I started making jewellery…oh…thirty years ago!? That can’t be right! So long ago…unbelievable. The techniques I learned for jewellery are the same ones that I use making my clocks, and they have been at the centre of my professional life for all this time.
I had always enjoyed making things, in my rural primary school I would be making a model or something under the desk (as well as doing my maths). I made posters and artwork at Uni and did ceramics classes when I lived in London. But then I thought, what could I do at home, with little space or equipment? What’s small? Maybe experiment with metal and make very simple jewellery, I thought. I got some supplies and bashed some metal, and then I did some classes, then people started buying things and then I was off!
When I first started I thought like many people that soldering was done with a soldering iron, like my Dad had. Not so, silver soldering for handmade jewellery is a much more technical process that involves a blowtorch and a flame. In joining pieces of metal by soldering you need to heat all of the metal up until the solder (a mix of silver and flux) runs and creates a permanent joint. That is a skill that takes a while to learn and involves very specific processes and materials.
I like the look of the different metals after heating and without polishing. People often use copper as a practice metal, before they make their design in silver or gold, but I liked the copper as it was, it turns a beautiful Autumnal red after heating. I also use brass, silver and titanium. Sometimes people think I use enamels to get my colours, but they are just formed by the action of heating the different metals. I never wanted to make anything perfect and polished and precise, I like the marks of tools and handmaking, with a little wonkiness thrown in. So it looks like it was made by a human.
Later, I devised ways to draw on the metal with etching, and ways to construct, putting one metal against a contrasting one, and that’s basically what I have been doing ever since. I think of it as an illustration that happens to be in metal. I think I am a miniaturist by nature, being close up to small things feels natural, and so I feel at home at my workbench peering at small bits of metal. Using the same tools for so many years they fit my hands and all is instinctive and familiar.
So in around 1994 I was making things like these brooches. It’s a photo of my postcard from those days so it is crumpled!
I was using thin red copper as a decorative feature soldered onto a brass background, with silver and the occasional bezel set stone. The shapes are inspired by sea creatures and crustacea I think. I have left some heat coloration so that the stripes look a bit ancient and organic.
A couple of years later this is a collection of my work. I have learned how to etch brass with chemicals, and I am inlaying copper or brass stripes into silver, using a piercing saw to cut decoratively into some of the metal, there’s a lot of techniques going on. Some of you might have some of my jewellery from this time!
A bit more up to date in 2013 I was making these brooches. There is much more etching, I was still etching bits of text into brass, and birds were everywhere, as they have been for many years in my work. Still using the red of the copper in another decorative way.
And up to date here, one of my favourite pieces from recent times. The red copper has been etched to add texture and pattern, then the silver and copper flower attached, with the blue titanium part. It’s like a metal collage. You can see it in my shop here.
So making jewellery for people is very personal. I love it when people contact me to say how much they love what they have bought. Here’s a couple of recent comments –
Morning Jill. You sent me some beautiful little silver flowers and I adore them (as I adore all of your stud earrings that I own!) I intend to order something for a friend’s birthday so I may well be tempted to have another little something for myself! I shall drool over everything on your website and place my order over the next few days. The joy your beautiful things bring is worth the money! K
These are indeed strange times.
I wanted you to know what pleasure I get from wearing your earrings!
I have 2 pairs I bought at the Farnham Maltings. S.
Recently I was talking to some people and complaining that my eyesight was not great, they were asking if I would miss making jewellery when I give it up. I said I would. Then, looking back, I thought, rather shocked – “ what are they talking about, give up making jewellery?! I’m not ready to give up!!”