These 18ct gold earrings are hinged, so as the wearer moves the diamonds sparkle with fire and grace. The rich blue sapphire is cradled in a five claw setting and surrounded by further diamonds.

‘Design Space is a Business Premises facility, part of Solutions for Business portfolio of publicly funded business support.

The scheme provides shared incubation space and facilities for up to 20 Creatives who are committed to starting up a design led business, providing them with:

• Free access to shared incubation space for up to 12 months to run their business from
• A fully serviced environment (i.e. workshop facilities/studio space/IT equipment/showcase and meeting area)
• In-house mentoring
• A package of sector specific business development support
• Clustering/networking opportunities’

“It is very rewarding to share our experiences with other designers” says Kate “with our lectures, we aim to guide these new business startups, by introducing the basics of marketing and PR. Through their own practise and experience in this sector they will be able to develop a strategy to promote their work, remembering that they need the product and service behind them to prevent making expensive mistakes.”

The morning started with an explanation of the different types of trends, what they are for, how to keep track of them year on year and ended with an interactive exercise where everyone tried to identify which group they belong to. This certainly got people talking! Once we identified how and why we follow trends, we discussed the importance of being there at the start of a trend to maximise the opportunity chartered through the ‘profitable retail verses consumer behaviour’ curves and we showed the delegates how to filter the research by profiling their customers.

After luncheon, Zoe presented her interpretation of the direction for trends in the coming year. Her key message, throughout, was that the British consumer is much more inward-looking than in 2010 indicating, there is less of an interest in the global market place and a greater purchasing commitment to sourcing local. The whole country is of a similar mindset after the economic crash, focussing on craftmanship and provenance over price. She set out four trends in which is this reoccurring theme of skill, craftsmanship and keeping the money in Britain to aid recovery from the recession was featured.

To find out more about this course or others run by Kate or Zoe please use the contact us link on our website

Testimonials from the day

“To be in business without all the tools to know your customer and market, limits your ability to forge ahead in front of your competitors to new markets” Peter Wright from Strata Orangeries and Conservatories

“Excellent day, a fantastic thought evoking presentation, I’ve taken away a lot today” Rosie McLaughlin & Wendy Gao from F&L UK Ltd

“Intelligent and thought provoking – it will certainly help me with planning future directions” Russ Bedson from Direct Salon Suppliers Ltd

“Interesting, fun and informative – a great day!” Hannah Bates from Hannah Jewellery Designs

5th July 2011 – SHORT COURSE: EMERGING TRENDS: EXPLORE AND EXPLOIT

On this interactive workshop you will learn how to identify and interpret emerging trends and develop this information into winning designs. This one day course will start with a short seminar covering where trends emerge from, how to map them as they develop and the influence they have over consumers. You will then be shown how to do this for yourself by mapping some of the current trends as a group. Finally, we will provide you with the tools to filter out the information relevant to your own customer and to use this information in an appropriate, saleable design.

28th July 2011 – SHORT COURSE: MARKETING FOR YOUR JEWELLERY BUSINESS

This one day course will teach you the essential skills and knowledge needed to save you time and money by developing a marketing strategy for your jewellery business, whatever stage it is at. Over the day you will be given an overview of the marketing and promotional techniques necessary to run a successful business. A variety of working tools will be used to generate ideas for your own business identity, your target market and methods of presenting a polished and professional approach using best business practise.

BIOG

Kate Thorley is co-founder of Nest Creates Ltd, a contemporary jewellery design and manufacturing business with a focus on one of a kind bespoke jewellery. Having graduated from prestigious Birmingham’s School of Jewellery in the mid 90′s, Kate worked extensively in the jewellery trade before joining Zoe Phillips at the Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre; where they became a celebrated design team. After dedicating several years, as a design and new product development specialist, to the jewellery trade Kate is now using her creative talents within her own successful business.

Trend and marketing short courses to get involved follow the link onto the BIAD website

The launch for London Jewellery Week 2011 was held at the prestigious Royal Exchange; home to famous jewellery houses such as Tiffany & Co, Theo Fennell, Boodles, De Beers and many more. A perfect location to commence the exciting start of this year’s events.

Inside, Britain’s leading jewellery designers and businesses prepare for the glamorous affair of London Jewellery Week 6th – 12th June

Here I am with two of the other designers working in collaboration with PureJewels for their Heritage Collection

left to right: Kate Thorley – Nest Creates, Anna Loucah – Anna Loucah Fine Jewellery, Cindy Dennis Mangan – Dennis & Lavery

Half of the 2010 PureJewels Heritage design collective with owner Jayant Raniga – PureJewels

Kate Thorley, Jonathon Crocker, Ana de Costa, Anna Loucah and Cindy Dennis Mangan

Photos courtesy of Professional Jeweller.

We have been designing the prestigious WHA trophies since 2006, the winning projects are presented with the sterling silver trophy and a £10,000 World Habitat Award by the Building and Social Housing Foundation.

The Awards are presented to Innovative and Sustainable housing solutions and are organised by the United Nations-Habitat. The trophies have been skilfully crafted by Andrew MacGowan who translates our designs into these beautiful accolades.

Below are the 2007 and 2010 commissions.

