Reflecting on 2025: The year of saying Yes!

2025 in Review

New Year, new plans!

But not before a nod to last year and all of the opportunities that 2025 brought.

February: I registered early for the Petworth Boutique Makers Market to connect with new audiences and to motivate myself to create new pieces for my collection by year's end. It was successful! There's nothing like a deadline to inspire the midnight jeweller!

However, I'm jumping ahead. While the creative cogs were whirring towards a Petworth plan, I was spending many of my Fridays, (I work part time, so Fridays are my jewellery days), with my great friend Janey B at her workshop, where I benefit both from her expertise as a practiced goldsmith with many years of experience in Hatton Garden, as well having free rein to try tools that I haven't yet purchased, I'm like a kid in a sweetshop. This/last year we stepped it up, experimenting with jewellery techniques such as natural form casting using lentils and spaghetti, cuttlefish casting and enamelling, all whilst chatting nearly non-stop and consuming lots of coffee.

March: Being invited to the Jewellers Academy Brighton to tour their new studio workshop space and help out with some promotional materials was an amazing experience and one that I am still pinching myself about. Spending the day experiencing the studio setup and trying elements of courses that they now run was fun, and meeting so many other local jewellers was a blast. It was a brilliant day, and when photos were shared a couple of months later, it was the icing on the cake. The very talented Vicki Knights had captured all of us in our element, mine of course was with hammer in hand.

May: My biggest step by far was to sum up the courage to pay a visit to Inspired Worthing to meet with the ever lovelies Sophie & Gemma to see if they were interested in stocking my jewellery in their amazing seafront shop. They were! and I'm proud to have my work on sale there alongside over 60 other local indie artists and makers.

September: brought a new opportunity with @thepopupshopworthing, a collective of artists and makers which I am lucky to be a part of. We organised and ran a temporary shop in Worthing between September and December 2025, cementing our little troupe as a powerhouse of driven women with a flair for creating and a knack for making stuff happen. Signing up to be part of the Worthing Artists Open House trail in May and planning our event from June onwards meant that we were all making like crazy to have enough stock to showcase, and it paid off. We had an amazing couple of weekends meeting lots of new and old friends and customers who were walking the many trails mapped out over the town from one makers hub to the next, as well as joining forces with other local creatives who had special guest spots with us at Venue no.24 on different days.

November: arrived with a canine mishap, Jemima, our 7 year old cockapoo fractured her back leg and needed lots of care and attention whilst she recovered. This meant I often had a sleeping pup by my side as I busily put finishing touches to stock I had been working on towards Petworth Boutique Makers Market. A few stall mock up runs on the dining room table and much angst over pieces, prices and planning and I was good to go!

The actual weekend was amazing, a testament to the huge amount of organising that Cathy & Georgie put into the event it ran smoothly and to say it was well attended is an understatement, it was busy, buzzy, beautiful and brill 😊 I met so many wonderful people, fellow stall holders, friends and family who dropped by to show their support (thank you!), and lots of new customers. Petworth gave me a massive boost at the end of the year and made me feel like I’m on the right track with the pieces I am making.

Christmas gave us the chance for downtime as a family which we maxed out on, lots of lazy days, food and flumping about!

Best presents this year were the Elsa Tierney Art of Wax book, which is gorgeous, educational and inspiring me back to wax carving, which I haven't done since college, and a portable cassette player, not quite as cool as my original 80's Sanyo walkman but pretty close and has given me the chance to

play the tapes I have been hoarding since my school days, its been 80's/90's heaven!

It also gave me an opportunity to gather my thoughts on where I want to take Tortoise and Hare in 2026. It feels like a good time to explore new designs and I want to take more time this year to learn different metalworking techniques and broaden my stone setting skills. I've already signed up for a Fold Forming course at Jewellers Academy in February and am excited about what direction this might take future pieces in.

Stay tuned to see how things go!

Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy & harmonious 2026

Laura

xxx