Hi there! I hope you are having a great summer. I’d love to share my experience of some jewellery classes that I attended, taught by Stelios Karantonas. Stelios is an incredibly talented and experienced jeweller, he trained professionally in his native Greece, and has many years of experience and a wealth of knowledge that he generously shares with his students. Take a look at his beautiful jewellery. Whether you’re a jeweller looking to invest in your professional development, or a total beginner, I highly recommend Stelios as a tutor. I learned so much! I will be returning to him in the future for sure.

Stelios’ studio is based just off Brick Lane in East London. It’s a lovely creative space and really well equipped. We started out with some soldering, as I don’t have a brazing torch in my own workshop. It was great to use his Sievert torch and Little Smith torch (which I am now coveting!) I prepared some earrings with lots of fiddly joins; this maximised my learning experience. I enjoy the challenge of soldering, there are so many variables to ensure a successful and strong solder join. Also factors like being able to adjust levels gas and oxygen for different jobs like annealing, which isn’t something I’d been able to fully experience with my own torch. Taking part in this learning helped me decide which torch would be best investing in the future. Stelios showed me a lot of techniques and methods which were really helpful.

The second project that we did was some more advanced wax carving techniques, specifically carving claw settings and flush settings. I was super excited about this, as I love wax carving so much.

Stelios showed me some really helpful ways to carve out my stone settings. I’d always found carving claws very tricky, but he showed me some ways to simplify this and have better control of the tools while retaining good accuracy.

Stelios is such a good teacher! He demonstrates everything in a clear and accessible way and helps you understand the philosophy and reasoning behind his methods. He is also a lovely guy, very patient and encouraging. With learning it’s important to understand why things are done a certain way and this is something that comes across in his way of teaching. It’s a different way of thinking and it helps me move forward with my own planning of new pieces.

Once the waxes were cast in silver and I was ready to set the stones. Stelios showed me some helpful methods for setting, and how to use tools like a hammer action setting punch, which I’d never used before. Setting isn’t easy but I had a few pieces to practice with, and the techniques Stelios showed me made it a lot simpler.

Here are my finished pieces, I am pretty chuffed with them! I left the classes feeling really inspired and with the confidence to create more creative and ambitious designs in the future.