Blog: A Jewel of a session

The Arts For Life programme has been expanding and this term we have started ‘Arts mentoring’. The mentoring sessions allow for a very youth-centered approach which means the focus of the sessions can be tailored to the interests of the mentee. My Tuesday morning sessions this term have focused on jewellery making and design. During the sessions we have been researching jewellery designs, analysing pieces, sketching designs and making clay mock-ups all in preparation for a session using precious metal clay at Artemis jewellery workshop on Gloucester Road.

With all the research and preparation under our belts I was all geared up for an exciting final session. All ready and with 20 minutes to spare before the bus arrived I decided to check my work emails. This was when it happened… I saw it… it was sat in my inbox titled '2 hour Jewellery Making Session’. I opened it and to my horror it started with the dreaded line….”Hi Georgina, I’m really sorry but I have some bad news.” The session was off due to unforeseen circumstances. There was no precious metal clay and nobody trained to deliver the session instead.  All that hard work had gone to waste. 

Something had to be done to salvage the situation. I rang the store and spoke to a few people and explained my predicament. "I’m afraid it’s a really busy time for us coming up to Christmas, I’ll get someone to call you back." With five minutes to go it was looking desperate when I got a call from Catherine Amesbury of Artemis who said; “We don’t want him to be disappointed, bring him down and we can work on some silverwork and beading.” Relief! Off we went not entirely sure what to expect but optimistic all the same. But what we got when we arrived was a wonderfully warm reception, a tour of the jewellery on sale and a one-to-one workshop in beading and silver wire threading with a wide choice of beads and semi-precious stones to use. We were tutored in the skilled techniques used in-store and the final product was a beautiful necklace with Amazonite beads, hung on a black suede cord.

The focus, concentration and skill demonstrated in the session was second-to-none and the final product was testimony to the enthusiasm of the workshop. It was great to see such enjoyment and to see my mentee so absorbed in the activity.