Original subtitles

Our country is full of incredible makers dreaming of turning their talent into

money -making careers.

It would mean everything to be able to do this full -time.

So, with a team of fantastic professional mentors... I know your

know what you're capable of doing.

I run a one -of -a -kind bootcamp, showing them how to do just that.

Perfect. My proudest moment, I'll just share that. Yes. Now I'm on my way to

catch up with those who have made their dreams come true. Hello. There he is.

Hello, mate.

I'll be hearing about their amazing achievements. I've been able to put down

deposit on a house.

This is my full -time job.

And finding out how much money they're making.

A little bit under £40 ,000.

Around £50 ,000. £50 ,000? Yeah. So join me and meet the fabulous makers who

have transformed their lives and made it at market.

You can kind of say I'm living the dream. I think that's fair to say.

No matter how brilliant they might be at making their pieces...

The one thing that everyone who comes to my bootcamp struggles with is being

able to market and sell enough of their work to build a successful business.

Today, we'll be meeting two who have overcome that hurdle.

Later, we'll be checking in with former teacher and jeweller Sarah in Glasgow,

whose success has meant she's had to take drastic action after being

with orders.

I actually put out on social media that I was closed for commissions and that

still didn't stop the quest.

But first, I'll be catching up with Copper Smith Roy in Wiltshire.

He came to my boot camp in the summer of 2023, hoping we could help him turn his

love of metal sculpture into a full -time career after recently quitting his

in IT.

I felt that at 61 years old, Now was the time. It was now or never. And I've

been threatening to do it for five years.

I just really haven't had the courage.

To figure out the best way of helping Roy get the sales he needed to kickstart

his business, I gave him three tasks.

The first of which was to make a volume piece, something he could make quickly

and sell affordably.

He chose to make a decorative copper lily, finished with an inner spike and

stem, then covered with lacquer, to prevent discoloration and aging.

Once he'd cut his template, Roy used a process called annealing, which involved

heating the metal, then cooling it to make it pliable and easy to shape.

I'm just going to heat this up to a cherry red.

The flame itself is just over 3 ,000 degrees of heat.

It's amazingly hot.

Very, very quick.

So I'll come up to the end like that.

Turn that off. And then I can either leave it to cool in the air or I can

it. That is as soft as you like, ready for shaping.

To help Roy make a success of his lifelong passion, he was guided by

Gill. Ian is an outstanding metalworking sculptor whose fantastic creations are

displayed in well -known locations.

like raymond blanc's le manoir hotel in oxfordshire and the chelsea flower show

how are you getting on i've just annealed this piece right um and i'm

shake my lily such a soft material it's not very difficult to do at all really

and all i do now from here is i take my little curved pliers and then i'll just

put my crease all the way around if you was to potentially

cut a sheet out of all of these and have them all done, it would speed your

process up so much more and therefore it would make it more cost -effective for

you as well.

Super. Great tip.

While Roy focused on his volume piece, I wanted to work out with Ian how else he

could make money from his skills.

To do that, I'd asked him to bring a second, higher -end piece to my boot

something with a heftier price tag.

Roy decided to showcase a magnificent maple leaf sphere.

A one -metre diameter frame was covered with around 200 handmade leaves.

It took him around 13 days to complete and had an asking price of £3 ,000.

He could pretty much sell that anywhere. All the top garden shows, garden

sculpture exhibitions.

It's quite high -end, isn't it? Absolutely.

Roy's put an asking price of £3 ,000 on that piece.

Which, the amount of work involved, seems quite fair.

Very fair. Yeah. In the right places, I think he could actually get more money

than that. He could make bigger ones, possibly.

Yeah, imagine that. Yeah.

Yeah.

Back in the forge, Roy was concentrating on his volume piece.

And having shaped the outer part of his copper lily, he was about to attach the

inner spike.

There's my little jig that I've made for the process.

So all that happens is that sits underneath.

Like that.

