Highland School of Jewellery News
WASPS 5 Year Anniversary
Future Events and Classes
WASPS 5 Year Anniversary
On the 11th of October WASPS Creative Academy held a special opening event to make the 5th year anniversary of the opening of the building.
A fantastic exhibition was displayed in the café with 70-80 artists that have a connection to the building. The exhibition included 2D artist and painters, contemporary art as well as jewellery and glass. Highland School of Jewellery displayed a cabinet of work from Karen-Ann Dicken, Thomas Lacroix as well as a display of work created in the school.
As the founder of Highland School of Jewellery, Karen-Ann Dicken was asked to give a speech at the opening alongside the Lord Provost and Inverness Dark Room.
The exhibition will run until the 11th of November, so make sure you get down there to see the fantastic work on display.
Ada Festival
Future Events and Classes
WASPS 5 Year Anniversary
On the 3rd of October Highland School of Jewellery took part in Ada festival held at WASPS Creative Academy, Inverness. The aims of the Ada festival is to address the gender imbalance amongst STEAM subject areas. The event welcomed 75 female and non-binary school children from schools across the Highlands and hosted a range of exciting activities including drone flying.
Highland School of Jewellery ran workshops making individual copper pendants. The workshops were taught by Karen-Ann Dicken and Thomas Lacroix and gave a short introduction to techniques including stamping, filing and polishing. The event was a great success and a lot of fun was had by all, including some of the school teachers who also got to try their hands at jewellery making.
Future Events and Classes
Future Events and Classes
Future Events and Classes
24th August: We have the brilliant Ailsa Wilde teaching our first official class in the workshop. She will be running a class making a trio of rings. This is a class suitable for beginner jewellery makers.
14th September: Karen-Ann Dicken will be running a silver pendant making class. This class is suitable for beginner to intermediate level. This class will be about the techniques of granulation and reticulation which produces beautiful organic textures in silver.
Open workshop weekly drop in: Starting next month we will be running weekly open workshops each Wednesday from 5.30-8.30pm. These sessions are for people who have some jewellery making experience that wish to work on their own projects. Karen-Ann Dicken will be on hand to advise on techniques and ways of making your jewellery designs come to life.
we also have a range of other classes including Autumn evening class as well as specialist one off classes. Keep an eye on out courses page for more information.
Our Grand Opening
Building the School
Future Events and Classes
On Saturday 10th August we had our grand opening in the Highland School of Jewellery. We kicked off with Gem-stone bingo which was run by the very knowledgeable gemmologist, Kelly Gregory from Gemstone Rocks. She provided a brilliant afternoon of fun, sparkly things, gem-stone knowledge and all with a cheeky gin and tonic. The event was very successful and popular, but don’t worry if you missed it! We will be getting her back up to the Highlands again soon!
After the Gemstone bingo, we had a lovely opening with a few glasses of wine and lots of lovely food. It was great to see so many people there interested in jewellery design and wanted to support our venture.
Building the School
Building the School
Building the School
Over the last five years living in Inverness I have been asked regularly where people can learn new jewellery making techniques in the Highlands. I have also heard often that jewellers and 3D makers could do with a place to meet and discuss tools, techniques and collaborations. I therefore set out in November 2023 to write a business plan for Highland School or Jewellery.
In February of this year I took part in the Venture Business competition at The University of Dundee. With a successful presentation Highland School of Jewellery was awarded funds to start the business.
We secured the studio space at WASPS Creative academy in the spring and got the keys at the start of April. The amazing Thomas Lacroix then got involved and between the two of us we spent several months building both workbenches and jewellery benches for the space. Much of the wood was reclaimed from various sources including horse stable doors, old fence posts and an unwanted bunk bed. After many months of sanding, hammering and moving equipment and furniture, we finished building the workshop by the middle July 2024.