QEST Scholars at Holland & Holland

Some time ago I was approached by Holland & Holland, well known as 'The Royal Gunmakers' in Mayfair. I was delighted to be asked to showcase a selection of my jewellery over the festive period, alongside four other craftspeople from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust in their store; this included a leather worker, a knitter, contemporary basket weaver, an illustrator and me! 

Each scholar brought a selection of work appropriate to the store and I decided to make a few new special pieces for the event including this flying pheasant bangle in hand pierced silver with speckled brandy coloured snakeskin and backed in bright scarlet snakeskin.

The Christmas party was held on the evening of the 8th November in the newly expanded Mayfair store. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet future customers and explain some of the processes and inspirations behind my work!

More countryside inspired pieces can be seen on my website zoeharding.com

Pheasant Feather Bangle...the journey

I am a bit of a pattern junkie, I think if I weren't in jewellery design I could happily explore a career in surface decoration and wallpaper design...whether I would have been any good at it, well um..? Happily, the fretwork in my trademark bangles and other design experiments allows me to combine my aesthetic passions.

As mentioned in my previous post, I'm beginning to make a conscious effort to photo record steps in the making process of various projects so I can share with you some snippets of what goes in to making the finished piece (minus the trade secrets of course - sorry!)

This is a pretty new piece entitled "Pheasant Feather Bangle', and yes they are real pheasant feathers in the middle layer backed on to a vibrant deep magenta snakeskin with incredible natural patterns.

Each feather is individually prepared, steamed and glued into the desired pattern or arrangement. Adhering the feathers securely yet getting none of the sticky stuff on the outer surface is something I can only do when I have a steady arm and decent daylight. It also takes several days as each layer of feathers needs some time to dry before you continue with the next ones. I love choosing which feathers to use next, as you might be able to spot in the finished photo below, some feather tips have the purple or green iridescence. Beautiful!

Meanwhile I will be in the workshop hand piercing the design into a solid sheet of sterling silver. I like to use a special alloy of slow tarnish sterling silver for these, to reduce the frequency of polishing the surface and the potential of damaging the middle layer...However, these bangles are designed to come apart if necessary, so it's never a problem to repair or replace the inner should the worst happen. Lots of polishing and finishing touches later, and voila, here's the finished piece:

This piece is now sold. If you are interested in commissioning a Pheasant Feather Bangle or something similar please do get in touch: info@zoeharding.com / +44(0)7929 521646

Making a 'simple' claw setting

For the very first time I thought I'd share with you a few behind the scenes pictures of works in progress.

For me, an insight into the making of a piece somehow makes it more real, it makes it easier to comprehend why bespoke jewellery costs so much more than a £9.99 silver pendant in the high street. It's not simply about the weight of the raw materials, it's hand-made, here in England and every single aspect has been controlled by the maker with care and attention.

Of course the first step in any commission is to define a design. Sometimes clients have specific ideas, sometimes it can be very loose. In this instance my customer was techno savvy and utilised the virtual pinboard 'pinterest.com' to plan and gather ideas for her wedding...including a board containing jewellery she loved. It's such a clever idea and I found it so useful in establishing her likes and dislikes and being able to offer a variation of designs that would be in line with her taste and within budget.

The above image shows some of the steps I took in making a traditional bridal pendant and earring commission. 

We're all used to seeing jewellery set in fancy claw settings, and whilst it's true that much of the jewellery we see on the high street are just adapted castings or begin their lives built virtually on a CAD (Computer Aided Design) programme, it's also true that in bespoke pieces the item will often be made as a one-off, utilising non standard size gemstones and for many reasons might be made from first principles using sheet and wire.

Such a simple thing suddenly looks a lot more complicated!

After multiple solder joins building up the number of prongs etc the silver looks very oxidised and dull. Jewellery making is a slow process, when the time comes for the final polish the piece suddenly comes to life, for me this must be one of the most rewarding aspects of making a piece from scratch!

And here it is, complete with freshwater pearls and blue topaz gemstones.

If you're interested in commissioning a piece of jewellery from Zoe please contact her on info@zoeharding.com or 07929 521646.