And then when I weld it down here, it's at the right position within the flower.

I'm going to weld it with a Foss copper welding rod, which melts at a very low

melting point compared to the copper.

There you can see it going.

Get rid of that.

Flip it over and finish the weld.

With the inner spike and flower welded together,

Roy removed the discolouration caused by welding using a special acidic solution

before polishing the lily and adding a coat of lacquer.

It's a UV resistant lacquer so that when this goes out in the garden it'll

maintain its shine and not be dulled by the sun.

It's done a long job. It's quite pleasing and rewarding actually as well

sure that you've covered every square millimetre of this.

To finish, Roy filed away any roughness on the stick that formed the stem and

slid it onto his flower.

The lily took 75 minutes to create, and with copper and steel costs of £10, he

gave it an asking price of £30 to £35, depending on size.

I will say, if it's OK, I just feel like there's areas like the finish that you

could improve.

I don't know if you've talked about that. We have. We've looked at making a

to make the shape.

Brilliant. That would just transform them. Yeah. The small ones are £30.

Yep. Large ones are £35. They are. Ian, what do you think? Are these saleable?

Definitely. At the moment, how are you selling them? Are you selling them

individually? Just individually.

If you could sell three in one here, a set, I don't think it would cost you any

more with regards to postage. Ask yourself, and perhaps when you're

them, put three in a pot. People get to just see that three.

That's a great advice.

We'll find out shortly how Roy's lilies are selling now.

But for his final challenge at the boot camp, I asked him to produce his

favourite piece to see if what he enjoyed making the most...

could also be a money spinner.

He chose to create a flame -painted Nautilus. Standing 50cm tall, its 46

represented stripes on the spiral -shaped sea creature.

He started by marking out his template, then cut around the outline.

That's a bit easier than cutting it by hand.

Now I'm going to plasma cut out my negative spaces. There are 46 of them to

and this is the jeopardy bit. I really must take my time and make sure I don't

make mistakes.

There's a small compressor in my little plasma cutter that creates an electric

arc which melts the copper on the top, and then the compressed air blows the

copper away.

Whilst Roy was working on his Nautilus...

Ian had been thinking about how to help him generate money quickly for his

business. So you run courses?

I have run courses on small bowls and I've often thought that I should do some

more. Maybe you need to push your courses because that could be quite a

revenue for you. You could have people put their name down on the list and when

you get to the amount of candidates you need, you run another course.

And then if people really enjoy it, you can maybe do something a little bit more

intricate and then you can get people coming back.

Repeat offenders.

Absolutely.

Once all 46 cutouts had been created, Roy smoothed the rough edges, then

the copper to soften it, before adding a crease to form the shape.

I'll follow this line all the way around, and you'll see it's pushing the

in. After making a dent all around the middle of the nautilus, Roy shaped the

rest of it with the help of a sandbag and mallet.

Then he started flame painting.

using an oxyacetylene blowtorch and an air compressor.

I'm literally painting with the flame.

As I'm going, you'll see the blues and the purples.

I'm going to try and freeze it into the pinks.

So there's a bit of purple there. I can come in and develop that.

And you'll see the blue will go to a gold, will go to a pink.

So I'll come back into there.

The blue to a gold.

And if you wait beyond, it will go a turquoise.

When I finish the whole thing, I will lacquer it, and that will be it

With copper costs of £30, plus workshop and welding costs on top, along with a

make time of around six hours, Roy gave his flame -painted Nautilus a price tag

of £295.

It looks really good, Roy.

Using the scrap pieces that you've got, that you've cut out, you could connect

another one on the back, making it a three -dimensional piece.

and then you could connect a rod underneath and put it onto a plinth so

be a standalone.

So you get the light shining through, you get great shadows. That would enable

you to possibly up the cost. That turns it into a proper big three -dimensional

sculpture. Yeah. Make it epic.

Yeah.

