Emma White, a finalist in the BBC’s ‘Bake off for Jewellers’ competition All That Glitters, is opening her first showroom in Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley.
The showroom opens this weekend – 25/26 November 2022 – and will showcase the jewellery Emma has created, inspired by her favourite makes in the All That Glitters workshop.
As a long-standing tenant of Sunny Bank Mills, Emma, who is originally from Scotland, has lived in Farsley for more than 20 years.
Since All That Glitters aired Emma, 45, has extended her jewellery workshop, where she teaches jewellery making skills and has expanded her collection of personalised and emotive jewellery, which has previously only been available online.
Emma is opening a showroom where the public can visit and try on her contemporary jewellery, order their personalised pieces and discuss bespoke commissions.
“My work centres around stories,” said Emma. “The stories of the wearer who can literally have their story stamped into ribbons and silver and wound into unusual artisan jewellery pieces, while imagery inspired by the stories that we weave around us appears in feathers, hands and other symbolic pieces that all have a tale to tell.”
Busy Emma – who has three children and three stepchildren – says appearing on the show has challenged her in many positive ways.
“It was a six-month experience and to have that time dedicated to just coming up with new designs, thinking about what I wanted to make, the whole pressure of lots of people are going to see this, it made me give it a lot of thought,” Emma told WLD.
“It was good to be taken out of my comfort zone. Sometimes when you’re making your own jewellery you can end up making the same things all the time. I came away after the programme thinking I had found myself creatively and that I had been stimulating creatively – it allowed me to get off my ‘hamster wheel’.”
Emma is the brains behind the online jewellery collective and destination shopping experience thejewellerymakers.co.uk, which sells distinctive design-led jewellery handmade from precious metals.
Designed and made by a collective of artisan jewellers, The Jewellery Makers is a gallery/selling online site for handmade jewellery.
Emma is based in Sunny Bank Mills, which is also hosting a Christmas Art and Makers Market this weekend (25/26/27 November). More details about the event can be found here.
All That Glitters is a six-part television series, where eight jewellers compete to become Britain’s next jewellery star. Series two aired on BBC2 this autumn, it was hosted by comedian, Katherine Ryan.
Find Emma’s showroom here: The Emma White Jewellery Studio, 10 The Twisting, Sunny Bank Mills. E-mail her at info@thejewellerymakers.co.uk.