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Kirsty Brown
14th May 2012 16:20

Competition Time Again

 

Afternoon all!

We'll be running a new Twitter competition tomorrow to coincide with Harriet's birthday!

When we get 1000 followers we will give £100 worth of jewellery away to one lucky winner, chosen at random.

The prize will be chosen from our 1000 most popular items of dress jewellery to the value of £100.

If we can get a photo of the winner and a bit of information about their favourite colours/styles Harriet will personally pick out the perfect prize for them.

To enter simply follow us and retweet one or more of our tweets.

Good luck to all!

Kirsty Brown
 
Kirsty Brown
11th May 2012 16:19

World Fair Trade Day

 

As it's World Fair Trade Day tomorrow, I thought it would be good to look at some questions that I am often asked about Fairtrade.

Is Fairtrade and Fairmined gold increasing in popularity?

We do many commissions every month, although I have noticed that we are not having as many commissions being created in gold. This is due to the rise in popularity of other metals. Yet the majority of customers that do opt for gold are going down the Fairtrade route more and more. I think this is because Fairtrade gold is more widely known about, and people are realising what an impact the purchase of Fairtrade gold can have on the miners' lives – being paid a fair wage for all their hard work.

What other metals are very popular?

I think it is the rising prices of gold that sometimes puts people off of choosing gold in their commission, and opt for other metals such as platinum and palladium (which is an increasingly popular alternative to platinum and often white gold), and although these aren't yet Fairtrade -I hope in the not too distant future that there will be the Fairtrade option for both of these metals. Although interestingly we do now have the option to use pre certified platinum, which very few jewellers are able to provide at the moment.

What past commissions involving fully certified Fairtrade and Fairmined gold are your favourites?

Of course the first one that comes to my mind is the commissioned bespoke pendant we made for Lisa Snowdon. It held a gorgeous deep purple/red coloured garnet, Lisa's birthstone. It's a gorgeous piece made from 18ct yellow Fairtrade and Fairmined gold, inspired by the aum symbol.

Out of the many previously commissioned Fairtrade and Fairmined gold rings, the piece that is at the forefront of my mind is this striking Beryl and sapphire engagement ring made in 9ct certified Fairtrade and Fairmined white gold. The creamy colour of the gold really highlights the white colour of the sapphires held within the curls.

Beryl and Sapphire engagement ring

All in all, Fairtrade and Fairmined gold is continuously rising in popularity as more and more people learn of its importance to those that mine the gold, and what a difference the purchase of this gold can make to their lives.

Kirsty Brown
 
Simon Gibbons
8th May 2012 12:09

Weather and nature provide lots of inspiration

 

Well I have always found storms to be inspiring, especially as I live not too far from the sea and we have certainly have had more than our fair share of them lately, drought what drought do I hear you cry!

The weather and nature provide lots of inspiration for many of the design ideas our customers provide us with when they contact us to commission their own bespoke engagement, wedding or just a ring to represent something special for them.

Star sapphires are particularly beautiful and striking and whilst they are an obvious inspiration for planets and stars; which is something we get asked for quite often the blue grey colour reminds me of some of the moody skies we have seen lately with asterisk providing a glint of sunlight coming through the stormy weather and the suggestion of better things to come.

Dramatic black star sapphire 9ct white gold engagement ring

The beautiful star sapphire engagement ring above was designed by Kerrie McNaughton and was an absolute stunning ring until it was recently sold at the beginning of April. A personal favourite of several of the team including myself and it never ceases to amaze me how brilliant are the designs that our talented team of Designers do come up with. We also source stones from a variety of sources and the Designers can help you by providing you with a selection of stones to choose from; yes you do get to choose your own stone if you want to and seeing stones like the above before they are set in your ring really adds to the excitement and anticipation for what the ring will become. We get a real buzz out of interesting and unusual ideas for rings, just look at our ring galleries for examples of our previous work and if you would like just to run some ideas past us do contact us for a no obligation consultation or even just to chat through your ideas.

Simon Gibbons
 
Iain Robinson
4th May 2012 10:52

Lisa Snowdon enjoying her Fairtrade necklace

 

Lisa Snowdon is still really enjoying the bespoke Fairtrade necklace that we made her for her birthday at the beginning of the year. She tweeted this morning a picture of her wearing it with Dave Berry and the boys from The Wanted.

Lisa Snowdon wearing her Fairtrade necklace
Iain Robinson
 
Daniel Allen
3rd May 2012 12:02

Platinum wedding rings

 

This platinum wedding ring measures approximately 6mm wide and 1.5mm deep all the way round. A gentle engraved curved line running all the way round the band separates the heavily textured and tunstall finish from the polished.

