Branching out – our first ever wood class

I have always loved wooden jewellery, there is something about the mother-nature, earthy, ethnic look that seems to work so well especially with summer fashion, you can’t beat a pretty floral summer dress combined with a chunky wooden bangle! So this weekend saw the launch of our first ever wood carved jewellery class, take a look at what we have been up to…

After much planning and preparation, choosing what types of wood to buy, getting out the mini hacksaws and making class samples we were all set to go, the students spent the day learning about how to design, create and make a finished piece of jewellery from a block of wood.

Amongst the pieces made was a gorgeous chunky wooden ring detailed with silver inserts (pictured below), which were made by putting thick silver wire into drilled holes in the wood and filing the ends down. Another Student made a lovely wooden pendant using a dark black wood with strips of silver for style (as pictured below).

Our tutor for this class is the lovely Rosie Sanders who specialises in, amongst other things, making professional wooden jewellery, often combined with silver to give a precious accent. The class was great fun and we can’t wait for our next one in June which is fast approaching.

There also couldn’t be a better time to branch out (excuse the pun) and try different materials for making jewellery, with the soaring price of silver and precious metals it is great to work in a medium where big is allowed and you don’t have to worry about making expensive mistakes.

Some students can be put of trying wood and similar techniques as there can be a lot of kit involved and we don’t all have a full equipped workshop at home to make in, however we were pleasantly surprised at how much you can achieve with a fairly low amount of initial investment. The wood itself is very cheap, you need a few hand tools such as a saw, files and a space to work on but a lot of the rest is optional. And of course you can always come a use our studios for the day with our rent-a-bench scheme for just £30 if you want to use the bigger tools when working in wood after the class.

If you like the look of some of the pieces students have made in our wood class and would like to give it a go, we are currently running them once a month from our studio in Central London, the next class date is Wednesday 22nd June, but places are limited as we have a maximum of 7 students per class so don’t leave it too late to book.

For full details and booking please follow the link below;

http://www.londonjewelleryschool.co.uk/wood-carved-jewellery/wood-carved-jewellery/

Happy Making,

LJS x