New Year Sale!

Happy New Year! We're off to visit friends in Wales for New Year's Eve, the same friends we spent the start of this year with, so it seems appropriate that we end the year with them too! I'm looking forward to a wonderful evening of great food and great company - and probably silly games and lots of chocolate too!

I've been enjoying a refreshing break from the studio this holiday season, and I think that I needed a break to recharge as I've been busy sketching out new ideas over the last couple of evenings after the boys are safely asleep in bed. I'm looking forward to getting back into the studio in a few days.

In the meantime to clear some space for these new ideas I'm having a New Year sale, so if Santa didn't quite bring you what you hoped for you can treat yourself instead! The sale ends on 10th January, and you just need to enter the code "newyear14" to get 20% off all jewellery.

I hope that you enjoy your New Year's Eve and have a great start to 2014!

Merry Christmas!

The presents are wrapped and sitting under the tree, a mince pie, carrot and milk have been left out for Santa and the reindeer and I've even prepared the veggies for Christmas dinner.....it's time to sit and relax and enjoy time with my family, and time to say a big thank you for your support this year. Whether you have bought or commissioned jewellery, come to one of my classes, come for private tuition or downloaded a tutorial it is greatly appreciated.

I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and I will be back again in the New Year with dates for private tuition and workshops, and information about an online course too - I'm very excited about that last one!

Merry Christmas!
Jo

P.S. For those of you who received discount codes based on your Christmas jewellery orders don't forget that they are only valid until the end of the month! Full details are here.

Cartography

I named this pendant 'Cartography' as the delicate lines and warm soft colours remind me of old maps - and as an ex-Geography teacher I'm still drawn to the fascinating details you can find on old maps! 

The stone is one from my friend Brenda's shop Iced Hot Rocks, and it's one of the first I bought from her, which means that it's been moving from a bowl on my desk to the box I store most of my stones in and back onto my desk for several years now - and moved studios with me! Once I finally decided what I wanted to do with it though it all came together very quickly. Maybe it was the new studio and the change of scenary! 

A frame of rectangular wire with a subtle texture has been built around the stone and a rivet, passed through the stone, holds it securely in place whilst also allowing you to move the bead slightly if, like me, you play with your jewellery whilst wearing it! A loop of silver at the top of the pendant allows it to be hung from a length of chocolate brown leather cord. The cord has been finished with a sterling silver hook and short extender chain.

Cartography is now looking for a new home - it is currently living on my website here!

One more week to go!

And all of a sudden here it is, the last full week before Christmas. It's Ben's birthday tomorrow, with his school choir's show for parents on the same day, plus lots of other Christmas activities at school and pre-school. There has been a disco, party, wear-a-Christmas-jumper day, etc etc event for one or other of the boys almost every day this month - so much so that if there hasn't been something written on the family calendar for a particular day I've worried that I've missed something out!

New sparkly earrings, perfect for Christmas!

It's also the working week for UK orders on my website. Everything in the Unique Collection is ready to ship out, and many items in the Golden Collection and Simply Silver Collection are available as well - if in doubt email me on admin@joannetinleyjewellery.com!

For full details see http://www.joannetinleyjewellery.com/a-christmas-gift-for-you/

 There's also a little incentive for you to order your last Christmas presents - spend £30 or more before midday on Friday amd receive a voucher for 15% of your order value to spend before the end of the year. Afterall, after treating the people on your Christmas list you deserve a treat as well!

Pretty earrings!

I think that it's safe to say that my resolution come New Year should be to blog more often! I only have the usual excuse to offer - busy with teaching, busy with orders for Christmas presents and some lovely commissions too, and of course busy with Christmas events with the boys. In the last week we've had one Christmas concert, four birthday parties, one Cubs Christmas party and one school historical dress-up day - and that's just been for Ben!

Anyway, enough of that - I have been making some new pieces of jewellery for the website in between the order and commissions and it's been too long since I last showed you some pretty pictures....

Four new earring designs for you - from top to bottom, left to right Onyz Drops, Angels , Autumn Sparkle, Amethyst Hearts, all looking for new homes now!

