The photo is of a recycled silver brooch that I actually made a few years ago, but I wanted to talk about what makes a gemstone “precious” and this highlights it perfectly.

A few months ago, I applied to join the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen. I was invited to attend an interview, that happened on Monday, and yesterday I got a rejection email!

Now spring has sprung, we can finally really start to get going on my new Eco-Studio - hurrah!! Over the last couple of months, I’ve spent a lot of time just staring at the amount of work that needed to be done, and wondering where to start!

What if social media closed tomorrow? What if facebook or instagram suddenly wasn’t available, or someone decided to hack my accounts, all of the 5000 followers that I have across both platforms would just be gone!

I work in an industry that sometimes can be really pretty sexist and un-inclusive! I’ve often been asked “Do you make men’s rings?”, to which my answer would always be “Yes”, because ALL of my jewellery is suitable to be worn by a man, or a woman, or a person of any gender.

I did intend for this blog to be a full blown account of all the crap that I’ve been put through over the past few months, but after finally moving out the last of my things yesterday, I’m feeling nothing but relief and wanting to look forward to a more positive future…

A few months ago now, a very lovely lady got in contact and asked if I was able to cut off some rings that were stuck on her finger. She was suffering from arthritis, and just like I remember seeing happening to my grandma’s fingers when I was much younger and she was still with us, her rings were now well and truly stuck.

I’ve written a couple of blogs over the last few weeks that I didn’t actually publish. I’m not sure why, but I’m going to just go with the idea that if I thought they were any good, I’d have finished writing and published them! Today though, I do really have something worth writing about. It’s a story of real community and collaboration, of crazy ideas, hard work and lots of love…

This is only going to be a short blog, but I just wanted to share a little repair job that I’ve been working on today. The client initially sent me an email a few weeks ago, as she’d been told by a high street jeweller that her sentimental gold dress ring, wasn’t able to be resized.