Much news! classes! masterclasses! new jewellery! events!

Greetings! 

I have a lot of news! So this is a long one about new masterclasses, new termly class schedules, new jewellery, a new award and a talk by me at Modern Art Oxford! 

Award from Goldsmiths' Craft & Design Council

I am delighted that I have won an award for my work from the Goldsmiths' Craft and Design Council. At the moment, that's all I know because the details are under wraps until 3 March! The award is for a silver box I made at the end of last year. All will be revealed after 3 March. More details to follow!

The Art of Jewellery Making

20 March 2025

6:00 pm

-

7:00 pm

Free, no booking necessary

I'm going to be talking about my career as a jeweller and my jewellery along with a bit of demonstrating at Modern Art Oxford. I would love it if you could come!

My jewellery has been available in the newly refurbished Modern Art Oxford in central Oxford since autumn last year.

Find the gallery’s main entrance at 30 Pembroke Street, Oxford, OX1 1BP.

modernartoxford.org.uk

Learn how to expand your skills using Argentium silver!

Are you curious about Argentium silver and how it could benefit your practice? Whether you're new to Argentium or have experience working with it, this workshop is the perfect opportunity to explore its unique properties and versatility.

* a few spaces left *

FORGE

59 Leather Ln, London EC1N 7TJ

Date: Friday 28 March, 2025

Start Time: 10:00am

End Time: 4:30pm

Venue: FORGE

Learn how to make silver jewellery in Reading!

My termly classes in Reading are now possible to join for 5 weeks as well as 10 weeks. You can now join the class starting the week of 3 March on Monday or Tuesday evenings (Wednesday class is full). The 5 week term is £87.50

Prefer to join for a whole 10 week term? The next term of my Maiden Erlegh jewellery evening classes are starting the week of 28 April. If you would like to learn how to make jewellery, you can book now. To book, email me. There is more information on my website HERE. 

18:45 – 21:15 Monday evenings – all abilities welcome

18:45 – 21:15 Tuesday evenings – all abilities welcome

18:45 – 21:15 Wednesday evenings – intermediate/advanced welcome

Bishopsland Summer School

Bishopsland are offering an exciting new Summer School programme, where I am delighted to be teaching! Fancy learning different ways to set square stones? Learn two ways of setting square stones in a wonderful location with individualised help over three days. 

Booking is now open! 

Find out all the details here on the Bishopsland website: 

https://bishopsland.org.uk/events/577-512-996-277-363-744/

This is my new slim radius bangle - available in gold plate (above), silver and oxidised silver. These bangles are now at the New Ashgate Gallery. They will also be available in May and June at Henley Arts Trail, Oxfordshire ArtWeeks and Whiteknights Studio Trail. 

Overdue update: exhibits next year and book news

 It's been a while since I updated, mostly due to finishing up at the Royal College of Art and graduating in September. It's been an eventful few months! The highlights are: 

Book News: 

You can listen to me chat about my and Janet's book "Silver Jewellery Making" with host Sharon on the Jewelry Journey podcast: find me here in two part episode number 207: https://thejewelryjourney.com/podcasts/ 

Our book is included in the Cooksongold Christmas catalogue: https://www.cooksongold.com/Books/Silver-Jewellery-Making-By-Machi-De-Waard-And-Janet-Richardson-prcode-999-A204 

And Kernowcraft now also stock it: https://www.kernowcraft.com/products/just-arrived/silver-jewellery-making-a-complete-step-by-step-course-for-beginners-machi-de-waard-janet-richardson

Jewellery News:

My work is available at the lovely New Ashgate Gallery, always worth a visit if you're into high quality craft! https://www.newashgate.org.uk/shop_artists/7702/c/101/machi-de-waard/jewellery 

I'm also delighted to have my work at Platform Gallery, Clitheroe: Winter Showcase of British Craft October 2023 – January 2024 

I will be participating in Henley Arts Trail 4-6 May 2024 - details to be confirmed, but I will be at a vineyard near Hembleden. 

I will also be taking part in Oxfordshire Artweeks at Peach Croft Farm near Abingdon - well worth a visit to see amazing work in a beautiful barn. And there's a lovely farm shop & cafe right next door! Plus plenty of parking. 18-26 May 2024

Teaching News: 

My regular evening classes at Maiden Erlegh in Reading are in full swing again. The next term starts January 29th. Please contact me if you have questions. 

