         – Stoodleigh Court Coach House – in Tiverton, Devon
– an easy taxi ride from Tiverton Parkway station which has a direct connection to London Paddington (and plenty of other places)
– also easy reach from many major roads in the area including the M5 …
When?          – 30 Sept - 3 October 2022 or 27-30 January 2023
How much?   – from £530 per person (sharing a room) or from £635 for single occupancy – price varies by room

What will happen?
Over the course of this long weekend, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to unplug from your regular life, wind down, enjoy the countryside (or the private hot tub), read and relax…. But you’ll also have two full days of jewellery making tuition, as well as optional extra sessions in the evenings after dinner, a welcome session on the first evening, as well as a short ‘finishing up’ session on the final morning before you depart back for home
 
What will I make?
As we’ll be located in the Devon countryside, we’ll be using nature as our inspiration – creating designs based on leaves and natural objects. Each student will be able to design and make their own earrings, bracelet and necklace / pendant. More experienced students can tackle a ring project.

I thought I'd share a little 'behind the scenes' on my new jewellery collection with you...

My new Tactile Talismans collection is a series of individually made pieces, formed in porcelain clay, and then combined with silver highlights.  

All of my recent jewellery design, works around the general theme of tactility and the idea of worry beads and creating focusses for mindful contemplation, as tools for self care - and this new collection continues this - with the combination of the hand modelled clay, and silver, as well as the chains or cords involved bringing different textures into the mix and creating a mix of surfaces and tactile experiences to explore.

My specific inspiration for this collection is the innate human instinct to decorate - to carve and work objects and to carry them with us - from the very first beads, to carving decorations on early tools, as humans we have always wanted to decorate, and to add meaning and symbolism to our lives and possessions...

​I've been fascinated with this topic for many years, and for this collection, i went back to some of my books and resources, and was looking back at these early creations...

This has lead me to experimenting with clay, as a particularly tactile material, it is entirely hands on to work with - each item bears the impressions and energy from hand modelling, ensuring that as a maker i am completely connected with the process of creation, and the material. The forms of these talismans have developed from tests and experiments i made, and each is unique, having its own individual form, and personalised silver highlights.

​Each item is unique, and finished with different choices of cord, chain, bangles etc, as the piece itself determines, and these pieces will not be repeated, so if you choose your personal talisman, that particularly appeals to you - no other person will have one the same.

Handmade in Highgate - 5-7 November
The Highgate Literary and Scientific Institute, 11 South Grove, Highgate, N6 6BS
https://hand-made-in-highgate.com/ 

Made Makers - Online - 5-7 November
https://mademakers.co.uk/exhibitors/ 

Dazzle 2021 - London Pop Up - 11-14 November
The Oxo Tower, Southbank, London and www.dazzleinvites.com

Handmade Chelsea - 12-15 November
www.handmadeinbritain.co.uk/event/handmade-chelsea-the-contemporary-craft-and-design-fair/ 

Digital Craft Festival - 13-14 November
https://www.digitalcraftfestival.co.uk/ 

Handmade Chelsea - Online - 18-21 November
www.handmadeinbritain.co.uk

Do add others in the comments if you know of some exciting shows near you!

If you've been wondering about making your own jewellery, but haven't yet been sure whether it is for you or not - I'd love to encourage you to give it a go!

Of course, I'm biased - I love making jewellery, and also - more importantly, I know it is hugely valuable as a creative outlet; there are plenty of great reasons to give it a try...

Any creative hobby or pastime is proven to be a valuable therapeutic in terms of improving or safeguarding your mental health. Taking the time to have a break from the rest of your life, without worrying about whatever else may be going on in your work, life or family is incredibly valuable. The process of making something and the focus this requires, as well as working with your hands, which very few of us do much of in our lives gives our brains a real break, by using a completely different way of thinking and working... Not to mention the sense of achievement when you can proudly show off your new creations!

If you'd like to find out a little more about getting started with jewellery making - do click here to receive my free booklet with all of my top tips...

Learning new things and expanding my jewellery making skills are key to my life and work. I love to learn new things, find out how things work, and to experiment, and there are many different ways to learn.

One option, of course, it to teach yourself and spend your time working out how things might be made, or backwards engineering different ideas. This can be great fun and you might surprise yourself with how much you can work out if you apply the principles from your existing knowledge into new projects or experiments!

The more you try this, the more it is likely to work as, of course, experience and practice always help, but they are not always essential. A lot of processes can be quite logical once you work out how to break the steps down, or divide the project into separate parts.

To give this a try - whether you are trying to make your own version of something you've seen, or whether it is an idea you've imagined, the best way to start is by trying to draw it - whether or not you think you're good at drawing, the act of looking at (or imagining) the item and trying to figure out how it looks will help you start to think about how it might be build - what shapes join to what, how sections connect, the shape and texture of different elements.. Another way to work is to create a model - depending on the shape you're creating - using paper, card, plasticine, wire to see if you can re-create the form.

Modelmaking and drawing will help you to work out the form, then the next process is to try a prototype - this is a more formal model - made in something close to the final material (if you plan to finally work in gold, then prototype in copper or silver, if you plan to work in silver clay, you could prototype in polymer clay, for example) and working through this will help you to work out and refine any issues. Then you will be ready to create the item for real!

The downside to this process is of course is that you are on your own - but there is plenty of support available, for example - my group the Jewellery Makers - where a friendly group of people is growing - who all love jewellery, and are at different stages of their jewellery making journey - some are professional makers, some are just thinking about getting started, and all different stages in between!

Do come over and join us in the jewellery makers and say hello!

If you've tried teaching yourself something, or working out a new project - do share your own top tips below!!