An Interview with - Chris Parry

 

Interview with - Chris Parry

Published in Issue 23, June 2013

My name is Chris Parry and I am a hubby, father and bespoke jeweller. I changed careerwhen I was 30 and have been making bespoke pieces of jewellery for the last 13  years.

When did you begin and why?  

I fell into my first job, and kept getting promoted. Ten years later at the age of 30, I was good at what I was doing. Well paid for it, but bored to death and didn’t want to carry on in that sector. So I resigned, sold my car and used my savings to put myself through a degree in silversmithing and jewellery design. Whilst at university, you start to look at a way to make a living from the craft. The Internet back in 1999 was very fresh and I happened upon a website www.inspirals.co.uk and thought that I needed my own website to sell my jewellery. I couldn’t afford to employ a website designer, so I bought three books. I read them on the train whilst I commuted to university, and taught myself website design. In 2000, I had my first sale to a guy in Northampton. I started on a homemade jewellers bench in my basement with the spiders. I have since opened two small shops and I just bought my own workshop/shop in the village of South Darenth, Kent.

What is it that you enjoy about your work? I don’t work. It doesn’t feel like work at all. I go to my workshop and make things for people, the day fly’s by and suddenly it’s time to go home.

 What is your biggest achievement?
 I don’t measure success by the big commissions, the value, the corporate order or the celebrity. I measure success by the small things. I got a stunning e-mail form a woman in USA thanking me for making the simplest of rings for her partner 5 years ago. They are still so pleased with them that she felt inclined to drop me an e-mail all these years later. Another lady from Australia lost her brother in a car crash and wanted a ring making with his signature inside. Making commissions like that and hearing what that object means to them is better than any award or big boy order.

Other than crafting, what do you enjoy?
 The small things. Like the ten minute walk to school holding my daughters hand or having a latte with my wife in peace and quiet or telling my 17 year old boy  “I love him” in front of his mates. Opening a pack of bourbon biscuits and laughing out loud, that will make sense later. 

If you had to choose your favourite from your creations?
I am approached by parents who have lost a child. Either in birth or later years. Also by clients who have lost a sibling or a parent. Making something with a hand print, fingerprint or their hand writing is exceptionally rewarding. I can’t pick a favourite, as each story is deeply moving. I suppose the most memorable was the first time, when I made a footprint piece for a lovely lady to remember Frankie. 

What advice would you offer someone starting out?
Don’t chase galleries and shops to sell your wares. Ten years ago, the only way to make a crafting living was to provide multiple retails outlets. Now, with the Internet you can sell as easily to Alaska as you can to Cornwall. It doesn’t suit all crafts as some sell easier online than others. You should however have at least a WowThankYou and Etsy shop, a personal website and a Facebook business page. The Internet has changed how we shop and your location is not a barrier to success. 

 If you could change one thing about what you do what would it be? Facebook is the nightmare. People see a picture and just put in the comment box “OMG that is lovely how much please.” You answer their question, then the next person puts the same question. A lot of my comment threads on facebook, are from people asking the same question. Ahhhhhhhhh. 

 

What has helped your business the most? 

Without doubt the Internet. Within that context, my own website - www.chris-parry.co.uk  Within the last year, my Facebook page. www.Facebook.com/Chris.Parry.Jewellery   

Has any person helped you more than any other? 

More than any person, my supportive and beautiful wife, without whom none of what I have achieved would be possible. She has been the rock. I also have another wonderful woman in my life. Eva approached me five years ago for a job. She had done a night school course and was hooked. She has now worked for me for five years and is my right hand girl. She is very skilled and I wouldn’t swap her for all the tea in China. 

Tell us a random fact about yourself.   When people ask me at a party what I do for a living, I tell them “I’m a biscuit designer, you know the bourbon, that’s one of mine and also the ginger snap.” It amuses me that hundreds of people have told their friends that they met the guy who designed the bourbon.

UPDATE! Since being interviewed by Creative Crafting Chris participated in a Crowd Funded Kickstarter project to raise £47,500. Chris has smashed his total and raised £55.856 which is a record for a craft project on the site!        

 For more info see www.kickstarter.com/projects/291082417/twinkle-twinkle-little-star-bespoke-jewellery 

  Congratulations Chris!
 

GET IT HOT AND HIT IT!

Get it hot and hit it!

