All that glitters - it’s back, baby!
This blog contains spoilers for All That Glitters S02E01
Foodies have Masterchef, bakers have Bake Off, potters have the Throw Down… but last year us jewellers finally got a TV competition format of our own, when All That Glitters made its debut. Season 2 hit our screens last week, and it’s already become a must-view - no, friends, I won’t be responding to any texts or answering any calls between 9pm and 10pm on Thursday nights for the foreseeable.
The Season 2 contestants of All That Glitters
Last year, I took to Instagram after every episode, to explain some of the jargon and techniques used, and answer any burning questions from my followers. This year, the show starts an hour later, so I thought I’d write a weekly blog instead, breaking down the episode and giving you a sneak peak behind the scenes of a real-life jewellery studio.
And to bring it all to life, each week I’m going to pick a challenge faced by the contestants, and try to recreate it (with my own twist, of course!) in the same timeframe. There’s no getting away from it - I’m gonna have my work cut out for me!
We met the newest batch of jewellers last week and a brand new judge, Dinny Hall. I have to admit, I had no idea who Dinny was… but a quick Google assured me that she’d been in the biz since I was 2 years old, so there’s no doubting her industry knowledge!
The jewellers were thrown in the deep end with a tricky first Bestseller Challenge, where they had to create a wearable and commercial piece of jewellery. This week was all about single statement earrings, which according to returning judge Shaun Leane are having a moment. Now I’m a big fan of the SSE myself, but I can’t recall a customer ever asking for less than a pair (HMU though if you’re after one!). The earring had to be set with a cabochon stone in a bezel setting.
I jumped for joy when I saw this, because I ADORE working with gemstones, and bezel setting is my superpower. It’s also a great first challenge because many professional don’t actually do their own stone setting! Often, jewellers will pay professional stone setters or jobbing jewellers to do all their stone setting for them, and so this might not be something that the contestants had done themselves for a very long time.
So with all this in mind, and because I of course do all my own stone setting, this was the challenge I decided to recreate in my studio. The jewellers were given 3.5 hours to complete the task, which I just have to say is a RIDICULOUSLY SHORT amount of time. So working smart was the order of the day.
I decided to riff on my WOODLANDS collection, and create a celtic knot earring, set with an agate from Cupar in Fife. Like the contestants, I started off by sketching out my design on paper, and cut it out so I could more easily replicate the shape in metal.
I then cut the shape out in recycled sterling silver sheet, using my jewellers saw. This technique is called piercing, but it can create jagged edges in your piece, especially when working to TV timescales. It took me about 45 minutes to get everything pierced out.
The next part of the process, cleaning up those jagged edges by filing and sanding, easily took up most of my time - about 90 minutes in all, and I could have spent double that. I had to be careful with my timing, so I did a good enough job even though it wasn’t to my usual high standards. I decided then to add a texture to the front of the celtic loop, using my ball pein hammer as well as a couple of doming punches. I do love the texture this creates, and it links in with some of my current collections, but there was a practical reason too - a flat shiny surface requires a lot more finishing work than a textured one!
I then set about making the setting for my agate. In the show, the contestants used 1mm sterling silver sheet for their setting, but I used 0.5mm fine silver instead. The principles are the same though - measure both the length and width of the silver so it matches the stone’s circumference and height to ensure a perfect fit. If I’d only had 1mm sheet, I would have probably run it through my rolling mill a couple of times to thin it out a wee bit so that it’s easier to work with.
The ends of the setting are then soldered together, before shaping it into a perfect circle on my mandrel, then soldering it to a sterling silver backplate. What you didn’t see in the show, was the contestants then cleaning up the setting - piercing off the excess silver, and filing and sanding until the setting is completely smooth all the way round.
The next step is attaching the setting to the earring itself. There were a few different ways this was achieved in the show - some soldered the setting straight on, so it became an integral part of the earring, while others attached the setting with jump rings to create movement. I decided to go with option 1, and soldered my setting onto the bottom of the celtic loop.
After every pass with the blowtorch, the silver has to sit in a nice warm acid bath, called pickle, for at least 10 minutes to clean it up. While my earring was sitting in the pickle, I shaped a very quick earring wire using around 60mm of 0.8mm round wire.
Once out of the pickle, I popped my earring into the barrel polisher for 20 minutes. Now here I have to admit I stopped the clock - the jewellers don’t use this process on the show, and it was my choice to add this as an extra step that wasn’t strictly necessary under competition rules. But, it’s part of my usual process, so I chilled out and had my lunch, and knocked myself up a quick pair of 9ct gold earrings using some scrap.
