BEHIND THE DIPLOMA DIARIES: LEARNING, MAKING AND SHARING THE REAL JEWELLERY JOURNEY with kelly twigg (podcast episode)
If you’ve ever learned a new jewellery-making skill, you’ll know the finished piece is only a tiny part of the story. In this episode, Jess is joined by Kelly Twigg to go behind the scenes of the Jewellers Academy Diploma Diaries and talk about what learning really looks like, including the mistakes, the experiments, the things that take a few goes and the moments when it all starts to click. They chat about why it can be so reassuring to see other jewellers learning too, how sharing your process can help people connect with your work, and why trying something outside your usual style can sometimes take you in a completely new direction. Kelly also shares what it’s like to be back as a student again on the new Wax Jewellery Diploma, and why she’s loving having the space to experiment, learn and make alongside a whole community of other jewellers.
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If you have ever learnt a new jewellery-making technique, you will know that the finished piece only tells a tiny part of the story. Behind it are the experiments, the things that did not quite work, the techniques that took several attempts to master, the moments when everything finally clicked and, occasionally, the decision to put something down and start again.
That is exactly what the Jewellers Academy Diploma Diaries are about.
In this episode of the Jewellers Academy podcast, Jessica Rose is joined by jeweller and content creator Kelly Twigg of Willow and Twigg, the original Diploma Diary creator, to talk about what it is really like to learn new jewellery-making skills, why sharing the process can be so valuable, and how seeing other jewellers’ highs and lows can make online learning feel much less solitary.
Kelly first began sharing her Diploma Diaries two years ago when she started the Jewellers Academy Diploma in Silver Jewellery. Jess invited her to document the experience because Kelly already loved creating educational content and sharing what she was learning. What began as a way of showing the course from a student’s perspective quickly became something much bigger, with other students joining the conversation, offering encouragement and sharing their own experiences.
What are the Jewellers Academy Diploma Diaries?
The Diploma Diaries are an honest look behind the scenes of learning jewellery making. Rather than simply showing a beautiful finished ring, pendant or pair of earrings, they reveal what happens along the way.
That might mean showing a new technique for the first time, talking about a project that proved more difficult than expected, sharing something that went wrong or celebrating the moment a new skill finally started to make sense.
For anyone following a Jewellers Academy online jewellery diploma, this student perspective can be particularly reassuring. When you watch an experienced tutor demonstrate a technique, you are watching someone who may have many years of bench experience. They know exactly how to hold the tool, how much pressure to use and what to do if something starts to go wrong.
When you are learning, it is naturally a very different experience.
The Diploma Diaries show that difference. They remind you that broken saw blades, wonky settings, pieces that need to be remade and techniques that take several attempts are not evidence that you are failing. They are part of learning a craft. As Jess and Kelly discuss in the episode, seeing someone else encounter the same difficulties can create a sense of companionship and remind you that you are not the only person who sometimes has to start again.
Sharing the real process of learning jewellery making
One of the most powerful things about the Diploma Diaries is that they do not only document success.
Social media has traditionally encouraged jewellers to share the polished end result: the perfectly finished piece, beautifully photographed and ready for a customer. There is nothing wrong with celebrating that final stage, but it can make it easy to forget how much learning, practice and problem-solving came before it.
Kelly believes showing that process is important.
When she completed the Diploma in Silver Jewellery, she shared the techniques she was learning as well as the moments when something did not go according to plan. She found that people responded particularly strongly to the honesty of the content. Rather than making her appear less capable as a jeweller, sharing the difficult parts made the journey more relatable and helped other makers recognise their own experiences in hers.
That is an important reminder for anyone learning jewellery making. Being experienced does not mean never finding something difficult. Developing your skills means continuing to encounter things you have not done before.
Sometimes the most useful piece of jewellery-making content is not somebody making something perfectly. It is watching them work out what to do when they do not.
Learning from other jewellers as well as your tutor
One of the joys of learning jewellery online is having access to specialist tutors and techniques wherever you are in the world. But another important part of learning is seeing how other students interpret the same teaching.
There is rarely only one possible way to approach a jewellery-making technique. Different jewellers have different benches, different tools, different strengths and different ways of working. One person may naturally love highly technical, precise work, while another feels most at home creating something organic and sculptural.
The Diploma Diaries allow students to see those differences.
You might watch someone set up a project slightly differently from the way you have done it. You might discover a small tip that makes a technique easier for you. Or you might simply see another student struggling with exactly the same thing you found difficult the week before.
As Jess explains in the episode, the tutor provides the expert voice within a jewellery course, while the Diploma Diaries add the student voice. Together, they create a much fuller picture of what learning actually looks like.
Why sharing your jewellery-making journey can be good for your business too
Documenting what you are learning is not only useful for other students. It can also be an excellent form of content for your own jewellery business.
It can be tempting to think that customers only want to see your finished jewellery, but process content gives people another way to connect with your work. It allows them to see the skill, time and thought that go into making jewellery by hand.
For somebody who is not a jeweller, watching you transform raw materials into a finished piece can be fascinating.
Sharing your learning also allows your audience to become part of the journey. They see you taking on a new challenge, developing a skill and improving over time. They begin to understand more about your craft and the expertise involved in the jewellery you create.
Jess points out that this can help build both connection and authority. You do not need to present yourself as somebody who already knows everything. Showing that you continue to invest in your skills can be a powerful demonstration of how seriously you take your craft.
