We were incredibly pleased to be a part of the launch of Fetcham Park, one of two Stately homes now being shared with all for wedding days and special events by my friend Laura and her family. The interior is absolutely amazing, featuring murals by Louis Laguerre (the same artist whose work can be seen at Blenheim and Chatsworth).

All photographs courtesy of the talented EFC photography.

Laura had mentioned the launch to me some time back, and over the months it just grew and grew into a spectacular wedding industry event. Guests included the Editor and team at You and Your Wedding, Annabel Beeforth from wedding blog Love My Dress and Emma Woodhouse, The Wedding Reporter.  We showed off a selection of our work, including some new Fairtrade pieces that were hot off the work bench. We also put jewellery on the front of house models, which was a lot of fun, matching pieces to the styles that had been chosen by old school friend Emma Meek of famous Surrey wedding dress institution  Miss Bush- Bridal Wear.

Jewellery comes to life when it is worn, in fact some pieces can look a little underwhelming until someone offers them a backdrop on which they can shine. So getting the opportunity to play with styles and looks made for an enjoyable afternoon, even if it all got a little stressful when the models did a half way change of outfits. It was along way away from cups of tea and the Archers in the comfort of an autumn workshop…

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It’s finally here, having been a long time in the making, and it’s a ring we are all very proud of. For such a strong design, it still looks beautiful and feminine when worn on the finger.

See more images here; http://jondibben.co.uk/products.php/Fairtrade-11/

I bought the large stone last summer. It was one of those situations where I knew I would buy it within seconds of seeing it. It’s a stunner!

Scroll on to read more, and to see some images of the ring being finished along the way.

Designing the ring

The ring took us at least 10 days to get the design right from initial sketches to a working 3D ring,  and involved making 4 silver mock ups, and numerous changes.

‘Seating’ the stones…

Once the ring was made, the first stage was to ‘seat’ the stones into the settings; making subtle adjustments to get them sitting level and straight, wedged in at the right height without any movement, ready to be set. Unlike mass produced jewellery, we use traditional hand engraving tools to cut metal out of the inside of the setting, slowly and surely, allowing for a more refined finish. The aim is to cut a fine ledge for the stone to sit on, hence ‘seating’ the stone.

Each stone can be placed in and out of the setting dozens of times to get them sitting just right. Below shows Dudley ‘offering up’ the large stone.

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Welcome to the first of my Facts postings, prompted by a question asked by my very supportive twitter acquaintance @fairtradesleuth – this ones dedicated to you! If anyone else wants to know anything that’s been puzzling them, preferably to do with jewellery, please let me know…

Gold is yellow

Pure gold is naturally a yellow metal, unlike silver and platinum which are naturally white. Interestingly, gold and copper are the only two non-white metals that occur naturally. In the above photo of our stacking rings, starting from the left, we have yellow, red and white 18ct gold, followed by platinum and then finally another red gold ring.

Why different carats?

Traditionally gold is alloyed with other metals to make it more workable, as in its pure state it is too soft and malleable to be practical. Its the proportion of pure gold to these added metals that give us the different caratages. Which are defined either as ‘fineness’ which is the amount of pure gold in parts out of 1000, or simply as a percentage of pure gold within the total amount.

Adding colour

For example, 18carat gold is 750 parts pure gold out of a total of 1000, or 75%. The 25% made up of other metals, offers the opportunity to change the colour.  Adding a mix of metals including copper, gives us red gold, while a premium white gold alloy will have a large proportion of palladium. Palladium is another natural white metal from the platinum group of metals.

The results of some colours are more successful than others. For example white gold at its best is still a little browny grey, a bit like gun metal. Its not that this isn’t an attractive colour, but obviously isn’t as white as platinum or silver. All the pieces we make in white gold we leave in this honest colour, and obviously choose coloured stones that compliment it. It worked perfectly in out first Fairtrade gold ring which we made in 18ct white gold. The colour gives the ring an understated look, almost vintage in feel, working well with the sea green colour of the tourmalines.                                                                                                       See the finished ring here http://jondibben.co.uk/products.php/Fairtrade-11/

To plate or not to plate

The majority of mass produced white gold jewellery is plated with rhodium, which like palladium is both naturally white and part of the platinum group of metals. It gives the gold a micro thin coating of a true white metal, but unfortunately can show signs of wearing off quite quickly.

Did you know?

