The Goldsmiths' Centre

Today a new chapter begins at the Goldsmiths' Centre with the appointment of Julia Balchin as our Director and Richard Reid as Chair of our Board of Trustees.

Together, Julia and Richard will build on the Goldsmiths' Centre's reputation as a centre of excellence for learning, innovation and enterprise, supporting the skills, talent and businesses shaping the future of the jewellery and silversmithing industries. With Julia's extensive experience in arts, culture and education, and Richard's expertise in governance, finance and philanthropy, we're excited to continue championing craftspeople, designers and makers at every stage of their careers and strengthening the UK's world-leading craft and manufacturing sector.

Please join us in welcoming Julia and Richard to their new roles.

By the time someone reaches your product page, they've already formed an impression of your brand. How consistent your social media is with your website, how clearly your work is photographed, how confidently you write about what you make, all of it is doing sales work before anyone has clicked buy.

Zoe Cooper has spent 22 years designing and delivering sales training for luxury retail, working with clients including Boodles, Alexander McQueen and Dover Street Market. On 21 September, she's joining us online for a Creative Links session on what actually drives buying decisions — and what most independent jewellers can do differently. Networking at the start, Q&A at the end.

✖️ Date: 21 September 2026
✖️ Time: 6 – 8pm
✖️ Price: Pay what you can: £7 or £10
✖️ Venue: Online via Zoom
✖️ Bookings: goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on

https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on/creative-links-the-psychology-of-online-sales-with-zoe-cooper/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a5e2687c9bfd597bcf851b9

In the 16th and 17th centuries, watchmakers and jewellers were often the same person. They were setting tiny mechanisms into rings, pendants and brooches, and their ingenious timepieces were also objects of extraordinary craft.

On 12 October, Rachel Church, curator, historian, author of Rings and Brooches and Badges, and former V&A curator, is joining us online to talk about the many ways jewellers have worked with time: from miniature timepieces set into jewels, to pieces made to outlast generations, to ephemeral work designed to fade and disappear. Q&A at the end.

✖️ Date: 12 October 2026
✖️ Time: 6 – 7pm
✖️ Price: Pay what you can: £7 or £10
✖️ Venue: Online via Zoom
✖️ Bookings: goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on

https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on/the-jeweller-and-time-with-rachel-church/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a5defb5c9bfd597bcf84ec4

If you work in finance, marketing, sales, operations or business strategy and have been thinking about how to use that experience beyond your day job, our Business Mentoring Programme is worth a look.

The programme pairs experienced professionals with early-career jewellers and silversmiths for up to 12 months of one-to-one support. Mentees come having already completed a Business Diagnostic session, so they arrive with a clear picture of where their business needs attention, which means your time is spent on specific, practical problems. Meetings are online by default, two to three times every four to six weeks, and the programme is entirely voluntary.

We're looking for people with 8+ years of senior business experience, founders, finance leaders, commercial directors, marketing and brand specialists, and product and operations professionals. You don't need any background in jewellery.

Applications are open year-round. If you'd like to find out more before applying, get in touch directly at [email protected], link in our bio.

https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/learn-and-upskill/business-mentoring/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a6c9e189f20706cc011889b

The jewellery industry might have a different relationship with overconsumption than fashion does. Still, the broader culture of buying more and valuing less affects everyone, including the makers and retailers trying to argue for quality over quantity.

On 16 November, clothier, businessman and Great British Sewing Bee judge Patrick Grant () is joining us at the Goldsmiths' Centre for an in-conversation evening on exactly that: what the fashion industry has learned about overconsumption, and what the jewellery trade can take from it. He'll be in conversation with jeweller and EC One () co-founder Jos Skeates (), and our Head of Public Programmes Charlotte Dew. Patrick will be signing copies of his book Less on the night.

✖️ Date: 16 November 2026
✖️ Time: 6 – 8pm
✖️ Price: £20 (includes a glass of wine or soft drink)
✖️ Venue: The Goldsmiths' Centre, London
✖️ Bookings: goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on

https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on/patrick-grant-on-why-less-can-be-more-findings-from-the-fashion-industry/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a5e21ffc9bfd597bcf851a9

For most jewellers, colour in a collection means gemstones. Cloisonné enamelling is a different route to it, one where the colour itself is part of the making, built up in fine layers between delicate silver wires and fired in a kiln until the surface is smooth, even and distinctly yours.

It's a technique with a long history, but it sits very comfortably in contemporary work, and for a jeweller looking to make their collection more distinctive, it's a skill that's hard to replicate any other way.

This two-day course with award-winning enamel artist Linda Connelly (.linda) takes you through the full process: preparing your silver blank and wire, wet-laying and firing enamel, working with colour blends and shading, and polishing to a professional finish. Beginner and intermediate level, eight places.

✖️ Date: 6 – 7 November 2026
✖️ Time: 9.30am – 4.30pm
✖️ Price: £439
✖️ Venue: The Goldsmiths' Centre, London
✖️ Bookings: goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on

https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on/cloisonne-enamelling-with-linda-connelly/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a69e1e104b4a4eb592eba22

Keum-boo (금부) is a Korean gilding technique that bonds 24-carat gold foil onto silver using heat and pressure without any solder or adhesive. The gold becomes part of the surface permanently.

Hendrike Barz-Meltzer () has been working with keum-boo for years and has built much of her practice around the gold-on-silver patterns it produces. On 10 September, she's joining us online to talk through the process in detail, the tools, materials, how to prepare the silver surface, and how the technique sits alongside other approaches to gilding.

✖️ Date: 10 September 2026
✖️ Time: 6 – 7.15pm
✖️ Price: Pay what you can: £7 or £10
✖️ Venue: Online via Zoom
✖️ Bookings: goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on

https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on/techniques-in-focus-keum-boo-with-hendrike-barz-meltzer/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a54f9c897689f33d756af27

New short courses for autumn and winter are coming, and many of them will sell out quickly.

If there's a technique you've been wanting to learn, getting on our Register Your Interest list is the best way to make sure you don't miss out. Everyone on the list gets 24-hour priority booking when a new course opens before it goes live to the public.

We'll be announcing new dates soon. Link in our bio to register.

https://forms.goldsmiths-centre.org/250341916745963?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a6a1e32c3864b0e2f4e614f

Danuta Solowiej () arrived in London on New Year's Eve 1988, having studied tapestry and painting in Suprasl and sculpture in Warsaw. She went on to become an inaugural student of the Contemporary Art Medal course at the Royal College of Art, and has spent the decades since making, teaching and exhibiting — her work now held in the British Museum, the V&A, the Goldsmiths' Company Collection and the Royal Collection, among others.

On 9 November, in collaboration with the British Art Medal Society (), she's joining us at the Goldsmiths' Centre to talk through her creative practice and story through the medium of medals, how she has navigated instinct, identity and a practice that has moved between two countries and multiple bodies of work.

This is also the first time we're running one of our talks as a combined in-person and online event. If you're in London, join us at the Goldsmiths' Centre from 6pm for a drink and networking before Danuta speaks at 6.30pm. If you're further afield, the Zoom link opens at 6.30pm for the talk itself. Same speaker, same evening, just two ways to be there.

✖️ Date: 9 November 2026
✖️ Time: In person 6 – 8pm / Online 6.30 – 7.30pm
✖️ Price: In person £15 (includes a glass of wine or soft drink) / Online £7
✖️ Venue: The Goldsmiths' Centre, London / Online via Zoom
✖️ Bookings: goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on

https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on/trust-your-instinct-the-medals-of-danuta-solowiej/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a5e03cfc9bfd597bcf84efc