Roy's decision to launch a coppersmithing business may have been a

dream. But as he headed home to Wiltshire, we came up with an action

turn it into a reality.

First, he needed to develop his designs by making his nautilus an impressive 3D

sculpture.

Next, we wanted Roy to make his lilies more profitable by refining and speeding

up their production, as well as selling them in sets of three.

Finally, he needed to push his courses and offer options for returning

customers.

For the next two months, Ian continued to support Roy as he worked on his

plan. starting with ordering a batch of copper lily templates to speed up their

production. They're looking rather fabulous, and that would save me an

of cutting by hand.

A new tool helped him save even more time, as well as giving the lilies the

polished finish I was looking for.

This new jig should make it much quicker to form them.

Because they're annealed, it's really soft, and as you can now see,

There's a small one.

Beautifully done.

Roy worked hard on his social media too, promoting his workshops with positive

results.

Pressure on there like that. And literally, just tap. You'll feel how

need to tap there.

And now it's down to three.

It's that key.

Roy spent eight weeks carrying out Ian's advice to the letter.

And when he reported back to us at the boot camp, he had more than reaped the

rewards. I've made just over £4 ,100.

£4 ,000?

Yeah. Brilliant. Really? Yeah. Fantastic, Roy. From sales and the

That's amazing.

Isn't it, Geoff? How does that feel?

I'm very happy with it. The bank account will be all the better for it.

Roy needed to deduct his costs from his fantastic sales.

that in just two months he proved that he could make brilliant pieces and sell

enough of them to build a sustainable business.

Two and a half years later, I've come to Wiltshire to hear all about his success

and find out how much money he's making now.

Come in. Hello.

This fantastic workshop converted from a garage is right next to Roy's house and

it's a maker's dream.

This place is amazing.

It's my favourite place in the world. I can tell. I really can tell.

How long have you been working in this space then?

Oh, about five, six years. But since boot camp, I've had to completely

it and try and tidy it up for visitors for my workshops.

They're becoming a big part of the business now, the workshops, are they?

are. I can't say how many I've run this year. That's amazing.

It's not just workshops that you're running here, though. You're clearly

your own pieces still.

Absolutely. This is my home from home. I'm out here every single day of the

week.

I can see why. It's a fantastic space to be creative.

But I want to know more about Roy's achievements.

I'm so excited to hear how the business has been going. Since boot camp, I

really haven't looked back.

I've been able to learn things all over the world. Sounds like you haven't

stopped. I haven't stopped, and I've got work scheduled right the way through

till next year, and I'm having to think really hard about how I fulfil

everything. Where are you finding most of your sales come from? Is it social

media, website?

Or in person sales?

It's mainly once a year in July, I do an open studios. And in those three

weekends, I can generate enough work to see me through the rest of the year into

the new year. This year has been particularly busy, taking me through to

April. Seriously?

Seriously. Just in three weekends and just literally opening the door?

Opening the door, let people come in and see what's here.

They'll either buy what's there or they'll say, I'll be back in touch. And

just... Very fortunate.

Wow.

Roy is just one of thousands of makers across the country who open their

on set days.

Last year, he booked in over £20 ,000 worth of sales and commissions on his

days, including an amazing £4 ,500 pangolin sculpture made up of

handmade scales.

But that's not the only way he gets his orders.

I do sell things because they've gone out on social media.

A few of your videos quite often pop up on my feed, one in particular.

I know which one.

That has done extremely well, hasn't it? That particular video, I was flame

painting a feather, about 25 seconds long, and it's had 24 .5 million views.

24 million views?

And I don't know why.

The joys of social media, who knows?

What do you think is your biggest seller?

I've sold hundreds and hundreds of sets of lilies, and the maple leaf spheres

continue to be the big seller. In fact, my next five commissions are all maple

leaf spheres.

Roy's now sold 19 maple leaf spheres since the boot camp, and an incredible

of his lilies, priced between £90 and £105 for a set of three.

