The Goldsmiths' Centre

In 2021, the Cutlers' Company (.uk) launched an annual design competition with an unusual condition: the winning cutlery sets won't be used until 2116, at a dinner marking the Company's 700th anniversary. One hundred place settings, each a different design, made now for a celebration nobody alive today will attend.

Dr Frances Parton's essay in the Culture of Cutlery catalogue tells the story of how that idea came about and the five years of extraordinary student work that has followed.

Free to visit at the Goldsmiths' Centre, Monday to Friday, 9am – 6pm, until 24 June.

If you can't make it in person, the exhibition catalogue is available in our online shop, 50 pages exploring the same ground, with essays by Rachel Church, Emma Paragreen, Erin Sleeper, Dr Frances Parton and Charlotte Dew, plus a conversation with maker Simone ten Hompel.

Purchase it at goldsmiths-shop-talent.org/collections/exhibition-catalogues-and-books/ or via the link in the bio.

https://goldsmiths-shop-talent.org/collections/exhibition-catalogues-and-books/products/the-culture-of-cutlery?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a27fff6951f5a714f168d34

Most jewellers improve through practice, but practice only takes you so far without knowing what to look for. The difference between good work and competition-standard work is often in the details, such as surface finish, solder lines, and the evenness of a setting, and those details are hard to see in your own work.

On 7 July, the Goldsmiths' Centre and GC&DC () are running two small-group feedback sessions where you bring a finished piece and sit down one-to-one with three experienced jewellers and manufacturers for personalised, hands-on feedback. It's open to all makers, whether you've entered a competition before or not. Nine places per session, but tickets are selling fast.
✖️ Date: 7 July 2026
✖️ Time: 2 – 4pm or 5.30 – 7.30pm
✖️ Price: £20
✖️ Venue: The Goldsmiths' Centre, London
✖️ Bookings: goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on

https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on/jewellery-feedback-session-refining-your-finish-with-gcdc/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a39047a5a6e0d8effc5dcfa

Most jewellers selling online know their website could work harder. Fewer know exactly why it isn't.

Zoe Cooper has spent 22 years designing and delivering sales training for luxury retail clients, including Alexander McQueen, Boodles, Dover Street Market and Stella McCartney.

On 21 September, she's joining us online to talk through the psychology of what actually drives buying decisions: how trust is built or lost before anyone reaches a product page, what good and bad user experience looks like in practice, and why so many online stores lose customers at the final step.

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_6a200e086d1f7b62291308fd

Richard Fox and Grant Macdonald are two of the most respected names in British silversmithing. Oscar Saurin () spent ten years working across both. He worked on Formula One trophies, ecclesiastical commissions, Middle Eastern pieces and bespoke work before moving into teaching.

In September, he's running a three-day course at the Goldsmiths' Centre covering hand-raising, forming, hammering and the fly press. You'll work on a raised bowl and a form-pressed lid across the three days, with Oscar's attention on how you're developing control and confidence with the techniques rather than just getting the piece made.

Eight places, intermediate level. Bookings close 8 September.

✖️ Date: 22 – 24 September 2026
✖️ Time: 9.30am – 4.30pm
✖️ Price: £529
✖️ Venue: The Goldsmiths' Centre, London
✖️ Bookings: goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on

https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on/silversmithing-skills-with-oscar-saurin-sep26/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a1e97865c13e2c570a0e686

A spoon is one of the first tools we use, to drum, to flick, to feed. It's one of the last, too. And somewhere in between, most of us stop noticing it entirely.

Simone ten Hompel hasn't. The metalsmith and silversmith has spent decades making spoons, hundreds of them, in fact, turning over the same questions about form, material and what it means for an object to enter the body. In conversation with Charlotte Dew and Gregory Parsons in the Culture of Cutlery catalogue, she talks about where a spoon ends and a cup begins, about the spoons she finds crushed in the road and manipulates, about taking an imprint of her mother's cutlery in soap, in case one day she no longer has access to it.

Free to visit at the Goldsmiths' Centre, Monday to Friday, 9am – 6pm, until 24 June.

If you can't make it in person, the exhibition catalogue is available in our online shop, 50 pages exploring the same ground, with essays by Rachel Church, Emma Paragreen, Erin Sleeper, Dr Frances Parton and Charlotte Dew, plus a conversation with maker Simone ten Hompel.

