As a lot of the world is stuck at home at the moment, I wanted to share some ideas for staying creative from the safety of your home...

If you are looking for a break from the worry, or have some spare time around whatever your temporary new normal is, then these posts I hope will go a little way to brighten your day..

I will be adding two or three new posts every week for the moment - a mix of posts about ideas, things you can look at or view online for inspiration, as well as activities you can do at home.
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​These are completely free to access at my Patreon site at - https://www.patreon.com/pennyakester 

**There is also an option to subscribe, to receive more specific / detailed projects, but if you scroll through or look for the tags 'Free Projects' of 'Creativity at Home' - you'll find these projects and you DON'T need to subscribe to access these...

My first post is about visiting museums and galleries from your lounge - many offer a detailed library of their collections online, that you can search, but some, including the British Museum offer more - below is a view of the British Museum as seen through Google Maps, where you can walk around inside the museum and look at the galleries.

Due to the current emergency situation, I've been rushing to bring forward my plans for offering online learning - stage 1 of which I launched this weekend...

I now have a subscription service where you can sign up for a small monthly fee, to receive a fully detailed step by step project (in your chosen category) each month. As well as the main project, there will also be regular further posts of mini projects, hints, tips, advice and useful information.

There is a bead jewellery group (bead stringing, stitched beadwork, wire, Kumihimo and more), a silver clay group (with projects and skills practice for all levels), a general jewellery group (with silver / copper and stone setting projects of various sorts, including wax carving, and mixed media work), and a creativity group for anyone who doesn't have access to any specialist tools, but still would like creative projects to experiment with.

You can join one group, or all four, and it'd be lovely to have you with us! 
There will also be a selection of free public resources, information and mini projects, that I will be publishing, both here on my blog, as well as through the subscription project.
https://www.patreon.com/pennyakester

Files are one of the most useful and universal tools in jewellery making. They come in a wide variety of shapes and styles, but every jeweller is likely to find at least one amongst their kit, and if they do metalwork, then probably a whole handful of different ones!

Files are steel tools that have teeth cut into them, the file is used to remove areas of metal (or also for use with other materials - wax, wood, acrylic and more...) to refine or change a shape or surface.

We use files to smooth edges, to remove marks or blemishes from surfaces, and to change the shape or profile of pieces and it is therefore important to use the right file for the job...

My top 5 tips for files....

1. - the best files to start with for general silver jewellery making are a #2 cut half round file (you then have a flat, a curved and a corner surfaces to use), and a small set of needle files (needle files are mini files that come in a wide range of shapes and profiles and are great for fitting into different nooks and crannies).
2. - Files don't come with handles fitted - this is so you can choose and fit a handle that suits your hands best. Make sure to fit a handle to your full size files at least, as the better you can hold the file, the easier and more effective it will be to use efficiently
3. - a #0 or #00 file is a rough file useful for working with wood, acrylic and wax as being rougher it will not get clogged up with filings as quickly 
4. - if a regular hand file will fit and has the right shape surface, don't use a needle file - the larger file is much more efficient. Do change down to finer grades as soon as you have the main shape created, as
5. - choose the grade of the file you use (both hand files and needle files come in different grades) to suit what you need to do - if you just need to remove a small imperfection or surface mark, use a finer (#2 or #4) file - if you need to remove a lot of material - use a coarser #0 file, or use a saw to cut more off and then go back to filing

Images below - a flat hand file, a regular wooden file handle, a file brush (for cleaning out the teeth if it gets blocked)