Are you a jewellery maker looking for tips, new ideas, or to learn new techniques?

​My personal view is that - if you can - take in person classes - you can ask questions, get advice and support and work in real time, with a tutor that can watch you work and give you tips to improve, and really explore the techniques.
Of course however, we don't all get that opportunity, or if we do, we can't necessarily join a regular class for ongoing support and advice, but luckily there are other options. There are some really great jewellery making books available, and there are also many many video tutorials and information streams
​
If you've been thinking about learning to make your own jewellery - then you've almost certainly been on YouTube or Pinterest or other sites watching videos and tutorials of jewellers making different projects, or watched jewellers live streaming from their workbenches on a platform like Twitch...

These are great places to research ideas and techniques, there are huge amounts of information out there, and some fantastic teachers and makers share their skills in this way. The downside of course is that a lot of the content is edited and skips sections, not all of it is very well filmed, so it can sometimes be hard to see the key details, and as anyone / everyone can post on the internet, it can be hard to work out which channels or creators actually know much about their subject and to search out the really great ones from the rest....

My favourite YouTube channels for really good, informative and helpful jewellery making tutorials are these ones below - in no particular order...

​Do you have any you love, to add to the list?? Do add more in the comments!

• Craft Cast - https://www.youtube.com/@CraftcastwithAlisonLee
• Tracey Spurgin - https://www.youtube.com/@TraceySpurgin
• Ronda Coryell = https://www.youtube.com/@rondacoryell
• Adrienne Gaskell - https://www.youtube.com/@agkumihimo 
• Lucy Walker Jewellery - https://www.youtube.com/@LucyWalkerJewelry 
• Online Jewellery Academy - https://www.youtube.com/@OnlineJewelryAcademy 
• Off the Beaded Path - https://www.youtube.com/@offthebeadedpath
• Soham Harrison - https://www.youtube.com/@1soham1 
• Charles Lewton-Brain - https://www.youtube.com/@lewtonbrain 
• Cool Tools - https://www.youtube.com/@cooltoolsvideos 
• Rio Grande - https://www.youtube.com/@RioGrande1944 
• Interweave - https://www.youtube.com/@Interweavecraft 

Of course - I also have my own YouTube channel and I hope to be adding some more videos there soon - head to this link to have a look - https://www.youtube.com/@pitstopx 

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...

How does 1-1 (individual) tuition work??

1-1 tuition is your own private jewellery making class with me - it can be arranged exactly to suit you - it can either be the same / similar content as one of my scheduled classes, but arranged at a date that suits you better, or with the content altered to suit you better, or it can be a completely different topic that i don't currently offer as a scheduled class that you'd like to work on...

First - 
Think about what you'd like to learn how to do, or what you'd like to work towards creating...

Step 1
Contact me to see if it is possible, and tell me a little about you and your background / existing skills. Send pictures if at all possible, as this makes it way easier to explain things!
I will let you know whether it is something that can be achieved in a day, or will take longer to work towards and need a longer term plan... ​If it happens to be something I can't help you with, I can usually offer suggestions of where might be able to help you instead.

Step 2
If we've agreed a project, or range of projects, then we set a date - you let me know what days of the week work best for you and how soon you'd like to start, and I check my calendar... 

​Step 3
If we have projects and a date agreed, then payment is needed to confirm the booking, at which point I'll make a full plan for the session and order any materials needed for the project/s.
A day of personalised 1-1 tuition costs £255 with me at my workshop in central London and includes all materials needed. For bookings of more than a day, block bookings (with a discount) are possible.
Mini bookings of half a day, or an evening are also possible if you are looking for a quick fix! (Depending on the project of course!)

Is there anything you'd like to know about individual (1-1) tuition, or any of my other classes???
​Feel free to message me at [email protected] or leave a comment below....

I can also offer personalised small group sessions - if you have one, two, or three friends that would like to join you for a day or half day of tuition, then I can happily arrange a session just for you - whether you are a group of beginners that fancy a different kind of day out and trying something new. or whether you are a group of jewellers that would like to broaden your skills together - do get in touch and I can arrange something just for you!

I teach a range of jewellery making short courses in my central London workshop - this month I would like to share more about the soapstone carving course I offer.

This course next runs on Sunday 30 April and then on Saturday 17 June and the day costs £130 per person, to create your own unique carved and polished stone pendant or individual paperweight.

During the day we will look at blocking out and planning a design, using simple hand tools to create your chosen design, and then smoothing and polishing your carved surface if desired.

Soapstone is a particularly soft stone - because it is soft and easy to work, it was one of the first materials carved to make decorative items by our distant ancestors, and has continued to be carved right to today - to carve it, all you need are hand tools such as files and drills.

The stone has a gorgeous tactile quality and creates beautiful sculptures - it can be polished smooth, or you can create surface textures or patterns. This day is a creative day exploring shapes and using the soapstone to experiment with the process of sculpting.

If you'd like to have a go at exploring your creative side and creating your own stone sculpture - do get in touch! Places can be booked here - http://www.pennyakester.co.uk/store/p46/Carved_Soapstone_Pendants_-_One_Day_Jewellery_Making_Class.html, or do get in touch if you have any questions about the day!

*** THIS IS NOT A LAPIDARY COURSE and these skills are not directly transferable to working with precious or semiprecious gemstones as these are much harder and require different equipment to shape them.

I teach a range of jewellery making short courses in my central London workshop - this month I would like to share more about the electroforming course I offer.

This course is running next on the 6 & 7 April 2017, and then again on the 9 & 10 June. The course costs £210 for the 2 day course and this includes all materials.

What is electroforming?
Electroforming is a way of depositing metal particles onto the surface of another item. The process can be used to either entirely coat a master model (eg a wax carving) to create a strong but lightweight metal form (allowing larger scale work than would be practical to cast in solid metal for example), or to add metal highlights onto a non-metallic object.

In my work as an artist / designer, I use electroforming to add contrasting elements, to add metal forms into designs that use other materials as well. For example; I create metal highlights onto hand carved stones, I use electroforming to combine with beadwork or to blend and hold a stone into place on a fabricated metal form.

In this course we will be working with copper - growing copper onto non-metallic objects such as stones, leaves, twigs, glass, ceramic items, gems, and more.

What does the course cover?
The first morning covers preparation and setup -
We start the course with how to prepare objects for electroforming, using sealants and then conductive paints, safe use of these and the key practical considerations for the most successful results.
Once the pieces are prepared, we cover setting up a simple, basic kit that is practical and affordable for electroforming at home or in a small workshop.
The course then takes a break, I run the tanks and check on them every hour over the afternoon and the next morning. It takes a while to grow a substantial layer of metal, so the class continues on the afternoon of the second day.
On the second day we cover working with the completed pieces plus kit storage and maintenance -
We start by going over all the pieces that have been formed - what worked best, what might not have worked so well, and what could have caused this / how to improve it.
We look at refining, finishing and using the formed pieces - what can and can't easily be done with them.
We also cover how to safely store the chemicals and kit and how to maintain the liquid and materials for future use.