For my birthday in July I got some money from my auntie and I decided to spend it on a jewellery-making workshop at Tatty Devine. I really enjoyed the previous workshop I took part in – a charm bracelet, which I made last year – and this one appealed to me because it involved making a parakeet necklace.
The red multi parakeet has been on my wishlist for months, but it’s near-impossible to get hold of one these days. However, the jewel-toned colours of this unique workshop design are gorgeous too. I signed up for the Wednesday evening workshop at the end of August.
The workshop was held at Tatty Devine’s Brick Lane store, so I headed there after work. I got there in plenty of time and was able to admire their relatively new workshop space.
I was offered a glass of rosé while I waited for the others to arrive. As they all trooped in we sat down and began to lay out our parakeet pieces on the handy template.
We then had to peel a little of the protective film off each piece to ensure the parts were facing the right way – obviously I’d managed to get some of mine the wrong way round so this step was much needed!
To turn our feathers into a beautiful parakeet, we then needed to use two pairs of pliers to open up a jump ring, slide one, then two feathers onto it (making sure they were the right way around), before closing the jump ring. On the advice of the lovely Tatty staff I put together one wing, then another, before joining them up to the parakeet body.
After my parakeet was complete, it was time to attach the chain. I chose a silver chain, and as instructed, cut it in half, fixed jump rings to either end, and attached the chain to the parakeet.
I had a lovely time putting my parakeet together; it was tricky but I think I got the hang of it fairly quickly. It definitely helped that I had done a workshop before, and I really enjoyed chatting to other Tatty fans. I drank a couple of glasses of wine too – slowly, though – wine and pliers don’t really mix! I took my parakeet home in a Tatty Devine box to keep it safe.
Interested in a Tatty Devine workshop? Workshop dates are announced frequently and you can make all sorts of interesting things. You can find details at tattydevine.com/workshops.