How my workspace has changed over the years!

I purchased my jeweller's bench in January 2019. my husband assembled it for me, with the help of our youngest daughter, Cleo (then aged two). It was a basic student's bench from Durston Tools, and I still use it today. The bench lived in the corner of a spare bedroom that was also used as a study. I had very little space and had to constantly move things around to access them.

I did a local two-day class in basic silversmithing and silver metal clay to help me get started (and overcome my fear of soldering torches) and began building up my own tool collection. I couldn't afford a pendant motor, and used a Dremel rotary tool with a flexshaft attachment for the first year of my jewellery making journey.

In June 2019 I launched my own business and began selling my jewellery on Etsy. I had limited room to store anything and very little free time (only my eldest daughter was in school at that point) but I was determined to make it work.

My computer desk was in the same room, and I was surrounded by all sorts of clutter and random things that we still needed to sort through properly after our move back from the USA two years earlier. I kept all my packaging materials in storage boxes and wrapped my orders on the floor. This was far from ideal, but I made do!

A year later I was still in the same room, grabbing every spare moment I could to work at the bench and make jewellery. I was teaching myself new skills and learning new techniques as I went along, and investing all my profits back into the business to buy more tools and materials.

A month later we decided that I needed more space and I moved my bench, my desk and all my equipment downstairs and took over the dining room. There was a LOT of de-cluttering and some serious organisation to be done, but I was so excited to finally have a whole room of my own in which to work!

We bought a large garage tool trolley from Homebase for me to use as storage and a soldering station, and I re-purposed an old butcher’s block I’d had for 20 years into a heavy-duty bench for all the hammering etc. I did start out with a rubber mat to protect the carpet (we are renting so I couldn't remove it) but it smelled so awful it ended up in the garage and I bought a rubber-backed woven rug instead.

A week later, after a lot of hard work and long evenings I had at last gotten everything shipshape and I finally had the workshop of my dreams!

A basic gardening bench became a packing table, and I now had a dedicated area for each aspect of the business, which felt amazing after a year of constantly moving boxes around to find space!

A fortnight later I was celebrating reaching 2000 followers on Instagram, but by the end of March the Covid Pandemic had officially been declared and by the 23rd of the month the UK had entered its first full lockdown period.

I was now homeschooling two out of three children, and trying to entertain the youngest who had been at nursery and was due to start school in September.  Jewellery making became a means of escape as well as a business and I carried on learning and practicing as much as I could.

By now I had added a bench vice and a metal clay kiln to my studio. And things regularly started to look a little less organised as ‘creative chaos’ became my modus operandi!

2021 was to be another challenging time. The Covid restrictions were still lingering on, and my husband went away in the spring for an extended eight-month deployment with the Royal Navy. I was flying solo for most of the year, juggling parenthood and my fledgling business.

This was also the year I gained regular company in my workshop. My middle daughter, Lucy, began taking an active interest in making jewellery too, and in June we welcomed Merlin into our home.

In December my husband returned home from sea, and we started to find a new ‘normal’ again as life slowly returned back to its pre-pandemic status. All my girls were now settled into school and I had more time during the day to spend at the bench.

By 2023 my business was growing slowly but steadily. I was still selling my jewellery on Etsy and also through The British Craft House, and in spring 2022 I had set up a webstore on this website and started selling my work directly from here too.

Pretty much all the profit I have ever made during these last seven years has been directly invested back into my business in the form of tools and materials, and I am still doing this today.

At this point I made the decisions to invest properly in my own skills and training too, and in September 2024 I began the Diploma In Silver Jewellery with Jewellers Academy. This not only consolidated all my existing skills, it taught me a lot of new ones, and I will definitely be continuing my learning with more professional courses from now on!

Seven years after first putting that bench together I am still using it every day. I still have a great many dreams and ambitions for my business too, and can’t wait to see where things go into the rest of 2026 and beyond!