Our Level 5 Jewellery Design and Manufacturing Diploma students are in the process of manufacturing peridot jewellery for a collaborative project with Chinese mining company Fuli Gemstones. The students have been developing their stone setting skills and creating peridot jewellery using stones donated by the brand. We caught up with the students in the workshop to hear about their progress on the project.

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“I am enjoying the Fuli Gemstones project very much,” said Jewellery Design and Manufacturing Diploma student Selina. “This is the first time I have come into contact with such precious and beautiful materials as peridot. It has gone through a very long process from the initial design, to the model building, and the final casting.”

“The completed product development is very helpful to my career. I am very grateful for the precious materials provided by Fuli, and also very grateful to our BAJ teachers for their help. This (project) gave me great encouragement!”

Jewellery Design and Manufacturing Diploma student Yesim Ilkucar added:“I have been challenging myself and improving my skills by learning new things… While researching the history of the peridot stone, what impressed me the most was its connection with Egypt and Cleopatra’s interest in this stone. That’s why I chose to use some figures that are important in Egyptian mythology while designing.”

After each student received their peridot stone, they researched the stone and different types of stone setting and followed their inspiration to explore design ideas. This autumn, the students each  created a unique jewellery design to best showcase the stone before getting started in the workshop on bringing their designs to life using various stone- setting and other jewellery-manufacturing techniques. The students will finish manufacturing their pieces in the New Year and they will later be displayed as part of jewellery show The Jewellery Cut Live in London.

The BAJ x Fuli Gemstone project is designed to give our learners practical experience of how professional jewellers work, using a real industry brief. This enables  them to develop careers-focused skills and gain valuable vocational experience.

BAJ’s live project with Fuli Gemstones is one of numerous industry collaborations: previous partners have included Alex Monroe and Alighieri. Interested in finding out more about what our Jewellery Design and Manufacturing Diploma students learn on this course? Find out more about our manufacturing diploma, and how you could enrol in  2022, here.