That 9ct gold was introduced during wartime when the UK government allowed assay offices to create this lower caratage in order to maintain production of wedding bands which were classified as “essential items” throughout the war itself!                     More on hallmarking another time!?

Initial sketches for our first Fairtrade and Fairmined gold ring commission.

This one has been a lot of fun to design. The client has been incredibly generous creatively, giving me a great deal of freedom to explore ideas. I have pages of sketches. I am now in the process of ‘taming’ this look, only to the extent of making it both practical to make and wear!

It’s going to be made in 18ct certified Fairtrade white gold, and set with a heart shaped blue sapphire and little treated blue/ green diamonds.

I will post some pictures of the finished piece when it’s made.

Introducing the work of Kerry Howley, a jewellery student from Cambridge, whose collection offers an unusual take on organic jewellery. She created the necklaces using hair from the head of her mother’s friend, and takes her inspiration for the flowing designs from the intricacies and details of wallpaper .

She created each piece by weaving the hair using broken saw blades. I wish I had thought of such a novel way of using the broken blades when I was learning my craft. The designs have already attracted the attention of the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture, who awarded Kerry its Arthur Silver Award for 2011.

Kerry designed the jewellery to demonstrate that people can feel opposing emotions about the same material, depending on where they see it. She said: “The necklaces are made of human hair, a material we are familiar with and take pride in. However, once off of the body it becomes an innate source of aversion. I wanted to see if I could make discarded hair attractive again. I hoped to create a delicate balance between feelings of aversion and attraction.”

I think she’s definitely achieved her goal. I find the necklaces both intriguing and beautiful to look at, but when my mind strays to the material, I  feel that slight feeling of aversion that she is looking for, deep down in the pit of my stomach! Very interesting.

Her designs were on show alongside work from other Middlesex University jewellery students at the New Designers graduate show at the Business Design Centre in London: a show that I have visited before and where I have always been amazed by the intense creativity of our graduate designers. Fantastic: Long Live British Design!

See more of Kerry’s work at   www.kerryhowley.co.uk

Well sorry Folks, It’s been a very busy few weeks since getting back from the Treasure exhibition, which was part of London jewellery week.  I came back to a lot of designing work for various new pieces and commissions and needed to spend some time with the family, who had begun to notice my absence!  Still I am more on top of things now, so have a bit of time to chat.

The first thing I want to share is the stand we made for the Treasure exhibition. During the few weeks beforehand, me and Rachel had talked through some ideas, but still hadn’t come up with a definite concept, well at least not one that was practical and acheivable!

It was literally the last weekend when things started to take shape. I remember walking into the workshop, thinking that i needed a break from ‘stand anxiety’ only to re appear a bit later to find that Rachel had taken out every draw from every piece of furniture in the shop. She was stacking them and creating a look that  intrigued me instantly. The rest was just playing, and adding the fabric to the bases of the draws. The fabric came from ‘offf cuts’, left from having all the chairs reupholstered . It was quite a  moment seeing someone you employ stepping up and making a huge difference. It was such a creative idea, and completely conceptualised from things that were already around us, so environmentally sound and quite Buddhist too.  She’s not just a pretty gemmologist you know!

Due to our involvement launching Fairtrade and Fairmined gold, we exhibited within Essence, an inspiring ethical pavillion. It had been styled by Interior students from the London Metropolitan University, who graciously allowed us to personalise their creations. Above shows another great idea from Rachel!

I love this photograph of our latest piece, taken by Dudley in the workshop this very afternoon, in fact, just after he finished making it…He’s a very clever man.

It’s a beautiful, fresh looking stone, with the cornflower blue colour of a classic ceylon sapphire. It’s always unusual to find a sapphire of this quality and size, at 5.74cts, in a round shape.  They are most commonly cut as ovals, cushion shapes or octagons, due to the shape of the crystals found.

It has small round white diamonds that emerge from under the stone to be just visible from the top. It’s part of my Meadow series of rings, and you can see more views of this piece on the Collector page.

Publicity shot for Treasure, where we will be exhibiting as part of London Jewellery Week on the 10th, 11th and 12th of June.

Have a look at our News page to win tickets.

Ten points for spotting the Jon Dibben pieces!

Welcome to our Blog!

I really am very excited about it…

Please do return from time to time, as we are all looking forward to posting lots to look at; Inspiration, current commission work, new designs progressing, fabulous stone finds…basically all that we are up to in the workshop…

See you soon i hope

Jon