ALICE MADE THIS : CUFFLINKS

This video of cufflinks being produced is strangely mesmerising.

WEEKLY DIGEST

On the Carreducker blog they are covering their shoemaking course as it progresses (Carreducker)

The Great British Homebrew winner is announced and his beer is stocked in Nicholson's pubs (SIBA)

Brits do well in the Designs of the Year (Domus)

Proskills, the UK's manufacturing skills body is facing closure after its budget was cut (Telegraph)

A new exhibition in Birmingham to promote the work of the Jewellery Quarter (Made in the Jewellery Quarter)

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For other UK making stories (predominantly fashion based) in the press this week, see Make it British

Photo from the aforementioned Carreducker blog

FACTORY VISIT NO.5 : SMITH & PEPPER, BIRMINGHAM

Not your average M&I factory visit this. Over the weekend we had the opportunity to see an old jewellery factory preserved in its entirety.

Now part of the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, the Smith & Pepper factory closed in 1981. The owners left it practically as it was when they locked up on the final Friday of business, apparently too distressed to clear it up. When the council bought the building they found tools still on benches, overalls on coat hooks and unused boxes sat orderly on the shelves.

We were shown round by an enthusiastic guide who explained the business's family history, the owner's meticulous measures to ensure as little waste as possible and how methods were barely modernised during its 8o year lifespan.

For more photos see the M&I Facebook page.