A jewellery-making journey – London, Florence, Kilkenny
Back when I lived in London, I did a few short courses at Morley College, an amazing adult education institution which offers a range of part-time courses in everything from flamenco dancing to anatomy. What started as a way to creatively fill my days off work, ended up resetting my trajectory and kick-started my jewellery adventure.
Anyone who has played with the wax dripping from a candle burning atop a wine bottle will know how incredibly satisfying it can be. I've completely lost track of conversations in pubs and cafés where candle wax is available for the peeling, melting and construction of miniature skyscrapers. The distraction has proved so difficult to resist that, on one occasion, the person I was with snatched the wax encrusted bottle away and plonked it on a neighbouring table.
I got a truly amazing surprise in the post all the way from Ireland this week! My friend Clare Barman said she had a few gemstones that she wanted to give to me, as I might have some use for them. She bought them in India over twenty years ago
We've been in our new country for two weeks now, and it feels like all of our new experiences are already beginning to blend into an indistinguishable blur of exciting, busy days. Thursday was such a full day that it felt like a week, so I will just try to record most of it in this post for now. I am studying jewellery making at the Metallo Nobile school in Florence and learning through Italian. It is is a bit of a challenge, but easier than I anticipated and really enjoyable.
The Incremental Jeweller 