Ask the jeweller

Nigel started his career in the jewellery industry after leaving school and joined Deakin & Francis in 2000. As one of the highly skilled jewellers at Deakin & Francis, Nigel’s craft includes hand making special commission pieces, jewellery mounting and signet ring stamping.

Nigel’s first job was working for John Froggatts where he learnt jewellery mounting. ‘A neighbour and family friend who worked in the trade got me into the industry and encouraged me to go for the job’.

Around ten years later Nigel decided to work for himself and opened a small workshop in the jewellery quarter next to the Deakin & Francis workshops. He worked from here for around 15 years before joining Deakin & Francis in 2000.

‘The most enjoyable part of my job and also the most challenging, is making new models. I like to see what designs James Deakin will think of next, and it’s then my job to figure out how to make them work! At the moment we’ve been creating lots of mechanical pieces so it can be a real challenge trying to get them to work correctly, especially when working with such a small piece of jewellery like a cufflink.’

As someone who has worked in the industry all his working life, Nigel has a passion for British made jewellery. ‘It’s a really important selling point. People love the idea of products being made in England. We use all traditional tools for making our jewellery including a drop stamp which is used to stamp signet rings from pieces of silver and gold. It must be nearly one hundred years old!’