Apprentice to Masterpiece

First Flight: My Goldsmiths' Apprenticeship Masterpiece
Yesterday marked the end of my Indenture Goldsmiths Apprenticeship in Diamond Mounting. After the five years, we are expected to create a Masterpiece to present at Goldsmiths' Hall—a piece that encompasses everything we've learned and challenges us even further.
After lots of designing, endless prototyping, and manufacturing I proudly presented 'First Flight': a silver iris flower and dragonfly brooch-to-pendant. The piece depicts a dragonfly's first flight after emerging from the water, which felt like the perfect representation for my own emergence as a more confident, skilled goldsmith after these five years of apprenticeship.

A Piece with Purpose
The design is as functional as it is symbolic. The silver iris and dragonfly can be worn together as a brooch or separated—the iris as a brooch and the petal with dragonfly as a pendant. Every element has been formed and made by hand. For the assessment, the piece was submitted unset and without enamel, but we're excited to add diamond and enamelling early next year when it's returned.
I'm so grateful we took that leap of faith five years ago to begin this Master and Apprentice journey together. Now I'll continue learning alongside Dad, challenging ourselves and creating beautifully bespoke pieces for you all in our family-run jewellery and silverware business. Great things to come, we promise!

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​How 'First Flight' Came to Life
Understanding the Form
After finalizing my design, I studied real iris flowers—dissecting them and pressing the petals to create accurate templates. This botanical study was essential for capturing the natural curves and proportions.

I then practiced forming the main structure in brass first. This prototyping stage was invaluable: it helped me determine the final brooch size, material thickness, and measurements to minimize silver wastage. It also let me experiment with creating the right chasing punches and adjusting my pitch mixture (adding more plaster and tallow for better resistance when chasing).

Creating the Iris Petals
Using templates from the pressed petals, I pierced the silver petals from sheet, leaving extra metal on the thinner sections—it's easier to work with longer pieces and trim them once formed. I wanted texture on the petals, so I added line engraving and hand-filed the edges before beginning the chasing process.
Chasing the petals in pitch was a long, meditative process. I started with a line punch to create the central vein on each petal, then moved to larger ball and cushioned punches to build the three-dimensional fullness. Throughout, I constantly referred back to my pressed petal studies to ensure accuracy.

​The petals naturally wanted to bend and curl as I worked, which meant finding creative ways to position them in pitch—sometimes mounting them on wood pieces held in a vice—so I could reach different areas without disturbing the shapes I'd already created. It became a rhythm: chase, turn over, work from the reverse to emphasize contours, remove from pitch, burn off residue, anneal and quench the silver, repeat.

​The Dragonfly Takes Shape
While working on the petals, I also crafted the dragonfly body from round wire, using reference photos to get the proportions and segmentation right. The wings required three layers each, all pierced from silver sheet and carefully aligned. I glued and drilled through all three layers together, then soldered silver tube the front layer so the wing layers could be pinned together. This design allows the enamel and stone-set layers to be completed separately and riveted on later.
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Engineering the Stone Settings
To prepare for diamond setting, I needed to thicken the petal edges. Given their complex, undulating forms, I used wax moulding: pressing softened pink wax against the undersides to create impressions, then casting these to create backing plates of uniform thickness. After casting, I carefully pierced and filed them to the right width, leaving an outer ledge for solder.
Because my line engraving created channels where solder could run, I used erasure liquid to create barriers and control exactly where the solder would flow.
For stone placement, I laid diamonds table-down on each petal to plan a gradual size progression. Working one stone at a time, I drilled each hole, then positioned the next stone with girdles nearly touching, measuring carefully with dividers to mark the centre point before drilling. After opening all holes with ball and cone fraises, I created square back-holes with a piercing saw that followed the petal edges.

​Assembly and Finishing
I positioned the petals together in plasticine to test the fit, filed areas for stronger joints, then laser welded and soldered them into a unified structure.
The findings were equally important: I handmade a lever clasp from silver chenier and milled wire to secure the removable petal to the brooch. This involved filing a rectangular slot in the tube wall for the clasp mechanism, creating a pivot point, and making a tiny coil spring from guitar string steel to provide tension. All other findings—the brooch pin, hinge, and pin clasp—were also made by hand.
I created a cover leaf from sheet silver, initially curled in a swage block, then shaped with line engraving and rolled edges. An aluminium template helped me design and position the backplate before laser welding everything together. I even added a protective bayonet-locking leaf to cover the pendant attachment point.
After all components were assembled and the findings laser welded in place, I gave the iris brooch, petal pendant, and dragonfly a gentle pumice finish.

This Masterpiece represents not just five years of technical learning, but a transformation in confidence and artistic vision. Thank you for following along on this journey—we can't wait to share more beautiful work with you in the years to come.