Andrew Berry Jeweller

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Andrew Berry (born 17 March 1965) is a Welsh Jeweller, Jewellery designer, Educator and YouTuber. He runs a jewellery and repair shop in the South Wales Valleys but is best known for his online jewellery training school ‘At The Bench’. He has written numerous articles for various publications, and is cited as a leading authority in the UK jewellery manufacture trade.

Early Life

Andrew was born in Cardiff, and was educated at Howardian High School and subsequently The University of Wales where he successfully completed an honours degree in 3 dimensional design. It was during this time that he developed a love of the arts, and particularly William Morris, founder of the art and crafts movement. This sparked Berry’s interest in the design and manufacture of handmade jewellery, focussing on quality, bespoke, hand crafted pieces as opposed to the mass produced jewellery of the time.

Career

On leaving university in 1988 Berry was keen to set up his own company, and secured a Christmas Job at a Jewellers in Cardiff to learn the retail side of the trade. The following summer he began working for himself from his parent’s garage, carrying out repairs after some local marketing. Work increased, prompting moving to a retail outlet in the South Wales valleys town of Ystrad Mynach, eventually progressing to the acquisition of a retail outlet with attached workshop. During this time Andrew developed several gold and silver ranges of jewellery which were sold successfully UK wide, and worn by TV personalities. Berry’s idea to educate stemmed from a desire to share the knowledge, techniques and ethos of William Morris' art and craft movement to new and upcoming creators. These techniques might otherwise become lost, giving way to mass production methods. Technological advances and the advent of social media were an outlet for his desire to educate, leading to the creation of ‘At The Bench’, the online jewellery training school. During these early years of At The Bench Andrew secured 12 month contract as a writer for ‘Making Jewellrey’ magazine, with his page ‘The Naked Jeweller’, with a monthly page between 2010 – 2011. During this period he also produced numerous step by step tutorials for the magazine, and for the publication ‘Beads and Beyond’. He continues to write professionally. In 2010 Berry produced a series of 3 instructional DVDs In 2013 Professional Jeweller magazine named him as a ‘Hot 100 Trailblazer’, recognising excellence in the industry. Several affiliates have written articles on Berry, including Kernowcraft, Durston Tools, and Knew Concepts. He has been featured in The Jewellery Quarter publication 'The Hockley Flyer'

References

This article "Andrew Berry Jeweller" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Andrew Berry Jeweller. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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