The Repair Shop

On the repair shop, I had the pleasure of repairing a Victorian Garnet bracelet which was given to it’s current owner by her mother.  It was in pieces, having been subjected to a previous bad repair which left the piece deemed unrepairable by ever jeweller the owner took it to.  The bracelet was of huge sentimental value, I was even shown photos of her grandmother wearing it back int he late 1800’s

The problem was it had been fixed using lead solder previously.  One this exceptionally poor grade solder is used, I could no longer use heat on the bracelet to join it back together in the usual way, having to opt for a state of the art form called Laser welding…   The task wasn’t easy, but I didn’t want it to be.. I also had to find matching Garnets, as many were missing..  The restoration was one of the hardest I had done, and was even out the comfort zone of my own workshop!  All the repairs on the programme were filmed on location at the Weald and Downland Museum in Sussex.    I was so pleased to present it finished back to it’s owner, she seemed delighted.