Explore our Wedding Rings Workshop

Explore our Wedding Rings Workshop

Explore our Wedding Rings Workshop

As tradition goes, we know that engagement rings tend to steal the show when it comes to wedding bling. There’s the sparkle of the ring itself, closely followed by the romantic tale of the proposal. 

However, today we’re here to propose a toast in honour of the wedding ring itself – an often overlooked but equally important part of the big day and a lifelong physical representation of your union. 

Why not double up on the romance by crafting your own wedding rings with your partner?

Our 4 hour Wedding Rings workshop allows you to create something truly unique with the guidance of our expert tutors on hand to support you throughout the creation of your bespoke wedding rings – even if you have zero jewellery making experience. 

Within this post we’re covering some of our most frequently asked questions about the wedding rings workshop. If we haven’t answer your question here, please feel free to get in touch with us here. You can find all the details about the workshop itself here too. 

WHEN ARE THE WORKSHOPS RUNNING? 

We’re very excited that all of our in-person workshops – including the Wedding Rings workshop will be running again from 2nd June, following government guidelines. We are currently working through rescheduling for those who missed previously booked workshops so if this is you, we’ll be in touch ASAP. If you’re a new customer who would like to book a workshop from June onwards, you can do so here.

COVID-19 Safety Measures

We ask that all of our students and teachers wear face coverings to keep each other as safe as we can. There is also plenty of hand sanitiser on site to use during workshops as well as screens to separate work stations. Maximum of 6 in a class to allow for social distancing. 

DOES ONE BOOKING COVER A COUPLE?

Yes, one participant booking covers a couple to attend the workshop together.

WHAT ARE METAL OPTIONS AND COST?

Sterling silver – this is included in the cost of the workshop. Other metal options include; 9K Yellow Gold, 18K Yellow Gold, 9K White Gold, 18K White Gold, 9K Rose Gold, 18K Rose Gold – full pricing options are available for these metals on the ‘Wedding Rings Workshop’ page of our website (linked in bio)

Thanks,

The Silver Works Team (1)

 

Top Tips For Using The Ring Carving Kit

Top Tips For Using The Ring Carving Kit

Here at Silver Works, as ‘The Experience Creators’, we’ve put together our first-ever virtual experience and packaged it up so that you can enjoy creating your own ring from the comfort of your own home. The Ring Carving Kit is designed by our top jewellers and goldsmiths to supply you with all of the tools and knowledge necessary to create your own ring. 

The Ring Carving Kit is designed to be a fun, creative experience, a chance to explore a new skill, embrace creativity or even introduce a new career pathway to carry on outside of just the kit. The best part is you need zero experience in jewellery making or wax carving to enjoy it.

Once you have your kit and start your tutorial, our incredible Tutor will teach you, using different techniques, how to carve and file your design into the piece of wax. The wax is smoother and much nicer to work with rather than silver, the buttery material of the wax allows you to create textures and designs that you can’t create with metal. The wax is more sculptural and organic and this is why this technique is often used within the industry.

Have a look at a before and after example from one of our customers

Silverworks - Irish Jewellery Classes - Ring carving Kit 1      Silverworks - Irish Jewellery Classes - Ring carving Kit 3

 

Here are our top tips for using your Ring Carving Kit:

Take your time

Wax is a really easy medium to shape and design on but in the same regard, it’s very easy to get carried away and take too much off. Take your time and make every mark on that wax an intentional wax. It will be worth it in the end.

Take breaks

The blue wax can be difficult to look at for long periods of time and intense focus is tiring. Set yourself a time limit of 30-45 minutes of work time with a 15 minute break. Go outside, let your eyes focus on something else for a bit and then come back to it. It really helps!

Aim to file in one direction

When filing, its very tempting to move the file back and forth to just remove all that wax quickly. But in doing this, we tend to rock out files. On the wax this translates as a curved surface of a surface full of unintentional facets. To keep a surface flat, always aim to file in one direction. So place your file on the wax, file forwards, lift and reset before repeating. You will get a more consistent action and you’ll be able to see exactly what you’ve done with each stroke. Control is key!