Being Thankful

I've just got back from a great day out in London visiting the Cockpit Arts studio. We had a great day out - so many studios, so much to see! It was great talking to other artists and seeing where they work, a real treat after our hard work putting the Sorting Office Open Studios together last weekend. I will have some photos to show you in a few days, but I need to get them all together first!

In the meantime, as our Open Studios last weekend and today's trip out have most definitely put me in the festive mood I thought I'd continue the Thanksgiving celebrations from across the Atlantic with a Daisychain Extra discount code for you......

Remember that the designs in the shop are the last ones I'm doing - once they're gone that's it!

And if you prefer to wear jewellery rather than make it, remember that there's a discount code running on my website as well....

What a day!

The Winter Open Studios was a fantastic day, a great success - so much so that the studios have been rather quiet this week as we've all been recovering!

Our first visitor of the day was Father Christmas, and as soon as he settled into his colourful grotto the doors opened. I hardly stopped all day, talking to people about my tuition and workshops, showing some of the pieces I'm working on at the moment, discussing commissions and generally showing off my lovely studio! I also had a gratifying number of empty displays at the end of the day.

I had planned to take lots of photos of the open day, but in the end I hardly left my own studio and when I did I only got as far as Denise's studio next door.

Thankfully there are a few more on the Sorting Office facebook page here, and even a quick video tour!



We're all off to London tomorrow, a Sorting Office studios trip out to the Cockpit Arts Open Studios. A treat after our hard work, a day off from Christmas orders! I'm really looking forward to it - and hoping that I can do some more Christmas shopping!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We've all been busy down at the Sorting Office this week, getting everything ready for the Winter Open Studios - which is tomorrow - eeek! Where on earth has the week gone?!

The building of Santa's Grotto

We now have Santa's Grotto in the Production House where I teach my group workshops, fairy lights hanging from the rafters, snowflakes decorating the walls and windows and beautiful artwork and crafts on display.

A very messy studio after a couple of days teaching - I haven't even got any jewellery on the walls since taking it down for the Christmas Gifts Bazaar last Friday!

 I was teaching Wednesday and Thursday so I had to wait until today to get my studio ready. It was rather messy to start with, and halfway through it looked worse than when I started but I got there in the end! You can find more photos, including some of my studio neighbours work, on my Facebook page.

Jewellery back on display on the walls, more jewellery on display where my computer, photography set-up and polishing set-up usually are. It was a long day but  it was worth it!

I'd love to show you round if you can make it, and you can find all the details here. But whether you can make it or not I have an early Christmas present for you....

If you can make it tomorrow just print out the voucher above or show it to me on your phone and you will get 15% off when you spend £45 or more. If you can't make it, simply enter "openstudios" at check out on my website and until the end of November you will get the same deal!

Last Ever Daisychain Extra Shop Update!

I had meant to post this yesterday to give you a little more notice but I spent the whole day on the computer editing photos and writing descriptions, and by the evening I just had to have a break! The hours spent on the computer have been worth while though, as the last ever shop update for Daisychain Extra is ready to go at 1pm! All the stock has been checked, the last pieces given their patina and polished, holes drilled etc etc.

I have some new pieces to offer you, including the pieces above. The heart toggle clasps are my favourites, especially because they use my favourite hammer with the lines radiating out of the hole for the toggle. Other pieces are variations on old favourites, sometimes with a new texture. I've got lots of lovely new pieces with an embossed linen texture, such as on the daisy and bird above.

This really is the last time I will be putting new stock in the shop and once it's gone, it's gone - so get in there quickly! Everything will go live at 1pm today.

Tutorial Tuesday - Nothing goes to waste....

Part of the design for the earrings that Brenda (one of my regular students and the woman behind the beautiful stones at Iced Hot Rocks) was making during her session last week needed some rectangular wire, and none of the wire I had in stock was quite right. Ten minutes or so with a length of 2mm round wire and the rolling mill soon sorted that out, but after Brenda had cut off what she needed we were left over with a very short piece that I rescued from the scrap pot saying that nothing goes to waste and I was sure that I could use it in something. "Go on then!" came the reply - so I did!

