Well i love my tools, and I often get questions from students about different tools, so I thought i could share some here.

The next key jewellery making tool I'd like to feature is the humble bead mat. Often overlooked - this is one of the most helpful bits of kit for any work away from the workbench!

A Bead Mat - How does it help?
A bead mat is mostly used when working with beads or other small items - the spongy feel and fine, soft pile to the surface give an ideal surface to help control all those small parts from disappearing off the table. It helps to prevent beads rolling away from you, and gives a defined work surface.

Bead mats are useful when working with; - bead stringing, pearl knotting and stitched beadwork, but also when doing wire work, sorting and packing stock for shows or customers, photography backgrounds, and many other uses...

Bead mats are large enough to use to plan out and design a whole necklace or set of jewellery at once
Bead mats are soft so you can tuck needles or pins into the edge to keep them safe
Bead mats protect delicate items from hard tables or surfaces - you can lay out delicate stones for sorting or planning designs, use it to catch loose ends if you are trimming wires or bits
Cut them down and use to pad delicate items in transit
Lay them into a tray or box, to create a stable mobile workstation
Choose a colour that contrasts with the colour beads or thread you are working with to make it easier to see and work with your beads (especially with stitched beadwork and the tiny seed beads!

Have you got any other key uses for your bead mat/s that you'd like to share?!

I decided it would be fun to start a new challenge for myself this year (and anyone else who fancies watching or joining in) - to try and create or find something new every day for the whole year... 

I am fascinated by patterns and shapes and these are where I find a lot of my inspiration for my jewellery designs, so it seemed logical to do a daily pattern.

The rules I have set myself are primarily just that I must post something every day for the whole of 2017.  The images must be photos I have taken - either as they are, or edited and adapted - but my own, and they must show some sort of repeated or abstract pattern or shape that intrigues me.

Pretty quickly I decided to make these collages of patterns that work together or contrast in some way and i'm really loving some of the images I have come up with. I haven't given myself themes for the months as I rather like the way these patterns are showing an organic sequence of the types of things I have been looking at over the month.

Here is my first collection - my 31 January images - they are quite varied, but they all give something that intrigues and inspired me - hopefully some will inspire you too!

 I offer a range of scheduled one day and short courses aimed at anyone interested in either trying jewellery making for the first time, or for more experienced jewellers looking to extend their dkills.

I teach from my studio in central London, where I have a bright space that will comfortably fit up to 4 students at a time - this small group size ensures I can pay personal attention to each student throughout the class, but students still get to share ideas and benefit from working as a small group as well.

Added new this year - I have added a 3 day Mixed Media course to my schedule...
This course is designed to give students the time to develop skills including different mediums with their metalwork. We will start with exercises using rivets, tabs, screws and pins to connect layers or sections of different materials together, and will then move on to allow students time to use these new skills in design/s of their own.

Planned for people with some basic metalworking skills - students should already understand how to pierce, file, sand and solder silver or copper.

There will be a selection of metals, acrylic sheet, resin, fabrics, yarn, beads as well as a variety of other found objects and natural forms and more that students will be able to use to experiment with. 

This course next runs on Friday 24 February and can be booked here - http://www.pennyakester.co.uk/store/p44/Mixed_Media_Jewellery_-_3_Day_Jewellery_Making_Class.html