He's also expanded his range of volume pieces.

He now makes hummingbirds for £35, butterflies for £15, and these £35

dragonflies, which he's going to show me how to make using pre -cut copper

shapes.

We're going to mark on this side where we want our lines to go in to our

dragonfly. All the veins on the... All the veins, absolutely.

Like that. So I've got somewhere to follow.

You have been so busy since being at the boot camp. There must have been... I

mean, that must come with its own challenges.

The most difficult part really is scheduling my time and then

trying to say no if somebody comes and asks me to make something when I know

a fact that I've got five months' worth of work scheduled.

Did you learn that the hard way by potentially upsetting people somewhere?

I did learn the hard way in that I fell foul of my wife who's...

planning it all for me and then she's telling me that i'm going to let

down you can't have your wife inside working out the schedule helping with

planning and then you're here on the phone agreeing to more job yeah i'll do

by tuesday no worries exactly exactly time management is a lesson every maker

including me has had to learn with the guidelines on the dragonfly drawn we use

roy's bead roller to make ridges in the wings along the lines

It's an innocuous little job that can be made to look really easy.

Or you can make a dog's dinner of it, as you're about to see.

It comes a bit like muscle memory, these

jobs, don't they, once you've done them a few times.

All right, last one, Roy.

Here we go. Beautiful.

OK? Yeah, lovely. Yeah?

The next step for the dragonfly is brazing or joining the head to its body

a 3 ,150 degree flame and a specialised filler material called Phos Copper.

Introduce the rod and let it run round.

There you go, you can see it going.

Now let's turn that over. Nice.

A bit more rod this time.

Beautiful.

After welding on the first set of wings, you have control.

Thank you, I've got it.

Well, I don't have control, but I've got it.

We add a wire, top it off with the second set of wings.

There it goes. And wind the wire around the body to give it definition.

The idea now is to follow that all the way down.

You want that gap to be consistent, though, don't you? Yeah.

Yes,

I do, Don.

Over to you.

Great. No pressure. No pressure.

All right.

Hey, every dragonfly is different. There isn't a right or wrong. And running

workshops for people, the worst thing you could do is say it has to be this,

this, this, this and this.

Would you say your workshops are one of your biggest successes?

Yeah, I would say they are. I've got a waiting list now of people that want to

do it. I've got return visitors.

So it's a big part of the business financially.

Yeah. You're teaching people this amazing craft.

You clearly enjoy teaching. I love doing it. I love doing it.

And I should continue to do so.

That's really good. Yeah.

I've had a brilliant day here. This has been so much fun. I'm pleased.

To finish off the dragonfly, we're using the flame painting technique Roy used

on his Nautilus.

It's something I've been keen to try since I saw him do it two and a half

ago. Try not to overheat it.

Oh, there we go.

You can see colours coming already.

And just dab it on and pull away.

That's nice.

Beautiful.

You've got lots of lovely colour coming now.

That's it.

Beautiful. Lovely.

That looks good to me. Right, stop there. I'm going to quit while I'm

would. Yeah, he looks good. Great, great.

Good, perfect.

That was mesmerising. I loved it.

What an absolute joy.

Although Roy makes it look far easier than it is, including a coat of lacquer

protect it from the elements, the dragonfly usually takes around an hour

and costs £35 to buy, or £150 to make one yourself in a workshop.

Love it.

Good in your car. Love it.

The courses were something Roy's mentor Ian and I asked him to push more, and

with up to 30 of them planned for the next 12 months, it's clear they're

for him.

Time now to find out if the other advice we gave him has had just as much of an

impact on his business and how much money he's now making.

I cannot believe that two and a half years has flown by since you were at the

boot camp. But we did send you away with a bit of an action plan to try and help

you build the business.

You did. One of those pointers was to try and work on your lilies to make them

more profitable by improving the tooling, improving efficiency.

Yeah. They are looking so precise now. They're looking beautifully finished.