Brenda set me the challenge of making a pair of earrings using only that short piece of flattened wire and any other bits and pieces that were sitting out on my desk, and as I was making them during her lesson while she was filing or doing other bits and pieces that didn't need my help they had to be relatively quick too. And here's what I did!

A very pretty pair of earrings, even if I do say so myself! I'm very pleased with how they turned out. I've made a couple of projects recently that were just made from pieces that were already sitting on my desk or from pieces rescued from my scrap pot, and I've really enjoy the challenge that brings. So, your turn....what can you rescue from the waste basket or scrap pot?

I've been especially organised and these earrings are already available on the website here, looking for a new home for Christmas!

Can I mention Christmas yet?!

Despite starting to plan new products for the Christmas season and Christmas events in the spring, I still dislike talking about Christmas too early! However, I heard my first Christmas song on Radio 2 this evening so I think it's time!

Unfortunately my favourite show of the year, Handmade Winchester isn't running this year but I will be showing my jewellery at two events - two different events but I am very excited (and rather nervous!) about both of them.

The first event is this coming Friday, 15th November - the Christmas Gifts Bazaar that a friend and I organise to raise money for the Wessex Cancer Trust each  year. This is our fourth year and we've got more stalls that before, live music, wine, mince pies, a raffle - what more could you want?! The reason I'm nervous is that we've worked so hard on this and I'm at the waking up in the middle of the night stage praying that it will be a success! I know that it will be as people have been talking about it and tickets have been sold, but that doesn't stop the nerves!

And the second event is our first annual Open Studios at the Sorting Office - the nerves this time are because I've never had to opportunity to open my studio up to the public before! I'll tell you lots more about this later in the week, but for now all the basic information you need is below.....

 

It would be wonderful to see you there!

Sticks and stones!

So, we're a sixth of the way through the academic year already, just over month away from Christmas Day (sorry!), we seem to have gotten used to the clocks falling back and with the wind and rain that we've had this last couple of week it feels that winter is replacing the gentler autumn.

We did manage to find a little bit of sun this weekend though, perfect for a walk through the park to collect sticks. No, we don't have a dog to throw sticks for, and no, we weren't collecting for a bonfire to go with the fireworks we shared with our neighbours and their son, Ben's best friend. My boys, in fact quite a few of the boys we know, just like collecting sticks! And stones, shells, conkers, sycamore seeds - our local park is a treasure trove at this time of year! The boys never seem to do anything with them - they just build up in piles in the car boot, in the porch, by the back door until I finally decide that enough is enough  - and then the piles start again from scratch!

I don't mind too much though. Piles of sticks waiting to trip me up are a small price to pay for encouraging the boys to play outside. I know I've said it before, but we are lucky about the part of Southampton we live in. No big city neighbourhood is perfect, but we've got a fantastic park with the River Itchen running through it just at the bottom of our hill. And I'm now off to walk through it again on my way to pick the boys up from school - only this time I think I'm going to need my umbrella!

Look what they made!

I realised today that, in my neglect of this poor blog, that I haven't yet shown you the beautiful pendants that my students made in the Stone Setting workshop a couple of weeks ago - so here they are!

None of the ladies had made bezel settings before, so the class really tested them - and they passed with flying colours! Lots of sawing, filing, hammering and very careful soldering followed finally by actually setting the stones. Most of the work and time goes into making the setting and the piece of jewellery that it is going on, and only the last half an hour or so of the class is usually spent on setting the stone itself. Actually I think that one of the most difficult parts of the class for the ladies who came was choosing the stone that they wanted to use as there were lots of beauties to choose from!

Kay used a lovely turquoise cabochon in her pendant, while Susie chose a Botswana agate with beautiful patterning and Lesley a labradorite. The way she's set it with the blacker parts running vertically make me think of the moon shining through the trees in a dark fairy tale forest! By the way, Kay and Lesley used the same hammer to texture their pendants. No two people ever create the same texture as everyone's stroke is different! I only had three ladies on the course in the end, as the other two who were booked on and coming together couldn't make it due to a broken ankle - Annie, if you're reading this I hope that you are healing well!