I restarted the clock after I fished the earring out of the barrel polisher (I can honestly say this is the hardest part of the making process!) and set the stone. I use three different tools to set bezels: firstly, I use a pusher to push the metal towards and over the top edge of the cabochon. I use a North-South, East-West technique to ensure the setting is even. Secondly, I use a curved burnisher to smooth out the top of the setting to get it as close to the stone as possible. And then lastly, I use a pointed tip burnisher to clean up the edges and the very top of the bezel. Once the setting itself is complete, I file and sand the sides of the bezel by hand to get rid of any little marks made by the stone setting tools. I’m quite quick at this part of the process by now anyway, so setting itself took no more than 10 minutes in total, and the sanding then took another 5 minutes. I didn’t take any shortcuts with this - I decided I wanted quality over speed, as bezel setting is my bread and butter.
In a panic, one of the jewellers glued the stone rather than setting it, which I just want to address. Not everyone realises that stones aren’t glued into their bezels - they’re held ONLY by the metal encasing them. Apart from my amulets, which hang upside down and are secured with a bit of glue in addition to a full traditional setting to provide an extra protection against gravity, I don’t glue any of my stones into their settings. Maybe I’m a bad person, but watching the jewellers struggle with this part of the process made me feel very smug I have to say! I don’t doubt that there will be plenty of techniques throughout the season that I can’t even contemplate doing justice, but it was nice to take the little wins where I can get them!
To finish the piece, I gave it a quick polish on my Foredom, using a vegan polishing compound. Usually I would work my way up from the coarsest grit to the finest, using four different compounds to get the best finish, but to save time I skipped straight to the finest grit. Once polished, I washed off the residue with a bit of soapy water and an old toothbrush, gave it a quick dry and buff with a micro fibre towel, then popped on the earring wire I’d made earlier. And voila! A not entirely perfect, but perfectly passable single statement celtic knot earring set with Cupar agate, made in 3.5 hours! Take a look at the process video I made to bring it all to life!
Now, like I said before, I don’t usually get asked for single statement earrings, so as it happens I’m going to turn this bad boy into a necklace and gift to my aunt for her birthday - Cupar is essentially halfway between where she and I both grew up and went to University, so I think it will be very special and meaningful to her!
But back to the show! The front runners made themselves known rightaway in the Bestseller Challenge, with Jack and Piers coming first and second respectively. I have to say though that my favourite was Emma’s who made a peacock feather earring set with lapis lazuli which I thought was exquisite and entirely my style - it reminded me a wee bit of my WOODLANDS collection, and in particular this little Blue John cutie.
Onto the Bespoke Challenge, where the jewellers have to make a special piece of unique jewellery for client. This week, the client Hannah wanted a sterling silver name plate necklace. The contestants could embellish this with brass, and were given a tiny gemstone to set, too.
Steve’s design immediately jumped out to me. He’s Syrian-born and, inspired by Arabic and Persian calligraphy (which I LOVE - check out one of my favourite artists here), he created Hannah’s name in Arabic calligraphy with a little stone to represent the i’jam. Unfortunately, his execution let him down - his stone setting was rushed, and his chain broke as he was attaching it to the pendant.
The moment of the episode for me, though, was Nyanda losing her tiny gemstone, which sparked a three-man search for it under her bench! Shaun’s eagle-eyes came to Nyanda’s rescue, finding the stone tucked in her bench skin. Any jewellers reading this will know that feeling all too well - a tiny stone pings out of the setting or out of your tweezers, never to be seen again! I swear as jewellers we spend more time trying to find small components on the floor than we do actually making jewellery!
Nyanda had chosen to represent Hannah’s name in Hebrew, with a hidden ruby, Hannah’s birthstone, on the back of the pendant. Hannah clearly adored this piece as soon as she saw it, and immediately picked it to take home - just as well Shaun found that ruby! Although his piece wasn’t selected by the client, Jack continued to impress in the Bespoke Challenge, and was named as Jeweller of the Week.
Sadly, Steve’s time management and execution in both challenges saw him firmly at the bottom of the leaderboard, and he was sent home. I’m sorry to see him go to be honest, as he had some cracking ideas and designs. I think he would have gotten more used to the time pressures and stresses of the competition over the coming weeks. But someone has to leave first, I guess.
I can’t wait to watch next week’s show, and see what’s in store for the jewellers in Round 2! Once again, I’ll be picking one of the challenges to recreate in my own studio, and I’m looking forward to sharing that with you, too!
Did you watch last week’s episode of All That Glitters? I’d love to hear what you thought of it in the comments below, and let me know what you think of my attempt at the Bestseller Challenge!