Written by Doug Miles

Published in issue 23, June 2013

 

I had already arranged a day off from work and found myself getting out of bed with a spring in my step because today would be the first day of a three day Blacksmithing course.  I admit that the primary reason for me going on a three Day Introduction to Blacksmithing Course is so I can write this review, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it! While it would be fair to say I am looking forward to the course, I still have some concerns; Will I be able to make something useful? What if I don’t like it, the review could be a tough one to write, then! So, taking my sandwiches, coffee and brand new leather apron, I head off to Westpoint Forge, just outside Exeter, to find out.

Westpoint Forge Premises, just outside Exeter on the A3052

I arrived at the specially fitted Westpoint Forge just before 9am on a cold February morning. Not knowing exactly what to expect, I walked into the warehouse style building to discover a room filled with blacksmithing tools, hammers, tongues and row of hearths with anvils.
Around the building were tables covered with various demonstration pieces. This place was clearly serious about what it did, it was a workshop and it would be my classroom for the next three days.

 Introductions are completed and the relevant Health and Safety warnings are issued, then we got down to business. There are seven of us and John, the teacher. John is descriptive and instructive, but there is no teacher that can replace practical experience, so before long we get busy actually making something. 
Our skillful and experienced teacher describes a basic principal of Blacksmithing, drawing down, the art of hammering out a solid to a point. We use this new skill on our first piece, to make a spiked end for our beer glass holder.

After we have all tackled this, the lesson continues with John demonstrating how to form a scroll end, a circle and a 90 degree bend. We all head back to our hearths and try to replicate what we have been shown.
The day continues in this format, instruction and demonstration followed by practical and we proceed to make our own versions of a toasting fork and a picture hook.

 John is always on hand to guide us with as much (or as little) help as we ask for. By the end of Day One I am tired, but quite surprised that I have been able to create three pieces of work to an acceptable standard. I have learnt drawing down, hot cutting, forming a twist and punching a hole. Above all, I am relieved that I was able to make something and I liked doing it. On my way home I realise I can’t wait to come back tomorrow.

The bracket comprises a ‘Flat back’, a ‘Support Bar’, with ‘Hook End’, a ‘Curved Brace’ and a ‘Collar’. This is an excellent way to experience many of the skills required to make a wide range of ironwork.
The work is hard and a key point I learnt today was that I had to hit the metal much harder, while still being accurate.It is much easier to get it right the first time than to have to correct a mistake that is made due to rushing. My mistake (lesson), today was the one about not allowing beautifully curled thin ends of a Fleur-de-Lis to get too hot in the fire and burn off!


By the end of the third day we have all made the component parts for our brackets, mine includes a fish-tail scroll and a decorative leaf.

 Now John shows us the final step, shaping and fitting a collar. This (along with the tenon joint and the rivet) pulls the disparate metal shapes into one completed piece and with it I suddenly feel an overwhelming sense of achievement.

  We are all comparing work as we have throughout the course, picking up pointers from each other and wishing our work was as good as the next persons.

My back bracket and support bar, before assembly

 The truth is, we have all learned a lot. I am intensely proud of the skills this course has taught me and I think the other students are too. I am aware that there is much more to it and that my paltry four items are just the tip of the iceberg, however this course has not just given me some new skills, it has provided me with a new ambition.

  I want to keep doing this, I want to embrace the idea that almost any bit of scrap metal can be re-worked into something useful, I want to create using metal.

   I am already planning a small hearth in my back garden, I won’t be spending a lot of money on it, I hope I can get it working for nearly no financial outlay, this will give me a chance to practice and hopefully improve the techniques I have been shown. Perhaps one day I will move up to a bigger hearth and may even make some money doing this?

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Barry, Steve, Sue, Anthony, John, Andrew and Chris

I can wholeheartedly recommend this course to anyone who has an interest in working with metal. If you choose this, or one of the many courses offered by the Blacksmiths Guild, you will definitely learn something that you can use, but there’s more to it than that. Maybe you will find a new joy in your life, maybe you will open your eyes to a craft that has played a part in the formation of our culture, because Blacksmithing is not just “get it hot and hit it”, it is a way of thinking. Planning, designing, accuracy, skill and experience, but above all enjoyment, are the core components that make any craft.
  I am determined now to make blacksmithing part of my life and in that way, this course has changed my life and maybe the lives of the other students too.
Go on, give it a try.



If you feel like having a go at this, why not visit www.blacksmitsguild.com
You will find course availability and prices with a brief guide to what each course entails