Helen Hilton Gemcraft
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 | About Helen As the wife of John Hilton (Founder and principle partner of Manchester Minerals), Helen has had a unique opportunity to gain insight into the skills and practises of professional jewellery designers and lapidaries. Utilising her artistic and precision practical lapidary skills, Helen has developed her own style and techniques from her home-based workshop. Complying with current legislation, larger pieces of her Sterling Silver jewellery are hallmarked by Birmingham assay office together with her distinctive 'HH' makers mark. Unlike many jewellery craftsmen, Helen has access to an exceptionally large stock of rough semi-precious gemstone material and she uses lapidary skills in every piece to transform her carefully selected rough into coverted, yet practical, pieces of adornment jewellery.
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 Practical LapidaryAll of the cabochon gemstones in Helens collection (scroll down this page) have been sawn, ground and polished by her on small lapidary machines such as the American manufactured 'Ameritool Universal' machine shown in this image. Click here for more information. These machines are available for sale through this site and anyone wishing to try their hand at lapidary is invited to attend the low cost beginners courses run twice a week in our Stockport (Greater Manchester) workshop.
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