JR Workshop

Where the magic happens

 

We’ve been around jewellery workshops all of our adult lives. There really is something a little bit magical about them. It’s the amazing, creative craftspeople that you meet and learn from, the new techniques and tools that you never stop discovering and the feeling you get from being involved in a creative process that’s been evolving since the very beginning of human history.

 

 

These days, in a modern goldsmithing workshop, you’ll find state of the art wax milling or printing machines coupled to sophisticated Computer Aided Design software. There’s often a powerful laser for precision engraving or welding and casting is normally handled by a computer controlled centrifuge, capable of forming incredibly intricate designs from molten precious metals. 

 

 

But, you'll also find ancient tools, made from leather and wood and iron.  You’ll find hide mallets, designed to form metal without leaving marks. A tree trunk with shapes carved into its surface to be used as formers for metal sheet or casting clay for use when something needs casting in a hurry. All tools and techniques  that have been used for millennia and give you a real connection to the goldsmiths and jewellery workshops of the past.

 

 

The workshop we call home today is a combination of the new and the old and after 25 years of making and learning we’ve settled into a pretty good groove. We design, we wax carve, we fabricate, we set stones, we create. We each have our skill sets but we are always excited to embrace new techniques whether from past or present.


Tools & Things

Jana is very precious about her goldsmithing tools. Although she has learned to share them over the years, everything still has to go back in its designated place immediately after use :)
“Most of my tools, I have had since the beginning of my apprenticeship some 25 years ago. My father has customised lots of his pliers, hammers and files and even made me bespoke burr stands like Nuff-Nuff pictured above. Our neighbour back in Germany, a retired watchmaker, gave me dozens of amazingly tiny little needle files and miniature wooden boxes. I treasure each and every one of them.”