I spent a great afternoon yesterday visiting the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in Manchester. It was packed with beautiful work from designers I have admired for ages and some who were new to me. The only problem was that my daughter was with me and she got bored quickly, so I couldn't spend as long there as I would have liked. However, it certainly made up for the fact that I was unable to get to Origin in London this year and I will definitely go back for more next year.

My latest earrings in silver, enamel and a touch of gold. I've been dabbling in enamel again after a break while concentrating on resin work. I like the instant results you can get with enamel.

Why Jewellery?

I was trying to remember how I first got interested in jewellery making. It actually goes back many years to when I was at Sixth Form College and we had to choose a subject to fill in some time when we weren't doing A Level studies. I chose metalwork and made a hammered copper bangle, it wasn't very good, but I enjoyed making and wearing it. I later went to college and did a B.Ed (teaching degree) and forgot about the metalwork, although it was at this time in my life that I really started buying and wearing handmade jewellery. A few years further on and I was teaching in a London primary school and one of my colleagues took me to visit a friend of hers who was a jeweller at her studio. I was in awe of the beautiful work I saw there, not to mention the tools and equipment which fascinated me.
I enrolled myself onto an adult education course in Hackney, East London and spent every Thursday evening for about three years learning as many basic techniques as I could.
After a move to Derbyshire in 2000 I was lucky enough to find another fantastic jewellery course on my doorstep taught by Adele Kime. Adele is an inspiring teacher and I am grateful to her for helping me confirm that making jewellery is what I want to do.

Phew, it's taken a while, but I've finally got the blog started...Welcome!
I think I've been putting it off as I had no idea where to start. I've decided to take the bull by the horns and see it as a 'work in progress'. Hopefully I'll get slicker and more interesting as time goes on. My jewellery is changing direction at the moment. I'm making more mixed media pieces, aiming to combine my love of resin, enamel and stone setting in the same range. I will be posting photos here as I go along. Thank you for popping in.