Pondering on Workshops…
I’m writing this on the way to London, as today we’re having a little day out, all with a musical theme and then tomorrow it’s @RocknRoll Bride Live!!
I wanted to talk about workshops though…
Back when I was doing my degree, I remember the first year tutor telling us all to be a “master” at what we do, and not a “Jack” of all trades.
That’s stayed with me all through my career and I really do my best to follow that model.
My specialism, as you know is creating bespoke (although still very much with my signature all over them) rings, and inevitably this means that I make lots of engagement, wedding and eternity rings.
As I became more established, I started getting asked by couples if I ran workshops to make your own wedding rings. I’m also a qualified secondary Design Technology teacher, so as I already had years of experience teaching teenagers to pass GCSE’s and A-Levels, I listened to my customers and started to offer this.
All along, my emphasis has been on quality and being that master that I’d been trained for, so naturally I’ve always wanted this for my students too.
I’d built up quite a good reputation for offering Make Your Own Wedding Ring workshops and couples were travelling to me for all over the country, but then came covid and the whole world changed!!
Business wise, is really wasn’t bad at all. I was very lucky, as I was eligible for all sorts of grants. It’s just in my nature to want to help others, so I decided to use some of that money to open The Studio Jewellery School, partly to provide space for other jewellers to run their own workshops from my space.
Well…as we now all know, the craft centre I was based at cooked up a little plan to get rid of me, but actually, they’ve paved the route for me to return to my roots and now totally concentrate on being that master.
So…I’ve been thinking a lot about my offering with regards to workshops, and if you want to spend three hours with a load of other people, all making essentially the same spinner ring/stacking ring set/silver bangle as everyone else, then I’m afraid that’s not something I’ll be offering.
I’m first and foremost an artist/designer/goldsmith but I will definitely be continuing to share my “specialism” by offering workshops for couples to Make Their Own (or each others) high quality wedding, engagement, anniversary or any other occasion you fancy rings.
My new Eco-Studio is set up specifically for making jewellery. It’s full of specialist tools and equipment and in a workshop, you’ll get to use the same tools that in use in my own work, focussing totally on creating high quality and beautifully finished rings to last you a lifetime.
I may also still offer private jewellery design and making tuition for individuals or small groups but this will be dependent on how busy I am with my own work and I probably won’t be making a bid deal of this any more on my website.
I moved into my beautiful new off-grid Eco-Studio a couple of days ago and my main focus now is on my own work. I’m very much looking forward to continuing my own learning (that never stops!) but also still “sometimes” sharing my skills, delivering high quality specialised workshops.
