GUEST EVENING 'Jewellery Making', Michael Clarkson

The Club welcomed Michael Clarkson who gave a presentation on jewellery making.

Michael is the son of Club member Ian who started the jewellery business in Victoria Street in 1958. Since then it has flourished and lists among its past purchasers of bespoke jewellery such luminaries as Barry Manilow, Billy Connolly and Dawn French as well as the late John Smith and Robin Cook.

Michael started in his father's business on leaving school and went on to study at the Glasgow Art School. He described his role over the past 28 years as being tied to the work-bench above the shop but he acknowledged that he had the great satisfaction of being able to work creatively every day of the week designing jewellery. With the aid of photo and film he described the process involving tools which would have been recognised in Dickens' day alongside 3D computer imagery; and he described the conditions in the work-shop as a dirty and sweaty environment - not at all what we might imagine! He ended his talk with pictures of some of the beautiful jewellery produced in the workshop with explanations of how the more intricate work was completed.

In response to a question he described how the workshop was vacuumed every day to recover the tiny fragments of precious metal in the filings and droppings. He recalled one instance when the workshop was scoured in search of a small but very valuable diamond which was eventually found, albeit almost by accident!

Mike Rowe thanked Michael for a fascinating presentation.

Report by Mike Rowe