I'm doing private lessons again as well, here are some examples of recent work by private lesson students: 

solid silver armband

silver oval hoop earrings

And lastly, rather randomly, I was on the radio talking to Andrew Peach on BBC Berkshire due to my connection with Reading PA and Reading UK, as I've lived the bulk of my life in one or the other! I'm on at around 7:25am - it was an early morning!- which you can find here (scroll to about 1 hour 25 minutes in): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ghx2qh

Various jewellery related goings on: book and locket

It's been a while since I posted, mostly somehow lost in a lockdown fug where every day sort of passes in similar fashion. But this very, very long month of March is drawing to a close. The sun is shining, the daylight is longer and the spring flowers are out in full force. Hurrah! Let's hope we have a lovely summer, getting closer to being safer with every vaccination! 

In book news, my and Janet's book Silver Jewellery Making is out there in the world. Janet went on Jewellery Maker TV and for a brief moment (about half a day), our book had the coveted "Best Seller" banner on Amazon in our category of metal work! That was quite exciting! Also very thrilling for us is that we are now on TWO recommended book lists. The first is on Metalsmith Society's page, here: https://metalsmithsociety.com/pages/book-recommendations. The second is on Nottingham Jewellery School's blog, which is here:  https://www.nottinghamjewelleryschool.co.uk/post/reading-recommendations

On that second list, check out the Jewellers Creative Journal if you fancy some help with your creative process. I haven't seen it yet, but a friend recommended it and said it's great if you're just starting building up your own designs.

Both of those are well worth following on Instagram, by the way, if you're on there, at @metalsmithsociety and @nottinghamjewelleryschool

Otherwise, I have been busy making lots of new jewellery pieces. At the moment, I am on my quest to make modern lockets. This is one of those lockets. It's my "mini orb" locket, made from sterling silver and 13mm in diameter. I am enjoying getting a better grip on hinges, learning what to look out for and what works well. I figured out that several times, I thought the hinge knuckles were sitting nicely in their little groove, but it turned out that they were ever so slightly *above* the bottom of the groove, which meant that later down the line, the fit was not as good as I wanted. So I've learned to get the loupe out and check under the hinge knuckles from the side to make sure they are sitting down properly in the groove. The tube I'm using is 1.2mm outside diameter, so loupe required! Anyway, here are photos of my mini orb locket: 

Publication day of Silver Jewellery Making: a step-by-step course

 

 

The day is finally here, our book is published!!!! Hard to believe it, but it's finally here. Janet and I are doing an  Instagram takeover for the publisher, @searchpress if you want to follow us there. Apparently there are some delivery issues at Amazon UK, but there are plenty of other places to get the book:

• WH Smith
  
• Waterstones
• Blackwells
• Search Press
• Guardian Bookstore
• Amazon USA
• Penguin Random House
• Bol.com in the Netherlands
• Amazon Germany 

This is me at my bench and the photo below is Janet at her bench :-) 

Happy New Year!!

Silver Jewellery Making: a complete step-by-step course is NEARLY here. It's published 1 February and is available, amongst others, at the following places: 

• Search Press (publisher’s website)
• Waterstones
• Amazon UK
  
• Penguin Random House (USA)
• Amazon USA   

Janet and I were SUPER excited to get our own copies of our book right before Christmas! It was quite a moment to see it really, truly in print! 

I wish I could tell you about exciting launch events we're doing, but sadly that will have to wait until the situation improves. For now, it's all online! Janet and I will be in the Henley Standard very soon , talking a bit about how the book came about and the content. We're also over on the More Arts website! Various other things are in the pipeline, so I'll update when things happen. 

I hope the new year will bring many positive things for everyone. The vaccination has started, which is great. I am really missing seeing people, so I'm looking forward to the day I can make lots of plans with everyone! For now, the only outing is the post office or the supermarket, so I am glad I have my studio to retreat to as a creative outlet. I've made many new pieces of jewellery, which I am looking forward to showing, but I need to take the photos first! 