There is still time to sign up for the next workshop on Friday 8th November - the topic this time round is making chains. We'll start with lengths of sterling silver wire, coil it into a long coil, cut that into rings and eventually after soldering and hammering and sawing and some more soldering and adding beads to the mix if you wish we'll end up with beautiful chain bracelets! If you'd like to join us the full details are here.

P.S. Thank you very much for the emails and facebook messages and messages through Etsy I've had about closing the Daisychain Extra shop. It has been fun running it but the time is right to concentrate on my own jewellery and on more teaching!

New designs - and some news

I've been polishing copper and editing photos in between teaching this weekend, preparing for a Daisychain Extra etsy shop update later this evening.

There's a lovely collection of flowers and leaves, some old favourites, some new designs and some new twists on old favourites too. I'm really pleased with how these leaf clasps turned out, especially with the different textures, and there are different sizes available.

And I've made some baby daisy connectors to go with the clasps - and some more clasps too!

However, I have some news about Daisychain Extra too - this will be one of the last shop updates as I have made the decision to close the shop. I have a few more designs that just need polishing and a photo shoot, and I need to go through my stock to make sure that everything is listed, but then that will be that. I have enjoyed making the clasps and creating new designs has been fun, and I was delighted to get to 1000 sales, but I want to, I need to, concentrate on my jewellery. That is where my heart lies, and that is what I really need to spend my time on.

So, thank you to all of you who have helped make my little shop a success. Get them while you can folks, as once they are gone, that will be it!

Tuition photos!

I've finally edited some of the photos from jewellery tuition sessions over the last couple of weeks! Some of my students nowadays work on larger projects that need more than one session so there are quite a few unfinished pieces I can't show you yet, but these ones are done!

Two sisters came for a day's tuition last weekend. Neither had done any jewellery making before, but both are very artistic and that showed on what they made. We started out with simple rings made from oval wire which they were both rightly proud of. After lunch I taught them how to saw silver sheet,  and this is definitely where their artistic talents showed! One sister made these tiny stud earrings - such delicate sawing for her very first attempt sawing silver!

And her big sister made this beautiful leaf pendant. Isn't it gorgeous? The texture is done by hammering lengths of binding wire into the silver to form the leaf's vein, and I love the curly stem bail. This will look so lovely hanging from a leather cord.

Paul comes out to the studio for tuition a couple of times a month, so you've seen some of his work before. His wife is Brenda, the lovely lady I buy lots of my stones from, so as you'd expect Paul has a lovely choice of stones to work with. This Thursday he made Brenda a beautiful ameythst ring to match the earrings that Brenda made last spring.

Carefully balancing the ring shank with a T-pin

I particularly enjoy the problem solving that goes with Paul's designs. He'll arrive with quite a clear idea of what he wants to make, and then we have to sit down and work out what components need to made in which order and how everything is going to be put together to make a beautifully wearable piece of jewellery. As each stone he works with is unique, and usually handcut so slightly irregular, each piece of jewellery is a challenge. Definitely a fun challenge though!

I Love Autumn!

You know it's been too long since your last blog post when your Mum asks you why you haven't written anything recently - oops! The start of the new school year was rather hectic (nothing new there then!) and I think that I just got out of the habit of blogging. It has been a busy month though (again, nothing new there!). Here's some of what I've been up to....

• kicking through the autumn leaves on the way to school.
• admiring the dew-decorated spider's webs with Jamie after dropping Ben off at school. 

My cool dude!

• taking Jamie to preschool for the first time. He loves it there! I asked him if I could come with him the first time. He looked at me as if I was crazy and said very clearly "NO!"
• starting the new courses I'm teaching for Eastleigh College this year.
• teaching lots of private students - I must post edit the photos I've taken.
• working on a new collection of jewellery - lovebirds, owls, rabbits and butterflies. Again, photos coming soon! One of my jobs today is to edit them.