Keep your index finger on the top of the file

For extra control with a file, always keep your index finger on the top of the file as you use it. It will keep it balanced and make for a nice clean filing action.

Thanks,

The Silver Works Team (1)

 

The Benefits of Cultivating New Creative Skills

The Benefits of Cultivating New Creative Skills

The Benefits of Cultivating New Creative Skills 

 

By definition, creativity is the use of imagination or original ideas to bring something new to life. When we were kids we were always encouraged to be creative whether it was through make believe games, finger painting or playing with toys like PlayDoh. For kids, creativity is a chance to try new ideas, explore new ways of thinking and helps us to discover and celebrate our uniqueness and diversity when we’re young. It encourages children to express themselves openly without judgment. 

As we get older, we often find ourselves censoring our creativity as we start to conform to social expectations, often as a means of survival and fitting in with those around us. We avoid expressing ourselves freely in order to avoid judgement from others, making decisions based on what we think those around us will approve of and as a result, end up minimising and quashing a lot of our creativity. 

However, over the last year, many of us have turned to creativity as a means of distraction or coping with lockdown and Covid-19 life. It’s been a means of escapism and opportunity to embrace something new in our lives and with more time at home on our hands, we’ve taken the time to develop or return to creative passions we’d long forgotten about. 

If you find yourself feeling stuck or in a rut, embracing creativity within your life can be a positive, small step in the right direction. It’s a chance to shake things up a little by challenging yourself to a new skill and as it turns out, there are many positive benefits to embracing creativity.

 

Freedom

There’s no manual to being creative and there’s no right or wrong way to be creative. It’s a very personal experience that differs for every person. Being creative is an opportunity for us to engage with the world without judging ourselves. Through creativity, we’re able to return to that feeling of freedom that we experienced in childhood, free from pressures to be an expert. It’s this liberating permission slip to take risks, to try new things and to strip away inhibitions.

 

Stress Relief

There’s an incredibly meditative element associated with creativity, that sense of being totally ‘in the zone’, where you’re concentrating so much on the task at hand that everything around you ceases to exist or at least minimises its importance and impact on you. Creativity is about fun and doing things that bring you joy, often for no other reason than that – you enjoy yourself when doing them. Furthermore, doing things that bring us joy in life reduces our stress levels overall and improves our quality of life.

 

Self-awareness and expression

Following on from the meditative element of creativity, through regular creativity we begin to unlock a different kind of access to our self-awareness. We begin to access our true thoughts, feelings and beliefs and take time to develop our own ideas. We learn a lot about ourselves and with that learning, we’re able to express ourselves better and more fully in all aspects of life. Plus, there’s nothing like taking on new challenges – such as a creative skill – and smashing them to make you feel like a real hero. So what do you know, your self-esteem will thank you too for embracing creativity. When we make creativity a habit, we continue to learn new, resourceful ways of solving problems through these creative skills.

Invitation to explore

If you’re on the hunt for a new creative skill yourself, we’d love to invite you along to one of our virtual classes. This week (Thursday 15th April, 6pm) we’re running a Virtual Wax Carving Class where, via Zoom, you can make your own pendant from the comfort of your own home.  We’ll send you a package with everything you need ahead of the virtual class and you’ll receive the Zoom link upon purchase of your ticket.

Then, once your package has arrived safely with you, through the virtual class our tutor will teach you all the techniques to carve your pendant design into a piece of wax. The wax is much smoother and nicer to work with the buttery texture allowing you to create textures and designs that you can’t do with metal. Once you’ve finished with your wax carving, you can decide if you’d like your creation to be cast (additional prices listed on the event listing)

 

Secure your place on our virtual class here

Thanks,

The Silver Works Team (1)