They're sharper, aren't they? Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

So different tooling. And they're selling well still.

They're selling very well.

Something else we wanted you to work on was your Nautilus and making it 3D,

double -sided.

Yeah. How's that?

It's gone really, really well. Okay. It worked? They look stunning.

And I just got rid of one last week.

Roy has acted on all of the advice both Ian and I gave him.

With his talent and determination, he's built himself a thriving business.

And I'm looking forward to hearing what that's meant for his bottom line.

Do you mind if we talk about numbers?

No, please do. How's it looking so far?

They're looking good. An income of 29 to 30k.

Wow. For a year. That is huge.

That is huge. It's a big number.

And is it looking positive for next year as well?

It's looking really positive.

And it's like they say, if you find a job you love, you'll never work a day in

your life.

And that's how I feel. You are proof of that.

Giving up an established job and secure income was a big decision for Roy.

But to be earning £30 ,000 after costs so soon after leaving the boot camp is

proof that it was very definitely the right one.

The future for me now is really, really rosy. I love coming out here every

single day of the week. The business has gone from strength to strength.

I'm delighted.

The second maker we're going to check in with today is jeweller Sarah, who

travelled to my boot camp from Glasgow.

Just like Roy, she was looking for help to make a career change after a ruptured

eardrum forced her to give up her job.

I was originally a teacher, but because my hearing was kind of reducing down, it

became harder and harder to be able to hear the children, so I didn't think it

was fair to stay.

I started trying to look at other options and I know that I'm always going

making jewellery. I just need to earn a living from it and believe in myself a

little bit.

As Sarah took the plunge and tried to turn her jewellery making into a full

-time job, she was supported by self -taught goldsmith Sunny Bailey -Aird.

Influenced by bygone eras, each of Sunny's pieces are unique and combine

traditional techniques with a modern twist.

The biggest thing I would say to someone trying to transition from a hobby and

turning it into their business is continue to make what you enjoy.

Customers will smell from a mile off if you're not true to what you're trying to

do. If you're making what you love and you're making what you enjoy, customers

will see that and they'll want to buy into the story.

For her volume piece, Sarah chose to make a pair of stud earrings.

Inspired by her love of the sea, which she developed whilst sailing with her

father when she was young.

Priced at £55, the circular silver studs were cast using a mould.

They were then hand -painted with blue enamel paint after being soldered to a

pair of earring posts.

This is the flux.

It becomes sticky and allows your solders to stay in place. I'm just going

put a tiny bit on the back of each of those and then I'm going to make a tiny

little puddle on the deck.

I'm just going to keep this.

I'm using the flux as a guide, and I can see that that has

soldered on, so I'm quite happy with that.

The impact of losing your hearing in isolation, it's been tough.

It's a struggle to meet with friends and talk to them because it's kind of hard

to hear them, so I feel left out.

When I'm in the jewellery studio, it's just me, it's the silver, it's my tools.

I don't have to worry about hearing people.

I think with anything, no matter what you're facing, finding a way through it,

it's really important and having the right people around you to do that.

And having something you love really helps as well.

With Sarah making good progress with her earrings, I sat down with Sunny to

discuss her second challenge.

For her favourite piece, she brought along a stunning pendant necklace, once

again inspired by her love of the sea.

It took her around 10 hours to make, had material costs of £225 and an asking

price of £650.

I like the statement, I like the scale of it. Once you look into detail on it,

you can see some bits that just require a little bit of time, just a little bit

of care.

Sarah's asking £650 for her pendant. It's at the higher end.

for silver, but there's lots of techniques in there. You've got

you've got stone setting.

For such a labour -intensive piece, you might want to incorporate some higher

-end materials.

A little bit of gold in there, it's not going to add too much from a cost

perspective to her, but the perceived value from the customer jumps up

massively. That's a really good tip.

Back at the jewellery station, Sarah had cleaned her silver sea -inspired stud

earrings. and was hand -painting the enamel decoration onto them.