• sending orders off to new galleries. This little lot went off to Heart Gallery in Hebden Bridge at the end of last week. It's amazing how small the parcels are when the galleries don't need the boxes to go with the jewellery, despite the lovely large size of the orders!
• visiting Tent London, a great trade show, with some of my studio neighbours. You can see a photo of us all here on the Sorting Office Facebook page.
• organising the Christmas Gifts Bazaar a friend and I run to raise money for the Wessex Cancer Trust. There will be more details soon, but in the meantime I've set up a Facebook event page here.
• working on a new e-course and a couple of new tutorials.
• writing magazine projects.
• knitting! I've actually been knitting myself something for once - a lovely grey cardigan - and also gifts for some new babies.

Right then, I'd better get on with editing those photos so I don't leave my next blog post too long! Hope you're all enjoying your Autumn too!

Shop Update

The sawing, filing, hammering, soldering, oxidising, polishing and photo editing is done!

Lots of lovely new designs of clasps, charms, bracelet bars and pendants will be in the Daisychain Extra shop from 7pm tonight!

Visit www.daisychainextra.etsy.com to see all the goodies!

P.S. Don't forget that the 7th Birthday discount codes run out this Sunday -
Use the code "happy7thworkshops" to receive 10% off the workshops running this term - see www.joannetinleyjewellery.com/workshopshttp://www.joannetinleyjewellery/workshops for details of the workshops on offer.
Use the code "happy7th" to receive 15% off Daisychain Extra Supplies - visit www.daisychainextra.etsy.com
Use the code "happy7thjewellery" to receive 20% off jewellery - visit www.joannetinleyjewellery.com

Tudor House

This beautiful house is in one of the few areas of Southampton that wasn't badly bombed during WWII - amazing really considering how close it is the the sea front and the docks that were the bombers main aim. It is the Tudor House, and it is just as lovely on the inside as it is on the outside, and the gardens are well worth a visit too. It's also the venue for the first craft show that I'm doing this year, on Saturday 14th September. It's part of Southampton City Council's Heritage Open day with activities for the children, a vintage bus your around the city - and of course a small but select craft show that includes some of my neighbours from the Sorting Office Studios too. Entrance to the Tudor House and Gardens is free for the day, and I'm really looking forward to working in such beautiful surroundings for the day!

If you're in the area, do come along. You can find more details on the Tudor House Facebook page here.

On my desk...

It's going to be a day of hammering, soldering, oxidising, polishing and taking photos today! This is the sight that greeted me this morning - lots of Daisychain Extra designs laid out on my desk.

I took this photo just before I left yesterday with the intention of posting it on here last night, but to be honest by the time I'd sorted the boys out, got everything ready for school today and done all the other household bits and pieces I sat down - and that was that! It was Ben's first day in the Junior section of his school yesterday. He was a bit nervous on the way but as soon as he got there and saw his friends (he's still with the same classmates) he was all smiles, and last night was so excited at the thought of going back to school today that he couldn't sleep! Jamie starts preschool in a couple of weeks too, just two afternoons a week, and he's so keen to go that I had trouble getting him to walk on the way to the childminders (who he also loves going to!) past it this morning! I'm so lucky that I have boys who want to spend time as a family but also enjoy school/childminder. It definitely helps with that working mummy guilt thing I'm so good at!

Anyway, back to work - I've got a Daisychain Extra shop update to finish work for - look out for the announcement on here and my Facebook page!

Happy 7th Birthday!

Ok, I do know that you're a little older than seven, and so am I, but 7 years ago on 1st September I had my brand new website, lots of creative ideas bursting to get out and I made the phone call to HMRC to register as self-employed. In my mind there should have been fireworks and a fanfare in celebration instead of a simple request for my National Insurance number, but never mind!

In the last seven years Daisychain Designs (as it was until this July!) has grown from a kitchen-table business built around a very young family to a busy full-time business based in a fabulous new studio. I am very lucky to be able to have created a business doing what I love. I've had an exciting summer moving into my new studio, and I've got equally exciting plans for my 8th year in business including new workshops, both online and in the studio, exhibiting at the British Craft Trade Fair and expanding my wholesale jewellery collections. You may have noticed that I now have a "Wholesale" tab on the website menu that leads to the new Joanne Tinley Wholesale website. More immediately I've got my first Craft Show of the season coming up at Southampton's beautiful Tudor House - more about that tomorrow. (And the present is just below too...)

