A is for… 2025!
How lovely that the clocks have changed and the evenings are lighter. It gives me a new burst of energy and enthusiasm and I hope it does for you too?
So, what have I been up to?
I’ve just come back from a trip to London where I combined a museum visit and a training course with collecting a batch of hallmarking. Normally, I have my packages posted back but I thought I’d combine the trip to the Assay Office and collect them in person.
If you are signed up to my newsletter, you may remember me explaining what the different marks that make up a UK hallmark mean and that the final mark in the set denotes the year that the item was made.
Last year said goodbye to a lower case z so this year, on 1 January, all four UK Assay Offices began using a new typographic alphabet in capitals with the date letter for 2025 being an 'A'.
Each new alphabet set also features a different typeface and shield shape to ensure that each letter can only indicate one specific year.
While I was waiting in the queue, I spotted this display in the foyer…
Once a teacher, always a teacher.
Sorry, I just couldn’t help reverting back to Primary School Teacher mode to show you!
If you want to have a look at your own jewellery to find out when it was made, have a close look at the hallmark. You can find images of all the different letters online or send me a picture and I can help you find out.
The Vault, The Natural History Museum
Naturally, I love gemstones and so a visit to the newly refurbished Vault at the Natural History Museum was a must see. It houses a stunning array of rocks, minerals and gems including; the largest collection of coloured diamonds, meteorites from the moon, actual stardust, rare and mysterious gemstones of all shapes, sizes and colours and plenty of glistening gold.
The Devonshire Emerald.
Proving that big is beautiful, it is one of the biggest and most richly coloured emeralds ever found.
Emerald is my birthstone and I would quite happily have brought it home!
The La Trobe Nugget.
At 717 grams, this is one of the best-formed specimens of crystallised gold in the word.
Found in Australia in 1853, it is completely natural and, as it was found.
The definition and size of the crystals were mesmerising.
The Vault and Minerals Gallery are well worth a visit and the museum also has plenty of samples from mines here in the South West which were also fascinating to see.
Discovering Argentium Silver at The Forge Space
I’m passionate about continuing to learn about metals, gems and techniques and so my main reason for my trip to London was to attend a course at The Forge Space in Hatton Garden. It was a brilliant course all about a relatively new silver alloy known as Argentium Silver. Led by the fabulous jeweller Machi de Waard, I have come back fully inspired and ready to explore it further.
Argentium Silver is low tarnish and and hypoallergenic with a higher percentage of silver in it than sterling. I’d actually love to share more about it with you so will write my next post all about Argentium. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak of the sample pieces that I made on the day.
I hope that you have enjoyed hearing from me again after what has been a long break. Let me know if there is anything in particular that you’d like me to feature in these pages and I’ll do my best to include them.
The news pages here will always keep you in the loop with current activities, including events, new jewellery designs and inspiration so do pop back for another look but, if you’d like to be the first to hear, you can always subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page so you don’t miss out at all!