Purchase it at goldsmiths-shop-talent.org/collections/exhibition-catalogues-and-books/ or via the link in the bio.

https://goldsmiths-shop-talent.org/collections/exhibition-catalogues-and-books/products/the-culture-of-cutlery?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a28007e951f5a714f168f55

Wire is one of those materials most jewellers use for jump rings, settings, and findings without thinking much about it. This talk looks at what it can do when it becomes the focus rather than the support.

Jean Scott-Moncrieff () has spent decades working almost exclusively with wire, making jewellery by hand that draws on ancient Mediterranean techniques and is held in collections internationally.

On 14 July, she's joining us online to talk through the breadth of wire work, from its historical roots through to award-winning contemporary pieces from the GC&DC, including a detailed look at her own process making the Etruscan Necklace.

Programmed in partnership with the GC&DC () and the Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers ()

✖️ Date: 14 July 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-working-with-wire/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a1eab6db9d8f84976c87089

The GC&DC Awards () Exhibition 2026 opens at the Goldsmiths' Centre on 2 July, and it's free to visit until 10 September.

837 entries, 46 categories, 67 Gold Awards.

The work on show spans jewellery, silversmithing and the allied crafts, from apprentice submissions through to some of the most technically accomplished makers working in the UK today. Among the pieces you can see: Janet Barber's () Downy Feather Brooch in titanium, mother-of-pearl and diamonds, this year's winner of the Goldsmiths' Company Award for Exceptional and Outstanding Design, which left judges "spellbound"; Annabel Hood's () Florid Scrolls, an intricately hand-engraved steel piece made during her gun engraving apprenticeship; Caitlin Murphy's () Alpha Box in niobium and rose gold; and Dan Voaden's () Candy Cane Coral ring set with sea-green opals.

If you're coming to see the exhibition, two events run alongside it. On 7 July, there's a Jewellery Feedback Session with the GC&DC for emerging makers to get expert advice on craft, presentation and finish; and on 14 July, a Techniques in Focus talk on working with wire with goldsmith Jean Scott-Moncrieff ().

Both are bookable via the link in our bio.

✖️ Exhibition: 2 July – 10 September 2026
✖️ Time: Mon – Fri, 9am – 6pm
✖️ Price: Free admission
✖️ Venue: The Goldsmiths' Centre, London
✖️ Bookings: goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on

https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on/the-goldsmiths-craft-design-council-awards-exhibition-2026/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a26e5f80ab79a1694b043be

Linda Connelly (.linda) has been working with cloisonné for over 20 years. She's won multiple GC&DC Awards for her enamel work, and she teaches the technique not just as a process but as a practice, which makes two days with her quite different from following a set of instructions.

The course covers everything from preparing your silver blank and wire through to wet-laying enamel, firing, grinding and polishing to a professional finish. You'll work on colour blending and shading throughout, and leave with a completed cloisonné piece. All materials provided.

Eight places, beginner and intermediate level. Bookings close 19 June.

✖️ Date: 3 – 4 July 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_6a2802e052e494519cee8a5e

Wholesaling, drops, growing a team, getting your work in front of the right people, these are the conversations most jewellers are having privately, often without anyone who's been through it to talk to.

On 18 June, Susannah King () joins us online for a Creative Links conversation with Liz Olver (). Susannah built her brand from a makeshift bench in her London bedroom to a store in Kensington in four years. The talk covers the decisions she made along the way: when to wholesale and when not to, how she structures drops, what outsourcing looks like in practice, and how she thinks about promotion as the business gets bigger.

There's networking at the start and a Q&A at the end.

✖️ Date: 18 June 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-susannah-king-in-conversation-with-liz-olver/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a1eb1a7376b4d6ad08d6c10

Filigree has been around for 5,000 years. The word itself comes from the Latin for thread and grain. It appears across cultures and centuries, from ancient Mediterranean jewellery to Portuguese goldsmithing traditions, and it's a technique that still produces work unlike anything else.

Filipa Oliveira is one of the few specialists teaching it in the UK. Over two days at the Goldsmiths' Centre, she takes you through the process from the beginning, making and controlling fine wire, building and soldering filigree forms, working up to your own pieces. You'll also make simple tools to support the work back in your own workshop.

Eight places, intermediate level.

✖️ Date: 29 – 30 September 2026
✖️ Time: 9.30am – 4.30pm
✖️ Price: £409
✖️ Venue: The Goldsmiths' Centre, London
✖️ Bookings: goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on

https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on/filigree-technique-with-filipa-oliveira-sep26/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a20153443d0999965033e21