Like all good birthday celebrations this one comes with presents and a big thank you - Thank You for helping me to make my business a success. Thank you to those of you I teach - as you know it is my mission to pass on the addiction of jewellery making on to as many people as possible, and it's going well so far! - and thank you to those of you who buy my jewellery and jewellery supplies. It is always a delight to send parcels all over the UK and to places as far flung as the States and New Zealand, and I know that I will never get bored of it!

As a thank you I have some lovely discount codes for you - but you only have a week in which to use them!
Use the code "happy7thworkshops" to receive 10% off the workshops running this term - see www.joannetinleyjewellery.com/workshops for details of the workshops on offer.
Use the code "happy7th" to receive 15% off Daisychain Extra Supplies - visit www.daisychainextra.etsy.com
Use the code "happy7thjewellery" to receive 20% off jewellery - visit www.joannetinleyjewellery.com

I'm off to make a cake now - I've got the perfect excuse!

It's the blues turn!

Just a quick post before today's student arrives for their private tuition session. I came in a little early to take some photos of a couple of pieces I finished on Thursday - including a variation on the ruby earrings I made the week before. You may remember that I posted a picture of the earrings half made on my facebook page, trying to decide on which stones to use. I went for rubies in the end, but amazonite was a popular choice too, so here they are!

I went for a drop earring design this time instead of studs, and decided to leave the silver bright rather than oxidised too. Subtle changes but they do make quite a difference. I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I love the curve in the silver - again quite a subtle thing to do but it usually is the small things that turns a design from "that's nice" to "I love that!"!

Both pairs of earrings are now on the website - amazonite here and ruby here - but if you'd like a different colour of bead then do drop me an email and let me know!

The Year's Best Beads, Findings and More!

Some exciting post arrived from across the Atlantic today! The Fall issue of Jewelry Stringing magazine includes the Beads 2013 Buyer's Guide, with (to quote the magazine's front cover) "100 of the year's best beads, findings and more" - and four of the pieces on show in the guide are mine!

There they are - in such great company too!

I entered them for consideration way back in the Spring. Each designer or business could enter up to five designs, and I was delighted when the editors asked me to send in all five of the designs that I had submitted - a copper Lovebird clasp, a daisy toggle clasp, a copper Poppy connector and matching Poppy earwires, and an Oak Leaf clasp. They didn't include the Oak Leaf clasp in the end, but I'm hoping that that one will find it's way into a project sometime. You can, of course, find all of the designs and plenty more over at www.daisychainextra.etsy.com.  I'm in great company too - many of my friends over at Art Jewelry Elements are featured. A certain pie bead is on show for example!


I've been working away on some new designs for the Daisychain Extra shop over the summer. They're finished and lined up on my desk waiting for their turn with the camera so they will be listed in the shop Wednesday or Thursday. Wednesday hopefully, but it depends on how long the photo editing takes!

More Bangles!

Lots of hammering and polished took place in the studio today! Some of the bangles I showed you this morning will have cups of gold or lovebirds attached to them as orders come in, so they've been left as they were for the moment, but the square wire bangles were hammered with my favourite hammer today. I estimate that each centimetre around the bangle gets about 10 hammer strokes, so considering that the bangles are hammered on the three outside faces of the wire each bangle has approximately 700 hammer strokes - give or take!

However, I've got an extra special bangle to show you now. Rebecca came for a day's tuition at the beginning of July, but the main piece that she wanted to make was for a present for her fiancé which meant that I had to keep it under wraps for a while! They got married a couple of weeks ago and are now, I hope, having a wonderful time on their honeymoon so I can now show off what Rebecca made!

Rebecca asked the jeweller who made their wedding rings to use the remaining gold (which came from a piece of family jewellery) to make a little "kiss", and came to me to make a sleek bangle to solder the kiss onto. She hadn't made any jewellery before, and worked really hard to give the bangle a beautiful finish. Often it's the pieces of jewellery that look the most simple that need the most attention. If you give your jewellery a texture you can sometimes use that texture to cover small surface imperfections or scratches - with a smooth sleek surface there's nowhere to hide!

