Metal Arts Adventures #17: Birmingham Jewellery Museum | Virtual Visit to Sculpt Nouveau

Join us on a fascinating visit to the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England lead by our own Anne Wolf! We’ll see how production jewelry was manufactured in the hey day of Birmingham’s Jewelry Quarter. In the early 1900's the Quarter employed over 30,000 people who used fly presses, belt-driven polishers and blow-torches (why do Brits call torches ‘blow-torches?’-  watch this and you’ll never forget!). Next we'll take a virtual visit to Sculpt Nouveau with Steel & Gold Artist Bette Barnett and she'll show us how to select and buy finishes, along with some tips for purchasing patinas on their tricky website. Read more for photos, links and resources.

Click photos for a larger view.

Links and resources from this episode:

• Phillips Prescription Safety Glasses (recommended by John Niero): especially to prevent eye damage from flames associated with metalworking: phillips-safety.com/product-category/glassworking/.
  
• We've extended the deadline for our Hand Medal Project from October 15th - October 23rd. You can contact the Hand Medal Project organizers at [email protected] and learn more about the project: annevillestudio.com/blog/sawing-circle-a-great-success.
  
• Vintage Smith an Pepper jewelry for sale: https://www.etsy.com.
  
• More about the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter Museum: birminghamconservationtrust.org/2014/04/05/the-smith-and-pepper-factory/.
  
• About Smith & Pepper: “The firm made a wide range of jewellery, notably swallow designs, popular during the World Wars and Egyptian style snake designs, after Egyptologist Howard Carter made ancient Egypt fashionable. It finally stopped trading in 1981, when the three owners decided to retire. For its 82-year history the firm was run as a family business, although by the end it was being run by the Smith family alone.” wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_and_Pepper.
  
• Sculpt Nouveau: sculptnouveau.com.
  
• Here’s the link to download the Sculpt Nouveau Instructions Guide: sculptnouveau.com/pages/instructions.
  
• 300 Patinas Book: goodreads.com/book/show/22816768-patina.
  
• Monterey area source for patinas (recommended by Sky Paxton): Fisk Paints. 465c Olympia Ave. Sand City, Ca 93955 - learn more on their Yelp page.