Platinum wedding ring

What I love about working with bespoke jewellery is that a wedding ring can be created to show your unique style or story, this ring to me shows two separate things becoming one, a perfect representation of marriage.

A wedding ring is often the only piece of jewellery that a man will wear so you want to make sure he gets it right. I've worked selling jewellery for eleven years and I get so frustrated when a couple spend hours choosing and creating something beautiful for the bride and the groom grabs the first plain band that comes to hand. The ring above is masculine with the hammered finish and could always be personalised further with internal or external engraving.

So remember the groom as well as the bride when it comes to wedding rings as this could be his one chance at wearing some really special jewellery.

Daniel

Daniel Allen
 
Kirsty Brown
2nd May 2012 11:03

Jewellery Charity Day and Family Fun Day

 

Join us for a glass of Pimms on 9th June at our Halls Green studio and:

- Watch demonstrations with our Goldsmiths

- Meet the jewellery designers and discuss anything jewellery related with them

- Childrens Jewellery making

- A fantastic raffle in aid of the NSPCC

- See our Dress Jewellery Collections

Also bring a picnic and visit the Classic Car Rally held by Letchworth Classic Car Club (11-5pm)

We're open 9.45-5pm - hope to see you there!

Kirsty x

Kirsty Brown
 
Daniel Allen
1st May 2012 16:15

Weston Road Works

 

Just wanted to let everyone know about some possible road works in Weston this week.

Thursday (3rd May 2012) there are work in the roads in Weston village, so the road by Weston School heading towards Halls Green is only open for access.

Here is how to avoid the closed road: When you come into Weston up Hitchin Road, the Red Lion pub will be on your left. Turn right (instead of left as usual) at the Red Lion pub and keep going straight on past the Cricketers pub (on your right) and all the way out of Weston. Keep going straight on along the country road for about a mile or so. Eventually you will come to a small turning on your left to 'Warrens Green'. Turn left here and go through the hamlet of Warrens Green and after about a mile you will come to a T junction into Halls Green. Turn left here and the Rising Sun pub will soon be on your right followed shortly by the turning to Fairclough Hall Farm and our studio.

Alternatively if you are coming via Stevenage you can come in via Walkern.

I hope this doesn't hold you up, and I look forward to seeing you later!

Daniel Allen
 
Kirsty Brown
1st May 2012 10:04

Twitter Competition Time

 

Morning all!

Competition time again!

We're running a Twitter competition, to enter simply follow us on Twitter and retweet one or more of our tweets.

When we get 600 followers, one lucky winner will be chosen at random to win £100 worth of jewellery.

Get tweeting and good luck to all!

Kirsty x

Kirsty Brown
 
Deborah Souza
25th April 2012 11:47

Sterling Silver and Turquoise pendant

 

As part of our Purple Label Spring Collection we have a beautiful Sterling Silver and Turquoise pendant.

STERLING SILVER AND TURQUOISE PENDANT

This is a simple design using a vibrant coloured stone. I love the detail of the sterling silver wire which is wrapped around just above the stone. This can take some skill to get this detail looking so neat by hand. Due to the nature of the stone, natural variations will occur in the size and markings. This means that no two pendants are the same. Take at look at this pendant and all of our Spring Collection at www.purple-label.com

Deborah Souza-Smith

Deborah Souza
 
Daniel Allen
21st April 2012 16:20

I am not the lord of the rings.

 

I had an amazing experience a few days ago. I made my first piece of precious jewellery, a silver ring. I was lead by our amazing goldsmith Rachel who with the patience of a saint led a man with the technical skills of Jeremy Clarkson into making a finished piece of jewellery.

All did not go to plan. In the group of us making rings I had the dubious honour of being the first and only person to make the silver collapse, I looked on in horror as this wonderful piece of metal i had worked, annealed and shaped collapsed into what looked like a misshapen hula-hoop.

But all was not lost as Rachel had known someone would have this problem and in true blue peter fashion had one she had prepared earlier. So after 2 hours of work I have made myself a ring. I'm so proud of myself and I now have an even deeper respect for our makers because if that's how difficult it is to make a basic flat wedding ring goodness knows how they create the works of art that they do.

Daniel. Showroom supervisor Halls Green, and definitely not a goldsmith.

Daniel Allen
 

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  • Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design, North Barn, Fairclough Hall Farm, Halls Green, Weston, Hertfordshire, SG4 7DP, England
    Phone: +44 (0)1462 790565 Fax: +44 (0)1462 790140 enquiries@hkjewellery.co.uk
  • Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design, 6/7 Green Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB2 3JU, England.
    Phone: +44 (0)1223 461333 Fax: +44 (0)1223 365269 cambridge@hkjewellery.co.uk

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