Of course, Rebecca couldn't show her fiancé the bangle until their wedding day and knew he would ask to see what she made, so the last hour or so of the day was spent making herself the pendant and earrings below. Again, the gold in the middle of the pendant was left over from the wedding rings. I can honestly say that out of the many many pieces of jewellery my students have made over the years, Rebecca's pendant is one of my all time favourites. It started out as a simple disc of silver, but hammering has given it such a beautful shape and texture, and as liver of sulphur doesn't affect gold the patina really works wonderfully. I love it!

Bangles!

Lots of bangles waiting for more hammering and polishing!

 Just taking a quick break from hammering to show you one of the jobs on my list for today - lots of bangles! I think I may have mentioned once or twice before that bangles are one of my favourite pieces of jewellery to make - the one of the most visited posts on my blog is one with photos of all the steps I go through to change a length of wire into a beautiful, go-with-everything piece of jewellery.

My Maker's Mark and the traditional hallmarks

I made these bangles last week and they've just come back from hallmarking up in London. You might notice a black mark on a couple of the bangles. This is where the Assay Office put the hallmark. I like to mark where I like the hallmark to be, so a quick pen or pencil line marks the spot. Hallmarking is another of my favourite things - I'm fascinated by the history of hallmarking and proud to continue the 700 year old tradition, and of course I've got a blog post about that too!

My first group workshop of the Autumn teaches how to make a bangle. At £65 plus the cost of the material (usually £10-15) I will teach you everything you need to know about making bangles - and of course you will go home with your own beautifully made bangle as well! On NOTHS sterling silver bangles cost £75 or more - so for the cost of buying a bangle you will go home with a bangle made perfectly to fit you and all the skills you need to make more at home. A bargain when you think about it!

The Bangles workshop is on Friday 13th September, and booking is easy through the website here.

New Jewellery Workshops

It's that time of year, when my mind turns to getting ready for the new school term, and it's a busy new school year for our family - my eldest starts Junior School, my youngest starts Preschool (how on earth did that happen?!), and moving to my wonderful new studio means that I can restart my group workshops again.

I am really looking forward to teaching my new workshop programme. I will be teaching one group workshop a month, to a maximum of 8 people at a time to make sure that everyone gets the help and attention that they need. You can take just one workshop as they each have their own project, but the more you take the more confident you will grow in your jewellery making skills and, of course, the more jewellery you will make! And as an extra incentive, if you book three separate workshops you will get the cheapest one half price.

Full details of all the workshops can be found on the website here, but briefly:

Bangles workshop – 10am-4pm Friday 13th September Learn all the traditional silversmithing techniques you need to create your own stunning sterling silver bangle, made to fit you perfectly!

Workshop fee £65, cost of materials payable on the day.

Bezel Stone Set Pendant workshop – 10am-4pm Friday 18th October Create a beautiful pendant with a bezel set cabochon stone. Workshop fee £75 includes all silver required. Cost of your choice of semi-precious stone payable on the day.

Hammered Chains workshop – 10am-4pm Friday 8th November Learn how to turn sterling silver wire into a beautiful chain and embellish it with beads. You will also be taught how to make head pins, ear wires and clasps. Workshop fee £65 including beads. Cost of silver payable on the day.

Earrings workshop – 10am-3pm Friday 13th December Learn how to cut, shape and texture sterling silver sheet and wire to make at least three pairs of stunning stud and drop earrings – perfect for yourself or for Christmas presents! Workshop fee £55. Cost of silver payable on the day.

I think that the earrings workshop in December is going to be my favourite this term. It's not that the others aren't fun to teach, and it's great seeing everyone going home with beautiful jewellery they have designed and made themselves, but I'm picturing everyone going home with little beautifully wrapped bags of equally beautiful Christmas presents in December!

By the way, if you want to come along but the dates aren't right for you, get a group of friends together (between 5 and 8 of you is ideal) and a list of dates suitable for you, send an email to admin@joannetinleyjewellery.com and we can arrange a workshop just for you. Afterall, I can't pass up an opportunity to get more people addicted to jewellery making, can I?!