Jewellery adds sparkle to Gardening Scotland

Students from Carnegie College’s jewellery department are heading off to the Royal Highland Centre at Ingliston this weekend to join over 400 exhibitors at Gardening Scotland. The national garden and outdoor living show attracts thousands of visitors and the students are hoping most of them will make a bee-line to the Craft Marquee to take a look at their unique, hand-made designer jewellery. Caroline Finlay, lecturer with the School of Computing and Creative Arts explains. “To get an idea of the size of the market out there, the students have raised funds to exhibit at the huge Craft Marquee at Gardening Scotland. This will open up their work to a wider audience than they have so far experienced.” Students come from far and wide to enrol on the jewellery courses at Carnegie, as there are not that many colleges in Scotland offering this type of course, which covers drawing, design and jewellery manufacture. Alienor Conlon (23) moved to Limekilns from Dublin specifically to enrol on the NQ Intermediate course at Carnegie. She said “I had been working with a jewellery company that specialised in diamonds, but felt that to progress I would need to have a wider knowledge. A search on the internet brought up this course at Carnegie, offering the practical skills I was looking for, so I came over for an interview, was accepted and moved over to Fife.” Another student is Ieva Melnika, who at 19 is far from her native country of Latvia. She had moved to Leeds in 2007 and was looking for somewhere to study. Ieva explained “When I read Carnegie’s prospectus and saw this course, I thought ‘Wow, something new’, so I applied for a place and moved up to Dunfermline. I found a job to fund my studies, and I am loving every minute of it. I’m trying to develop my own contemporary style of jewellery and plan to open my own gallery in a few years.” Molly Ginnelly (31) only had to travel a few miles to attend Carnegie from High Valleyfield. Needing a change of pace from her busy job, and having always made accessories with beads and wire, she felt the time was right to ‘learn how to do it properly’. She said “I’m so glad I came on this course, it has definitely helped to get rid of the stress I was feeling.” As a single parent of two, Molly’s children are following in their mum’s footsteps, as Molly explained. “I have set up a small workshop at home, and they often come and help me. My 10 year old daughter has actually made a piece of jewellery of a standard that someone much older would have difficulty in creating.” Speaking about taking her work to Gardening Scotland, Molly said “I was there last year as a visitor, so I’m really excited about going there this time as an exhibitor. It’s a great opportunity and everyone has been busy creating the items we will be exhibiting.” To find out more about jewellery courses at Carnegie College, please call 0844 248 0115