I've experimented with different shades of blues and greens.

This is the best combo that works for me in terms of trying to create seascapes.

She applied three coats of enamel to each earring, firing them in the kiln

between each layer.

You want to open the drawer as quickly as you can so you don't lose the heat.

and you need to melt the enamel to become smooth and get that lovely

colour. The little studs should be in there for maybe one or two minutes.

I'm just going to have a wee look and see how they're doing.

I can see that they have gone quite nicely.

I'm just putting them on here to cool down. So I can put layer two and layer

three on.

Once the final layer of enamel had set, Sarah made sure the earrings were nice

and smooth before popping them back in the kiln to make them shiny again.

They're looking great. I'm just going to let them cool down.

Then I'm going to remove the greenness of the silver and they'll look nice and

white when they're ready to go.

With material costs of £18 and a two -hour make time, Sarah's earrings were

priced at £55.

There's lots of potential where you can take this. And I actually think that

this alone in different scales can become a first signature collection.

It's an entry level for customers.

It's relatively straightforward for you with your skill level to manufacture.

And I think we can take this into earrings, pendants, and even rings.

So you've got a ready -made collection with not much work to do, really.

You've priced these at £55.

Seems like a fair price to me for the work involved.

What do you think? I think it's a fair price too.

I think it's affordable. You're still making some money too, which is

But also, the more you develop these skills, the easier that's going to

which increases your margins.

So, win -win.

Thank you. Thank you.

Sonny thought both of Sarah's first two pieces had bags of potential, and he was

keen to do all he could to help her achieve that.

So, for her third task, he set her a special mentor's challenge.

Sarah generally makes earrings, pendants and necklaces, and we really wanted to

incorporate some rings into her collection. So, my mentor's challenge

is to create an affordable, entry -level ring.

Sarah chose to make a C -ring, priced at £100, to tie in with the earrings she

made for her volume piece.

The silver band had a symmetrical design with three silver granulation balls on

each side of a domed bowl enamel centrepiece.

Here we go. So we've got a little domed bowl.

I am going to just file a little flat in the back because I want this to sit

nicely on the ring.

Once she'd cleaned the domed bowl and band, Sarah soldered them together.

And moved on to making the granulation balls using scrap bits of wire.

I really like making balls.

I make small ones, big ones. You can see this guy because it's two wee bits of

wire joined together.

After soldering the finished granulation balls onto the band, she added enamel

to the domed bowl centre.

Being able to do that is something I love, so it's bringing me joy.

The kids and my partner have commented how much more happy I am.

It'd be really nice to get paid for it.

Sarah's sea ring took her around an hour and a half to make and she priced it at

£100. Sitting alongside her sea stud earrings, it helped to build a very

saleable collection.

And thanks to Sunny's encouragement, she had some good news about the earrings

before she even left the garden.

I was chatting with Sonny and he was saying, come on, you need to think about

this, think about that.

And I was like, right, I'm going to try. I'm going to try and approach maybe a

gallery or shop.

And it's through a message. And remarkably, the women responded saying,

absolutely, send me a pricing.

She's full at the moment, but is looking to take orders. That's absolutely

amazing. Massive.

in no time at all the first message you send yeah and it's good news testament

to the quality of work that someone's going to respond within five minutes

yeah i think literally to keep up the momentum we

gave sarah an action plan to continue building her business first she needed

develop an affordable signature collection of earrings a pendant

ring in a range of different colors Next, we wanted her to refine her pieces

make them more saleable.

Finally, she needed to introduce other materials like gold into her work.

For the next two months, Sunny supported Sarah as she worked to kickstart her

business. And she started by working on creating an affordable signature

collection, made up of earrings, a ring, and a pendant necklace.

So I've got more of these guys to tidy up. And then we'll have a little D -link

in the back so that they can go on a chain. And these guys here all have a

little piston.

All I need to do tomorrow is start putting all the cool colours into them.

