My Jewellery Business Funded my Place on The Diploma - Meet the Graduates - LIVE session (podcast episode)
If you’re on the fence about signing up for a jewellery diploma in 2023, this episode is for you! We share a live recording from a Q&A session with Jess and three of our jewellery diploma graduates. The jewellers answer questions about the diploma projects, the experience of doing the programme while working a full-time job, and much more. They also explain how the diplomas have helped them grow their skills and achieve their business goals.
Listen now:
154: My jewellery business funded my place on the diploma - meet the graduates
With Alice, Kate and Iain
If you’re on the fence about signing up for a jewellery diploma in 2023, this episode is for you! We share a live recording from a Q&A session with Jess and three of our jewellery diploma graduates. The jewellers answer questions about the diploma projects, the experience of doing the programme while working a full-time job, and much more. They also explain how the diplomas have helped them grow their skills and achieve their business goals.
Episode Description:
This week we’re sharing a live recording with 3 of our diploma graduates (1:23)
Meet Alice from the silver jewellery diploma (4:46)
Meet Ian from the fine and advanced jewellery diplomas (9:24)
Meet Kate from the fine and advanced jewellery diplomas (14:19)
Can you do a diploma with a full-time job? (17:03)
How does the online class format compare to in person? (21:16)
How long does it take to finish fine diploma projects? (24:54)
What project did you find most challenging in the fine diploma? (30:35)
How did the silver jewellery diploma help you reach your goals? (33:54)
What would you say to someone who’s considering signing up? (37:36)
How has the fine jewellery diploma changed your trajectory? (39:51)
Can you talk about the community aspect of the diplomas? (48:28)
Do you need a dedicated jewellery making space? (50:29)
Resources:
Learn more about Jewellers Academy
Watch this episode on YouTube
Join the Jewellers Academy Facebook Group
Order your copy of “Start and Grow a Profitable Jewellery Business”
Sign up for one of our diplomas
Find Jewellers Academy on Instagram and Facebook
MEET THE GRADUATES
ALICE CANT
Diploma in Silver Jewellery
Alice started jewellery-making in the winter of 2020/21. She joined the Diploma in Silver Jewellery in 2021 and completed it in 2022. She has her own jewellery business Alice Catherine Jewellery. She lives on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides and has opened her own jewellery shop. She specialises in making jewellery with sea glass she finds locally.
https://alicecatherinejewellery.co.uk/
What Alice said ..
I hadn't done any jewellery making before. So I decided to get a beginners jewellery-making kit and I discovered Jewellers Academy and started with some of the beginner’s courses and very quickly decided that I was really enjoying this. I found out about the Diploma program so I just went for it. I finished the Diploma in summer last year.
How did you manage your time on the Diploma?
When I started the Diploma I was working full time and to begin with, I wasn't good at structuring it very well. but after the first term I learnt to do two nights a week so that was more manageable chunks and if there was any extra I would catch up on Sunday. I did a Tuesday and Thursday after work and was motivated to get everything done so I could have the weekend free.
What are you doing now?
I gave up my full-time job. After being furloughed for so long I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I had. We moved to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides and it's freezing and windy and it was a big lifestyle change. I'd had my jewellery business the whole way through the Diploma. As soon as I decided to do the Diploma I started making simple sea glass jewellery and sold that to fund the Diploma fees. So the whole way through I was growing my little business to a level that it was doing OK and then I started to really hate the attic where I was making my jewellery (!) and now I have a little studio in Stornaway that is more than I ever would have imagined I'd be able to have.
What would you say to someone thinking of signing up to do the Diploma in Silver Jewellery?
Go for it! If you genuinely want to do it, and you know yourself if you want to do it, go for it! From joining up, my love of jewellery just grew. When I did it it was a bit out there, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. Having to fund it by selling jewellery gave me more motivation to do it and it totally changed everything. I wasn't a very creative person before. I was always told in school that I wasn't good at art or music or anything creative. It's been really nice to find that thing that I can do.
The skills that you learn on the Diploma in Silver Jewellery are more than enough to run a jewellery business
KATE SEOW
Diploma in Fine Jewellery and Advanced Jewellery Diploma
Kate studied Chemistry at university and became a teacher. She is a mother and came to jewellery making when her son was at nursery and quickly became hooked. She used her jewellery-making as a kind of therapy after the death of her mother. Kate joined Jewellers Academy membership and went as far as she could on her own with the help of online classes but wanted to be able to make high-end jewellery. When the Diploma in Fine Jewellery went online in 2021 she signed up straight away.
Kate has her own jewellery business and specialises in commissions for engagement and wedding rings.
https://www.proseccoandrubies.co.uk/
What Kate said …
I started making jewellery when I was tiny, I was beading. I left it as a teenager and came back to it shortly after I had my little boy. On an evening I'd be doing some wire wrapping. And it was just something I could do myself that made me feel a bit more like me still, not just somebody's Mum. Nothing wrong with that but you still need to be you!
And then, about a year and a half after I had my son, I had a personal tragedy of losing my Mum and that really shook me to start with. And then my making became part of my therapy. Being able to make, being able to create something really really helped. I just gave myself one afternoon a week where I could just sit and make at my kitchen table. That was before I had my jewellery business.
