I always find doing jewellery repairs an interesting challenge - you can learn so much about jewellery construction by studying the way the piece has been put together. Many of the costume jewellery pieces I've repaired over the years are constructed using different methods to those we regularly use as jewellery makers today and I find I learn valuable techniques to add to my repertoire by studying the way a piece has been constructed. The baroque pearl earrings on my desk today are a really good example so I want to share with you the step-by-step reconstruction of them. My customer received them as a gift from her mother so they have sentimental value to her but after years of wear, the fine gauge wire that they're constructed with has become kinked, making the earrings unattractive. So a remake is in order - my brief is to try to recreate the original design if possible. The earrings have an unusual construction method: one continuous length of wire runs through the pearl a......

Regular readers of my blog will remember the remake , remodel and restyled jewellery posts I've done recently. My Mum loved them all and they were a great gift for her birthday. This week she was visiting again for my son's 21st birthday and she brought along some more jewellery for a makeover. Yippee! I'm loving this! The latest piece is a re-string. She had bought four strands of moonlight and pearl beads. Photographing the moonlight beads was a little difficult. It's like photographing the moon; I just about needed a moon filter to get rid of the glare!   Anyway, what she wanted was a double strand necklace. And with a beadboard, this was easy to do. By simply laying out the strands of beads in the channel it was obvious how many more beads were needed in the outer strand. I also added a few more to the inside length and eliminated the extension chain. I'd measured this on Mum beforehand to make sure I'd have it the right length for her. This is one of the ......

My challenge this week has been to overhaul the pieces of jewellery my Mum left with me on her last visit. It has been an interesting and varied challenge.... I've revamped and updated a flowery 70s necklace , I've redesigned a minimalistic magnetic jewellery set to give it a bit more impact and now I'm going to breathe some life back into a broken garnet jewellery set. I've started this redesign by trimming away the earring posts from the two earrings making sure that they're flush with the frame so there are no sharp, exposed edges to cut on your skin. The component from the ring base needs more work though because there is a rough edge where it's broken off from the ring. Luckily it's not sharp but it will need some filing to neaten it up on the back. Now the challenge begins: how to marry the jewellers store look with the handmade look and yet keep it looking elegant. I want to give it a lot more substance so that it doesn't look like it's been ......