A Jeweller in Jingdezhen

China is great and everyone in Jingdezhen is lovely.
Once you get used to all the staring, pointing and
laughing from the locals... I'm just waiting for
someone to crash cos they are so busy looking at us.

Jingdezhen for a jeweller.... well metal is hard to find,
tried to get some mild steel but no one knows what
it is and when you do find some they won't sell you
small amounts or cut it for you... I just ended up with
a small very scratched scrap of stainless, if I knew
I would have brought more with me..

I'm not making much at the moment but getting my head
around ideas and techniques, soaking up so much
information and getting so much inspiration to translate
into my work when I get back, alot of things I keep getting
ideas for I can't do here for lack of equipment.

I have however had some successful and not so successful
tests of merging and firing titanium and porcelain, so we
will see where that takes me! One thing I have started to
do and really enjoy a lot is paper cutting. I have already
done a few and think this is definitely something I will
continue when I get back and will come though somehow
in my jewellery later on. This trip has very much taken
me out of my comfort zone, getting me to think very
differently about materials, work, designs.

There are definite challenges and rewards of all kinds.

Sarah Rothe