This week I’ve been talking to wirework expert, author and magazine designer Linda Jones. Linda tells us about her love of wirework and shares useful advice on how you can get involved too!
Linda Jones
Could you tell me when and how you started making jewellery?
I started making jewellery in 1987. It was after 8 years of working in offices as a secretary/administrator, as well as in catering, as a cook … I so wanted to do something creative, that I decided to take a year out to study jewellery, as metalwork had always been something I had yearned to do.
Where did you do your formal training, and what courses did you take?
My formal training was at the Metropolitan University in East London (called the ‘Sir John Cass’ College in those days) and I took a City & Guilds in Jewellery and Silversmithing, specialising in Enamelling as well as one year of a Jewellery Design B-Tec course.
What made you choose wirework?
I am totally self-taught with wirework and the reason I specialised in it was due to my personal circumstances at the time. Sadly, my marriage had broken down and I had to find a way of financially surviving as a single mum and even though I was selling my metal and enamelled jewellery through an agent in shops and galleries, it just wasn’t enough to live on. So I decided to set myself up as a teacher and run workshops, thereby being able to charge for my time. I did this initially through my local adult education centre, bringing my formal training and experience of metalwork to wirework, to instil a professional finish to handmade costume jewellery.
Copper wirework necklace - glass beads from Beads Direct
How did you start working with magazines?
Having had experience of teaching and thinking up projects ideas on a regular basis for my pupils, I started contacting magazines with jewellery contributions. Initially, the only jewellery project magazines around were American, so I sent my patterns and pieces off abroad – one such magazine was ‘The Wire Artist’ – which now longer exists and later it was ‘Step by Step Wire Jewellery’. I also contributed more craft based projects to ‘Popular Crafts’ and ‘Crafts Beautiful’ magazines before more recently becoming a regular contributor to ‘Make Jewellery’ magazine.
What is the highlight of your jewellery making career so far?
I don’t know if I can pick one thing out as a highlight, but I am very proud of my project books – of which the 6th is to be published this year. So look out for it this July, or you can pre-order it online from ‘amazon’ from April onwards (‘Making Beautiful Bead & Wire Jewellery). I try and put as many techniques and as much inspiration in each book as I can and I have received some wonderful feedback from all over the world, which makes the hard work all worthwhile!
Great inspiration for using semi precious chips from Linda!
What do you look for in a bead?
Colour is probably the first thing that draws me to a bead. Otherwise, it depends entirely what I am designing or working on: it can be foiled-lined beads or textured metal beads that attract my attention … When I design a piece of jewellery, my wire is like my ‘pen’ line and the beads are my colour palette.
Where do you find your inspiration?
I often find my inspiration in nature: the colour combinations of flora and fauna as well as shape, texture and form. I am also very drawn to African art, as my early childhood was spent in East and West Africa – I love the handicrafts and artefacts from ancient civilisations such as: Egyptian and Aztec. Having had formal design training, I try and incorporate a balance of overall composition of colour, shape, texture and form into each piece I create.
Leafy Links Charm Bracelet - Leaf charms from Beads Direct
Tell us about your workshops. How did they get started?
When I left college, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to help run enamelling workshops on an annual basis at Art in Action (a very popular craft show held just outside Oxford). This experience of teaching inspired and gave me confidence to start my own creative Wire & Bead workshops. I have never really looked upon myself as a ‘Teacher’ but more as wanting to pass on what I love doing. As I mentioned, my first workshops were run at my local Adult Education Centre, but now they are centred at my studio in south-east Kent (near Tonbridge). I run one day Wire & Bead Jewellery sessions for complete beginners as well as intermediate jewellers and a Tiara & Wedding Jewellery course. For more information on these workshops, please take a look at my website: www.wirejewellery.co.uk or contact me direct by emailing: linda.jones@wirejewellery.co.uk
Tropical Heat necklace made with Beads Direct semi precious, will feature in Make Jewellery magazine in the near future!
What advice would you give to someone who is keen to get into wirework?
If you’re starting out, I would recommend investing in a reasonable set of pliers and spend as much as you can afford on your wire cutters. The analogy is like buying a good kitchen knife so that you can chop your vegetables finely, rather than hack them up! There are so many tool suppliers around and it’s very easy to buy cheap tools and spend all your money on beautiful beads, however, if you don’t invest in good quality tools in the first place, you will never be able to make professional, well finished pieces with those beautiful beads.
I can also recommend joining The WireWorkers Guild which has a bi-monthly ‘blog- newsletter’ full of tips, advice and information for everyone to share and learn in this fun and highly creative craft! For more information on this, please see: http://wireworkersguild.blogspot.com
We hope you have enjoyed catching up with Linda. If Linda has inspired you, why not take her advice and give wirework a try?
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Tags: make jewellery, making jewellery, Semi-precious beads, wirework
I am a big fan of Linda Jones, she really got me interested in wirework. I have got three of her books, what I like about her is that she has inspired me to come up with my own designs using the techniques from her books.
Let’s just say my creative juices have gone sky high, I am on my 2nd notebook of design ideas, I can’t stop writing because the ideas just keep coming!