While we're all stuck at home, for any fellow jewellers and jewellery students out there, I can highly recommend Metalsmith Society on instagram (@metalsmithsociety) and also the website. Another great resource with very useful and relevant podcasts is Jewellers Academy.

Update on Silver Jewellery Making book and other things

 I'm delighted to be part of the Craft Council Directory - a fabulous list of many of the amazing makers in the UK across many disciplines. The link is: https://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/directory/machi-de-waard-jewellery

In book news, Silver Jewellery Making is nearing completion. By completion, I mean nearing the end of many, many stages of editing. We're down to the nitty gritty now!!! The marketing team have made this lovely leaflet:

 

 

I'm working on some new pieces - namely five pendants - which I will hopefully have photos of soon. 

Silver Jewellery Making book

Janet and I have been hard at work trying to make our book, Silver Jewellery Making, the best it can possibly be. Yesterday we had the last photo shoot at our publisher, Search Press. We added extra images to clarify some techniques and took many photos of tools to show them more clearly. We also added more images to properly illustrate our "how to design" chapter. The photographer, Mark, did an amazing job. Between him and the design direction from Search Press, the tools were turned into works of art! Below are a selection of photos from the day. The cupcake snuck in there because one of the team at Search Press had a special birthday and we luckily got to join in with the cake! The book is coming together well and I really hope that by the time it's published in February 2021, we will be able to throw a big party and invite loads of people!

cupcake

Files made to look beautiful!

the propane torch gets its time in the limelight (although all the projects in the book are done with a handheld torch, we wanted to show different torch options).

tools and the big lights for the photos

silver being photographed

Happy New Year!

It's the new year! Happy 2020 everyone! I have many plans for this year, not least the exciting work on the jewellery book. The publication date has been moved back slightly to July of this year, but all is going at a pace in the background. The photos are looking amazing, the text and photos are being put together, and Janet and I have starting editing and we're looking at EVERY DETAIL. There was much excitement when we discovered the book is already on Amazon!!!! No pressure then!!! ha!

Here's the link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silver-Jewellery-Making-step-step/dp/1782217355/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=make+jewellery&qid=1575366994&sr=8-1
and we've even set up author pages so if you click on our names you get way more info on us then you're ever likely to need.

Here is a sneak peek of one of the photos. The designer and photographer put together this photo of the polishing tools and it looks like a painting! I've never seen polishing tools look so pretty!

In other news, in November I brought a selection of jewellery to the always lovely New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham. Not only do they have an excellent jewellery display, there are always interesting other crafts to see there, such as fabulous ceramics! You can see my work on the New Ashgate website here: https://www.newashgate.org.uk/shop_artists/7702/c/101/machi-de-waard/jewellery

Also in November, I taught a very fun and succesful class at Henley School of Art. Everyone made fabulous silver rings and the atmosphere was great.

In my other classes in Reading and in Chesham, students continue to make beautiful and unique pieces. (for information on upcoming classes, see http://www.machidewaard.co.uk/classes/)

Twisted wire bangle with thin round wire and thicker square wire - tricky soldering the join! -by John

Lovely textured rivet swivel locket with a great weight to it - by Hilary

Interesting stone with very flat sides, so set from the back - this is the front with very crisp edges to best show off the stone - by Lucy

Double ring with loose 9ct yellow gold brackets soldered around them - but loose so you can fiddle with the rings - by Natalie

Set of rose gold spiral earrings with crystals on a wire wrap loop - by Jo (fabulous Christmas presents)

Silver Jewellery Making: the book!

I am writing a book about how to make silver jewellery through 7 projects with my good friend and fellow jeweller, Janet Richardson. We have been working on it for over a year now and this summer we did a series of photoshoots at our publisher, Search Press. It's been a really interesting process and we still have quite a way to go before any actual book appears!!! Our publication date is 2 April 2020!

Here are some photos of what we've been up to:

Our brilliant photographer, Mark, taking photos of sawblades

Janet and me hard at work. I had to wear a white coat to avoid reflecting shadows on to the photos

One of our sample pieces for the book

Preparing and labelling samples to bring to the photoshoots

Juan, the creative director, making a group of tools look beautiful!

In front of the Search Press building

Preparing a photo of a sample work bench