After just a few days, her collections started coming together.

This is the ring.

And then a necklace with a little D -link in the back.

As Sarah shared a kiln in her studio, she got in touch with Creative Scotland,

an organisation that supports culture and creativity.

I have applied for funding for a kiln of my own and to be able to get some

tuition and engraving.

And this is one of my classes.

A few weeks later, she was awarded the grant she applied for and wasted no time

spending it.

I have my kiln.

It's going to be life -changing.

With support from Sunny, Sarah spent eight weeks following the boot camp,

working 24 -7 to give her business every chance of success.

And when she came back to tell us how she'd got on, the results had made it

worthwhile.

Sarah, I'm quite excited to ask you now.

How much you've earned over the last eight weeks?

I have earned just almost 5 ,000 pounds.

5 ,000 pounds?

Yes. I honestly cannot believe that.

Even after taking off her costs, Sarah had absolutely

nailed it and proved that she had what it took to build a brilliant jewellery

business.

18 months later...

She's done just that, and I've asked Sunny to pop up to Glasgow to find out

about her fabulous success and how much she's earning now.

Hi! Good to see you.

Hello. In the camp? When Sarah came to the boot camp, she was already working

a professional jewellery -making studio, and she's still making all her pieces

in this fantastic workshop.

Sarah, what an amazing space.

What a joy it must be to work here every day.

It is, and it feels like home. I've got the use of all the tools.

I've got an amazing kind of knowledge bank of all the other jewellers that

here, their support, their help.

And, yeah, no, it's absolutely brilliant.

How's business been as of late?

I've been really busy this month. I've got four or five commissions on.

Just kind of checking out some of the finer details on some of them. I've got

some engagement rings and the wedding rings that are due to be sent off for a

wedding in April.

It's so good to hear about your bespoke commissions and keeping you so busy.

Yeah, I think it was last year that I actually put out on social media that I

was closed for commissions and that still didn't stop.

requests and people asking and I have a wait list and I'm still this month got

four or five in that I'm working on plus the online orders.

Where do you find that you've been getting a lot of your leads and sales

Some of it's returning customers some of it is word of mouth and I get friends

who like customers that I've worked with before.

I've got three stockists that take my work.

Sometimes it's markets. Are you making any new pieces or collections?

I am. I took on board what you said about using more high -end materials and

have made a little silver heart range which has a 18 karat gold bezel and is

with a ruby.

It's brilliant to hear how busy Sarah is. It's also good to know that she's

the advice we gave her at the bootcamp.

to work with more expensive materials like gold to lift the quality of her

And she's going to show Sunny how she makes the heart pendant from her new

golden ruby collection, which is priced at £395.

She starts by creating a heart -shaped wax model.

I've drawn round and I have my little heart good to go. I'm just going to

my line round with my saw and cut it out.

It needs a little bit of TLC.

These are my special wax files I only use for wax.

Let's get a wee bit smoother.

I'm happy with how it looks.

And then I'll start to shape it in.

This is going to be the base of my pendant.

Having created the wax model, it's time to make the silver version.

And Sarah is going to cast it using sand.

I'm just going to chop up the sand.

A bit like cooking.

Feel like I'm making pastry.

Jeweler turned baker.

Multitasking hat, as always.

You do wear many hats as a business owner.

Some better than others.

Sarah fills a silver ring with sand, which she's going to place her wax heart

model into.

I'm just going to scrape off the excess.

And place the heart in the middle.

and then I am going to push it in so it's halfway in.

With the wax model placed in the sand, Sarah puts another ring on top and fills

that with sand too.

After the rings are separated and the wax removed, two half -heart moulds are

left, and Sarah then makes air holes in the sand in the top ring to allow steam

from the molten silver she'll be pouring in to escape.

It's amazing how something so simple and relatively primitive is used even

today. I mean, this is a technique that's been used for thousands of years,

literally thousands of years, and we're still using it today. It's amazing.

