donnabarry.com

At long last, the new website has been launched! Check it out!
http://www.donnabarry.com

I'll still be keeping you up to date with what I've been up to here, so keep following!

Donna x

A valuable visit to Hatton Garden

Well it's about time I blogged again and after ten years in the jewellery business it's about time I learnt about stone setting. With vague memories at college of how some basic stone settings are done, I thought it was time I got myself some tuition. With funding from the Edinburgh Craft Makers Awards it became possible and there are no excuses now!
Last week I headed on down to the big smoke and spent two full days at The London Jewellery School based in the jewellery quarter, Hatton Garden. It was an experience being back in a class where I was being taught at the bench. It made a nice change! Our tutor was the lovely Zoe Harding who brought the eight of us through each step of three different stone settings, cabachon/rubover, tube and gypsy. See some images above of the cabachon and tube settings. Please ignore the designs themselves. This course was, for me, purely to learn how to set and not to waste valuable time at the school trying to make it fit with my own work. That is the plan now of course and once my new website has been launched (very soon), I will be playing at the bench with my new skills. Lots of practice maybe involved though! Looking forward to showing you some new pieces in the near future.