By Dan WardIn this story:
- Silversmithing vs beading vs resin vs wax carving: which jewellery class is right for you?
- Beading: the easiest place to start
- Silversmithing: make a real silver ring
- Resin and wax carving: colour, or a budget silver ring
- Make something different from old jewellery
- Why a jewellery class is good for more than the jewellery
If you fancy making your own jewellery but aren't sure where to start — silver? beads? resin? — jewellery making courses in London are the low-commitment way to find out. There are 270+ live workshops across the city, taught by local makers everywhere from Holborn and Covent Garden to Camden Town, with prices from around £25 for a beading session up to £150 for wax carving, most rated 4.9★ by ClassBento's 154k+ reviewers. No toolbox required — everything's supplied and beginners are the norm.
The catch is that "jewellery making" covers four pretty different crafts, and they're not equally beginner-friendly or equally cheap. Here's how they compare, which to start with, and seven classes worth booking.
Silversmithing vs beading vs resin vs wax carving: which jewellery class is right for you?
Most people booking their first class don't know the difference, so here's the short version before the recommendations.
- Beading is the gentlest entry point — no fire, no chemicals, just stringing, pinning and looping beads and wire into earrings, necklaces or bracelets. Cheapest too, often £25-£70. You finish and wear it the same day.
- Silversmithing is the hands-on metal craft: soldering sterling silver with a blow torch, shaping it over a mandrel with a hammer, sizing and finishing a real ring. More involved, usually £60-£90, but you typically walk out wearing a finished silver piece that day.
- Resin swaps metal for a poured epoxy you cure in moulds — good for colourful, one-off earrings and pendants with petals or flakes set inside. Beginner-friendly, and increasingly done with plant-based resin. You usually take the cured pieces home the same session.
- Wax carving is the budget route to a cast silver ring: you carve a model from cheap jewellers' wax in class (so mistakes don't cost much), then the studio casts it in silver and you collect or get it posted later — a wait, not a same-day take-home.
So: nervous beginner or tight budget, start with beading or wax carving. Set on a real silver ring you wear out the door, book silversmithing. Want colour and something different, try resin.
Beading: the easiest place to start
If you've never made jewellery before, beading is where to begin — no torch, no curing, just you, a tray of beads and some wire. A beaded jewellery making workshop in Battersea runs as an intimate small-group day (often capped at three people, roughly 10am-5pm with a lunch break) where you learn to string, fasten and design a necklace from gemstone and glass beads, then make matching earrings with pliers and wire. Expect to pay in the £25-£70 range depending on the studio and length. You leave with a finished piece the same day.
Silversmithing: make a real silver ring
This is the craft most people picture when they think 'jewellery making' — fire, metal, a proper ring at the end. At the silver ring making class (Art Play London, founded by Silva Castellani in 2018), you shape sterling silver using a blow torch for soldering, a hammer and mandrel for forming, and finishing tools for detail. Around £66 for about 2.5 hours, capped at six in a public class, with private options. The big draw: you usually finish and wear your ring home the same day.
If a full ring feels ambitious for a first go, a jewellery making class for beginners - rings breaks the methods down step by step, with the teacher answering questions as you go — the gentler on-ramp to wire-wrapping and stone setting later. Both are beginner-friendly; the difference is pace and how much hand-holding you want.
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Resin and wax carving: colour, or a budget silver ring
Want something that doesn't look like everyone else's? A jewellery making class: resin earrings (taught by House of Denna) has you pour plant-based, vegan resin into silicone moulds, setting dried flower petals and metallic flakes inside, and you go home with five pairs of earrings. The resin is the eco-friendly sort that won't yellow over time. Beginner-level, and you take the cured pieces with you.
Wax carving is the clever budget play for anyone who wants silver without the silversmithing price. At a wax carving jewellery workshop, you carve your design from cheap jewellers' wax — which forgives mistakes far better than metal and lets you get more intricate, sculptural shapes — then the studio casts it in silver after class. The trade-off is the wait: it's a cast-and-collect piece, not same-day.
Make something different from old jewellery
If sustainability is the draw, an upcycled vintage jewellery class (a small-group session, often capped around ten, out at Worcester Park) shows you how to take apart and rework old bracelets, earrings and necklaces into something new — using findings, beads, stones, chains and clasps to give a tired bangle or a single stud earring a second life. Bring your own pre-loved pieces to transform. It's beginner-friendly, and you walk away with a small collection rather than a single item. The point isn't just thrift — reworking what you already own is one of the lower-waste crafts going.
Why a jewellery class is good for more than the jewellery
The repetitive, fiddly nature of jewellery making — the pinning, looping, filing, the single-pointed focus on a tiny object — is part of why people find it calming. It's close to the rhythm of other meditative crafts: your attention narrows to the work in front of you, and the rest of the day quietens down. ClassBento donates 50p from every booking to Mental Health UK, its charity partner, and the link between absorbing creative activity and better wellbeing is well documented.
There's ample time to unwind in the relaxed workshop environment, and the ultimate goal isn't perfection. Instead, you'll spend a few hours indulging your artistic side, surrounded by like-minded individuals who are equally passionate about handcrafted jewellery. The pressure’s off – just aim to have fun! Don't hang around, put a jewellery making class in London at the top of your to-do list!
Pick the craft that suits you and let a local maker do the teaching. When you're ready, browse the full range of jewellery making classes in London and find a session near you.