I was already starting to think about turning my jewellery-making into a business. This was about the time that Jewellers Academy started a membership and it was almost like it was meant to be. So I joined membership and was following that. I'd been doing some of the silver courses, I'd been learning things online and I got to the stage where I thought, this is as far as I feel I can go on my own. I really wanted to learn more. I had dreams of making gorgeous fine jewellery and engagement rings and stuff encrusted in gems and I knew that I had to do something to just push myself a bit further
And then the Fine Jewellery Diploma came along and it was like right, yes, that's pretty much got everything I want to do. Where do I sign up?
What would you say is the difference between a face-to-face class and doing the Diploma with Jewellers Academy?
Whilst attending a jewellery class, it was a lovely class and you can get to see but in comparison when you've got the video and you've got it so close up and when there's something that you need to just go back over you can rewind it, you can watch it as many times as you like. I don't think there's anything, even with a brilliantly run class, I don't think there's anything that can replace that.
In some ways, it's quite nice because you can start something and then have a bit of a think about it and then come back to it. Maybe you can work it out yourself. Whereas if you're attending a class it's there and then. Sometimes you learn better by working things out for yourself. And if you can't, there are so many people there to ask. You're not just asking one person, you're asking the whole group. And you still have the tutors at the fortnightly Zoom. I don't think you lose anything in terms of support from doing the Diploma online.
What would you say to someone thinking of signing up to do one of the Diploma courses?
I think you know if you want to do it, deep down you will know this is the right thing. Yes, it's going to be scary but if you can look at it and see there might be a couple of projects at the start and you think, actually, I reckon I'll be alright with that. Go for it. You get into it really quickly and it will be a really big boost for your confidence when you get those first couple of pieces done and the guidance is so clear you can do it. So don't let 'oh this is going to be too difficult' hold you back because it's not. You'll know if it's the right thing so just go for it.
IAIN SAINSBURY
Diploma in Fine Jewellery and Advanced Jewellery Diploma
Iain spent most of his career in various roles in the healthcare industry. His making journey initially began by reimagining and restoring vintage straight razors before moving into making jewellery with upcycled copper and wood. He enrolled on the Diploma in Fine Jewellery and is currently completing the Advanced Jewellery Diploma. He mainly works on bespoke pieces of commissions and is passionate about creating handmade items that are made to last.
What Iain said …
Whilst I've only been doing it (jewellery making) for a short period of time, I found out quite quickly that I absolutely love doing it. I really enjoy making things so decided to really invest in it. It's something you can start off relatively small, relatively low cost and it can expand as much as you want to.
How do you manage your time on the Diploma?
You find time to do it. The thing I found most useful is the fact that there is this catch-up period at the end of each term so if you do get anything wrong or you don't have enough time to do something you can catch up at that point. And I think that really does help, the structure is really nice. And also, the ways the videos are structured, means that you can dip in and out.
I didn't do very much artistic stuff at school. I went into science and for 20 years I worked in the pharmaceutical industry. When I left that I used the jewellery as therapy. Initially, I didn't think about business, I was doing it purely because I enjoyed doing it. And I set up my business .. it is a slow burner, it takes time to get going and there's no time like the present. It's really fabulous when you get your first sales from people who are not related to you .. The one thing that the Diplomas have given me is that technical capability that I never thought I'd have. I watched lots of videos before I did any of this and thought' wow, these people are amazing' and I never thought that I'd be able to do half the stuff that they could do. And the Diploma has given me not only the drive to do it but the technical capability and the belief that I could do it and that makes a big difference
What would you say is the difference between a face-to-face class and doing the Diploma with Jewellers Academy?
I go to a silver workshop on Wednesdays, it's nice to meet people but I don't get the technical capabilities and training that I get doing the Diploma because it's so detailed.
If I did it again (plan my training) I'd do exactly the same thing because I think that the skills that I've gained from the Diploma courses have allowed me to take a totally different path to what I was thinking at the very beginning which was very simple, very basic silver jewellery and now I'm looking at doing fine jewellery which is a totally different world. And it's only because I've done the courses that I could think of doing that.
DIPLOMA IN SILVER JEWELLERY
1 Year Part-Time Online - For Beginner to Intermediate Jewellers
If you would like to learn how to make silver and gold jewellery then take a look at our one-year online Diploma in Silver Jewellery. This is a one-day-a-week commitment to becoming a professional jeweller within a year.
Click the button below to learn more
DIPLOMA IN FINE JEWELLERY
1 Year Part-Time Online - For Intermediate to Advanced Jewellers
Designed as the perfect follow on from the Diploma in Silver Jewellery, this one-year online course features advanced jewellery-making skills for making commercially popular pieces of jewellery.
Click the button below to learn more
ADVANCED DIPLOMA IN JEWELLERY
1 Year Part-Time Online - for Advanced level Jewellers
Designed as year 3 in our Diploma program, this course is for you if your focus is to increase your technical-making skills for advanced jewellery commissions and collection pieces.
You can join this course if you have not done the previous Diploma courses but have sufficient experience.
Click the button below to learn more
Student Gallery
At the end of the course, the students have a final project to complete. This is a piece or pieces in their own style, showcasing the skills they have developed over the year. Take a look at what you you could achieve -
Your next listen
In this episode, Jess talks with two of the diploma’s mentors, Kim Thomson and Zoe Leavy, about 10 benefits you can experience by joining the Diploma in Silver Jewellery. Jess, Kim, and Zoe also share their own experiences with overcoming perfectionism, finding a creative outlet, and more.
