Hands-on experience brings Jewellery Quarter traditions to life

Birmingham, often referred to as the city of a thousand trades, has enjoyed a well-deserved renaissance over the past few years.

A business in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter is encouraging people to have a go at one of the trades which made the city what it is today. The Quarterworkshop, which is based on Fleet Street, hosts a wide range of jewellery-making workshops for people to enjoy whilst learning the skills which have helped create Birmingham.

Victoria Delany, owner of The Quarterworkshop, is eager for people to learn that there is more to jewellery than what shoppers see in the windows of stores in the area. Victoria, who lives in Birmingham and has been based in the Jewellery Quarter for the last five years, discovered her passion for creating jewellery after learning how to blacksmith at an Art Foundation course before heading to Buckinghamshire Chilterns University to study Design, Metal Work and Jewellery.

Now Victoria is teaching people how to make everything from earrings, charms, bangles and her most popular class, wedding rings. She is discovering that there is a shift in attitudes towards jewellery among the millennial generation, compared to the days of being given jewellery at certain ages and occasions.

She said: “People now don’t want it to be special because of the value, but because of the memory and experience it holds. People are less likely to just want something from a shop now; they want it to be personalised and to have it mean something to them.

“I think experiences are valued much higher nowadays. You can buy hundreds of different products, but how often can you design and create your very own.”

Victoria has worked alongside many couples who are eager to create something extra personal for their special day. She said: “With the wedding ring workshops, I see people suddenly realise that it is about them. When you’re planning a wedding, you spend a lot of time thinking about the guests and what they are going to enjoy and you don’t tend to concentrate on yourselves.

“There is a look that people have when they do the workshop and I think it brings it home that they’re getting married and that’s what it’s all about – them together.”

The Quarterworkshop, which has welcomed visitors from as far as Tennessee, USA, uses the same techniques that have been perfected in the Jewellery Quarter for hundreds of years. Victoria explained that she enjoys showing people the skills that have helped create the Jewellery Quarter, which produces 40% of all the jewellery made in the UK.

She said: “The jewellery trade is strange, there are a mix of really modern techniques and very old techniques that were used hundreds of years ago.

“In the Jewellery Quarter, you rarely see the behind the scenes part and you just see the store. But there are still those behind the store creating the jewellery and lots of different types of traders that still exist in the area.”

However, Victoria believes that there is still a need for a range of skills in Birmingham. She said: “You will always need people to pass on the skills required to make jewellery. There are some things that will always need to be done, like engravers.

“They are the skills that people spend years learning how to do and becoming good at it. We need new people to keep these skills going, but I do think they need promoting much more.”

So, what are Victoria’s tips in looking after our favourite pieces of jewellery? She said: “My advice is to wear them as often as you can, especially silver, so it doesn’t go black, and clean them often.

“However, you are always going to risk marking your jewellery, but some do not mind that as their jewellery is growing with them and their experiences. Often, you cannot stop it from happening, so it’s good to embrace it.”