Kelly also discovered that one jewellery-making project can create far more content than you might initially expect. A single piece might contain several different techniques, decisions, mistakes, discoveries and small stories that could each become a post or reel in their own right.
And the content does not necessarily have to disappear when the course finishes.
After completing her Silver Jewellery Diploma, Kelly revisited her original Diploma Diary footage the following year. By then she had received feedback from her mentor, had more experience using the techniques and could look back on the projects with a different perspective. She was able to add new voiceovers and commentary about what she had learnt since.
For jewellers trying to create useful, authentic social media content, documenting your learning can therefore become a surprisingly rich resource.
Different jewellers, different Diploma Diary journeys
Kelly may have been the first Diploma Diary creator, but she certainly has not been the last.
Over the last few years, Jewellers Academy students and tutors have shared their experiences across different jewellery-making diplomas, giving followers a glimpse into very different techniques and styles of working.
Emma René documented her journey through the Diploma in Fine Jewellery, sharing both the projects she enjoyed and the ones that challenged her. Tori Foster shared her Diploma in Silver Metal Clay, demonstrating just how varied and technically ambitious metal clay jewellery can become as your skills develop. Meanwhile jeweller and tutor Jane Taylor has brought another perspective to the series, experimenting with techniques from the diplomas while adding the insight that comes from her own extensive jewellery-making experience.
One of the lovely things about seeing all these different approaches is realising that there isn’t one “right” way to make jewellery. As your skills and confidence grow, you start taking the techniques you’ve learned and using them in your own way. You work out what you enjoy, what suits you and what you want to explore more of. Over time, the projects stop being about making something that looks like the tutor’s and start becoming much more about finding your own style and your own way of working.
You do not always know what kind of jewellery making you will love
Another theme that comes through strongly in this episode is the value of trying techniques before deciding whether they are for you.
It is very easy to look at a particular jewellery-making method and think, That isn't really my thing.
Sometimes you will be right but sometimes a technique you would never have chosen becomes the one you cannot stop thinking about.
Kelly experienced this herself. She had not previously considered wax carving, but trying it during her Silver Jewellery Diploma made her curious enough to explore it further. After taking a break from diploma study, she has now returned to Jewellers Academy to complete the new Diploma in Wax Jewellery and is sharing a fresh series of Diploma Diaries along the way.
This is one of the reasons a broad jewellery-making education can be so valuable. Trying different processes before narrowing your focus gives you a much better understanding of what genuinely excites you.
Jess remembers asking students on the original in-person diplomas which techniques they had enjoyed most and which they had disliked. The answers were often completely opposite. A technique one student never wanted to touch again could be another student's favourite part of the entire course.
There is no universal perfect jewellery-making technique. Part of becoming a jeweller is discovering the processes that suits you and the kind of work you want to create.
Returning to learning with the Wax Jewellery Diploma
This year, Kelly is back documenting the experience from the beginning as she takes the Jewellers Academy Wax Jewellery Diploma.
For her, returning to structured learning has been about more than acquiring another set of technical skills. She had missed the routine of studying, the conversations with other students and the sense of being part of a group of people all working through something together.
Although an online jewellery diploma can physically be completed at your own bench, that does not mean you have to learn in isolation. Kelly describes sharing progress in the student Facebook group, joining mentor sessions and connecting with people through the Diploma Diaries as different ways of learning from the wider community around the course.
Wax is also allowing her to approach jewellery making differently.
Working directly in precious metal can make experimentation feel expensive, particularly as metal prices increase. Wax creates more freedom to test ideas, change direction and start again before a piece is cast. For Kelly, it has brought back some of the feeling she had when she first began learning jewellery making and was simply experimenting to see what might happen.
There is something valuable in allowing yourself to become a beginner again.
Your jewellery-making journey does not have to look perfect
And really, that is what the Diploma Diaries are all about. Learning jewellery making is rarely a neat journey from beginner to expert. You try things, get stuck, work them out, discover techniques you love and occasionally surprise yourself with something you were sure you wouldn’t enjoy at all. Sometimes it takes a few goes before something clicks, and sometimes one project opens up a whole new direction you hadn’t considered before.
The finished pieces are lovely to see, but the process of getting there is just as interesting.
Follow https://www.instagram.com/jewellersacademyto see the Diploma Diaries from Kelly and the team.
And if you’re currently studying with Jewellers Academy, we’d love you to share your own Diploma Diaries too. You definitely don’t need to document the whole year. It could be one project, something you’ve learnt this week, a moment that made you laugh, something that went wrong or a piece you’re particularly proud of.
Tag @jewellersacademy and use #DiplomaDiaries so we can see what you’re working on and share some of your journey too.
And if you’re thinking about learning jewellery making yourself, have a look at the Diploma Diaries on Instagram. You’ll see the finished jewellery, of course, but you’ll also get to see the bit that is often hidden: the practice, the problem-solving, the experiments and all the little moments that eventually add up to becoming a more confident jeweller.
Some of the pieces Kelly will be learning to make on the Diploma in Wax Jewellery.
We have five online Diploma programs that span different skill levels and different interests. Check them out here:
https://www.jewellersacademy.com/diplomas
About Kelly
Kelly Twigg is a jeweller and content creator behind Willow and Twigg. She has completed the Jewellers Academy Diploma in Silver Jewellery and is now studying the Wax Jewellery Diploma, sharing her experience through the popular Diploma Diaries. Kelly is known for her honest, practical and engaging jewellery-making content, where she shares the learning process as well as the finished pieces.