Novus Jewellery Training

  This blogpost contains SPOILERS, please watch the episode first. This is the BIG one!  The Final episode.  Soon we will know who will be Britain's next jewellery star. Will it be Tamara, or Hugo or Dan? But first, as always, the Bestseller challenge: The jewellers had to design and make a pair of Pearl drop earrings.  A very big classic.  But the jewellers were instructed to steer clear of traditional pearl drop designs. They were each given 12grams of their choice of 9ct gold colour, small stones, and also their choice of pearls. Dan opted for round and white pearls, Hugo decided on champagne coloured round pearls with smaller cognac coloured stones.  Tamara as always was different in her choice of baroque (irregular shape) pearls, with small blue sapphires as embellishment Hugo's angular sharp designs contrasted beautifully with the smooth, creamy pearl.  He paid extra attention to his smaller stone setwork, and the judges were impressed!  He ...

  Spoiler Alert! This post contains spoilers, please watch the episode first. And then there were 4.  Things are getting interesting for sure as we now enter the semi-finals of the competition. They kick off the bestseller challenge, with the theme of a Cuff bangle. Think Warrior, Wonder Woman, Gladiator!  Strong, fierce and tough as nails. The bangle must have a 1 and a quarter inch gap (which to the rest of us is around 3cm). It must contain stones, and all stones must be bezel set.  5 Hours to complete. Supplied:  1.5mm thick silver plate/sheet. Dan had a great combo of chalcedony and rutilated quartz - all of them angular. FYI corners are VERY challenging to set in a bezel setting. Hugo chose citrine, blue sapphire and labradorite to go with his water/river theme bracelet. Sonny chose moonstone cabochons and small white faceted stones to represent the night sky. Tamara selected a central watermelon tourmaline, surrounded by four pink sapphires. Why Sonny cho...

  This post contains spoilers - please watch the episode first This week signals the start of the quarter finals with only 5 jewellers remaining. It is starting to become more evident that the jewellers should not only have great fabrication ability, but also strong design skills. The Bestseller challenge this week is to design a pair of hoop earrings.   The jewellers were given 9ct gold to work with in plate, wire or granule form. Hoop earrings have been ancient symbols of status and power for millennia.  These hoops must match perfectly, they can be open or closed, and they must sit on the ear beautifully. They were given 5 hours to manufacture these.  9ct Yellow gold is a very tricky metal to work in.  If you overheat your your granules and burn away the zinc, you have a red looking yellow gold, but not quite redgold colour.  With only 37.5% pure gold content, it melts easily when soldering for no reason, and tends to get very hard and brittle when ...