To commission us for bespoke trophy designs please visit our website www.nestcreates.co.uk

Now I am not an expert on dermatology per say, but I have gathered some information about skin reactions from working in the jewellery trade for 14 years and painfully through personal experience. It is a common problem and can be attributed to a number of things -

1) do you wear your ring whilst cleaning / washing up / having a bath/shower? If so, it could be that you are not rinsing your hands thoroughly and the chemicals in the detergent/cleaning products could be what is irritating your finger. Equally if you are not drying your hands sufficiently, the moisture trapped between your finger and the ring can encourage a yeast infection to develop. This is also true if you sweat (so remove your jewellery at the gym and when you go to bed) and it can even occur if you are in a humid climate.

My first suggestion is to seek medical advice but in addition, you could try taking off your rings when you do these activities and make sure your fingers are fully dry before replacing the rings. After a couple of weeks you should hopefully notice a difference.

2) The other main factor in allergies is that Nickel could be present in the alloy – in the past white gold was alloyed from yellow gold and nickel but it has been found to be major skin allergen so there was a European Directive 94/27/EC. It states white gold has a restriction on the inclusion of Nickel for use in jewellery, so how is yellow gold made white now? Palladium or silver is added to bleach the yellow gold to a whiter tone and Rhodium plate is often used to give a uniformed colour. If the ring was manufactured in the UK during the past 10 years then this is unlikely to be the cause of the allergy due to the Directive, but if it is a second hand ring then it may still contain Nickel (you can have it tested electronically to see if this is the problem)

3) You could be allergic to the Rhodium plate – this is precious metal that jewellers will plate over white gold to give it a uniformed Platinum look (the natural white gold colour is a buttermilk tone not actually white at all!) Solution – have the ring stripped and see if that solves the problem if not you could have it replaced with Platinum. This is an expensive choice and you could be allergic to it too. The most inert metal however is gold so 18ct yellow gold would also be a great alternative!

My friend has seen a huge reduction in the irritation by removing her rings whilst washing up and at night – so it could just be a change of routine you need, not a change of ring!

Nest Creates featured in World Wide Weddings magazine as step one to A-list Style

“Having anything specially created for you and knowing that it is completely unique, feels like the ultimate luxury, but can be more affordable than you think,” say Kate Thorley and Zoe Youngman, Creative Directors and co-founders of bespoke jewellers Nest Creates. “It can take up to two months for us to get to know our clients and to develop a design with them. Being able to capture an individual’s personality and spirit in a piece of jewellery can not only make the wedding ceremony more meaningful, but it can also help to create memories that will last a life time.” Find out more about bespoke wedding jewellery at www.nestcreates.co.uk or call 01926 773 926. The ‘starting from’ price for commissions from Nest Creates, the bespoke jewellers, is from £2,000 per piece of jewellery.

Read the magazine online (we’re on page 54) or buy it at any good retailers (we got our copy from WH Smiths)

Did you know the good luck wedding poem used for brides has a third line to it?

Something old, something new

Something borrowed, something blue

and a silver sixpence in her shoe.

Some sources say the origins of this English verse are Victorian due to the sixpence being mentioned, however as I have looked further into the poem I have found the sixpence was first minted in 1551 during the reign of Edward VI, it was made from sterling silver and was worth 6 pennies – so did the poem originate over 280 years earlier? I cannot find any hard facts proving or disproving it but the popular rhyme about the sixpence in ‘Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie’, which has been adopted as a childhood song, was originally written about the relationship between Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII. So perhaps someone from the Tudor period wrote the poem? Who knows?

So what do the words mean?

Something old – represents where the bride has come from, the continuity of a relationship with her family. This could be a piece of jewellery from her grandparents or an old lace hankie stitched into the wedding dress.

Something new – represents where the bride is going, the optimism and hope for her new life.  A friend of mine presented his wife-to-be with a string of beautiful pearls, which she wore on the wedding day to great effect.

Something borrowed – it is suggested that this item is lent to the bride from a happily married friend or relative to share their good fortune with her as she enters her new life as a married woman. To wear it pays tribute to the friend and includes them in the ceremony honouring their continuing friendship. Want to look a million dollars? With an increasing trend to hire luxury goods the jewellery industry is no exception, brides can hire fine jewellery for a few hundred pounds but be wearing several thousand. Rent Your Rocks provides this service to the UK.

Something blue – in Rome brides wore blue to symbolize love, modesty and fidelity. In Christianity the Virgin Mary is depicted wearing blue and the colour is linked therefore with purity. How about something a little different? A pair of  blue diamond earrings perhaps?

Silver sixpence – represents wealth and financial security. In Scotland there is a tradition for the groom to place a coin under his left foot for good luck.

What are you planning to do?

Nest Creates designed a bi metal Platinum, 18ct white gold and diamond engagement ring for a couple who were happy to be used as a case study. Their story was captured in a sketch book animation. Each page showed a different stage of the production of their ring, with a written explanation. The CAD / RP work was portrayed in a film format and we used photography to demonstrate the idea generation, stone selection, casting, setting, hallmarking and polishing stages.

The majority of the work undertaken was in the animation of the text, so it appears on screen as if they were writing in a sketch book in real time. The pages were animated to turn over and even the sound effect of a pencil scribbling was incorporated making a fantastic visual and audio package.

The full case study can be downloaded from the link below

www.indexvouchers.squarespace.com/case-studies-round-6/digital-media/