It is amazing. I can almost imagine the caveman or somebody in their own age

doing this.

Sarah creates a channel through which the silver will be poured into the

then joins her two rings back together and melts down some recycled, scrapped

silver.

The hot metal is poured into the mould, and once it's set,

she tidies up the silver heart,

and solders on an

18 carat gold circular ring, or bezel, for the ruby to sit in.

After cleaning it up in a special acidic solution, she solders on a silver ring

that will attach the pendant to a chain.

And after cleaning that, moves on to creating a recess or hole for her ruby

the gold bezel.

I'm just going to check how deep we are so that I know how far down I need to

go. So I'm just going to find my stone.

Nice, gorgeous ruby.

I'm going to check how we're doing.

Probably just a squidge more.

I'm just going to switch over to this and this creates a little wedge for the

stone to sit on.

Okay, it's looking pretty good.

I'm pretty happy with how that's sitting.

To finish, Sarah pushes in the sides of the gold bezel to hold the ruby in

place.

Then gives the pendant a polish.

It's looking nice and shiny now, so I'm going to pop it through the chain and

it's good to go.

Sarah's new silver heart pendant with a gold set ruby has material costs of £200

and with a make time of five hours is priced at £395.

It comes with matching earrings that she charges £785 for.

It's great to see Sarah working with new materials, and she's also turned her

beautiful sea pendant into an affordable signature collection.

But I'm keen to know about how she's been refining her pieces, and how much

money her business is now making her.

Sarah, it's been great to see how you've been tackling most of your action plan,

but one of the things we asked you to try and work on was some refinement.

How have you been trying to bring that to the fore?

I've been trying to refine my practice depending on what my client wants,

whether it's adding different settings, different metals, whether it's platinum,

18 karat gold, different stones.

I have an engagement ring that I've It's set with pink sapphires, diamonds, and

it's in platinum. It's a matching platinum wedding band.

Platinum is so interesting because it has to get so hot, pretty much double

amount of heat that is required to work with gold.

So that alone is a massive hurdle.

You have to have eye protection.

You have to have specific tooling so that they don't just literally melt. And

you can contaminate platinum, which is another hurdle that you have to get

So it takes a lot of planning and, like we've been mentioning, refinement.

I've been working on it.

It's clear that Sarah has worked with dedication and real determination on

aspect of her action plan.

And I'm excited to find out what effect that's had on the income she makes from

her jewellery making.

In order to have a business, we need to have some money involved as well.

Talk to me.

We do.

And I am doing so much better than I'd like ever have.

I'm now making around 30 ,000 a year. Hey, that is so good. So good.

Proper business.

It's a proper business.

Yeah, I actually can say I have a proper business.

You must be so proud.

I am. Yes, I am. I still have moments of disbelief. And it's happening.

And yes, it is happening.

And I hope it continues to happen.

Well, if you continue to put in the work that you have been putting in, I can't

see why it can't stay the same and grow even more. I think the one thing that

you should be aware of is that you've done all this work yourself. Of course,

you've had community and friends around you and they help lift you up. But you

put in the work and you put in the dedication.

to take this further.

And it wouldn't go anywhere without the work that you've been putting in, not

only your technical and design skills, but your effort and dedication to the

craft. And I think that's something you should be super proud of.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

I agree with Sonny.

Making £30 ,000 a year off the costs just 18 months after leaving my boot

is an outstanding achievement.

Sarah's now got a long -term sustainable business and having worked so hard to

build it, she deserves every bit of her success.

I think having a career that is guaranteed and to have the leap of faith

leave that and to be able to go and do something that is self -employed, that

isn't guaranteed, is hard. But I'm getting to do what I love, which is

important.

Want some help building a business that lasts?

Visit the Open University's interactive guide for practical help to sustain and

grow your business.

Scan the QR code on screen or visit connect .open .ac .uk forward

slash I made it at market.