Soft Wax Pendant-Making Workshop with Atypical Thing

Atypical Thing is running a soft wax pendant-making workshop at the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter on Saturday 12 December. It's led by Josefina Flello Martinez, an independent jeweller who works under the Atypical Thing name, and the whole session is built around making a pendant from soft wax to give as a gift to a loved one.

If you've never worked with wax before, it's a good place to start. Unlike metal, soft wax is something you can shape, carve and refine by hand, so you're working directly with the material rather than fighting it. Martinez guides you through the process from the first rough shape to the finished piece, so you don't need to have any prior jewellery-making experience to get stuck in.

The timing is the real point here. With the workshop falling on 12 December, it's just a few weeks before Christmas, and the focus is on making something for someone else rather than for yourself. It's a handmade gift you've actually put the work into, which usually beats anything you can pick up off a shelf. And because it's a workshop, you'll be working alongside other people in the room, which is half the fun of these things.

It all takes place at the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, a spot that fits the bill perfectly. The museum is right in the heart of the city's jewellery-making district, so you're making your pendant in a place that's surrounded by the history of the craft. The session is on Saturday 12 December, so you can fit it in around your weekend without having to scramble on a weekday evening.