We’re looking for some help for our busy workshop!
Would you like to come into our workshop (at times to suit both us and you) to assist us with what we do here at Love from Skye? Or, would you like to work on our jewellery for us, from your own workshop?
We would love for someone local to us to take on this role but we realise that this may not be possible so we’d be happy to consider working with a jeweller from further afield. We are open to suggestions and we’re flexible!
To take on this work for us, it is essential that you have the skills to size rings down and up (not stretching), solder components such as cufflink & brooch fittings, do tube / rub over setting, repair jewellery such as chain repairs and highly polish jewellery to an extremely high standard (not barrel polishing or polishing with a pendant drill attachment). For a jeweller coming into our workshop, we need you to be at ease with using an aqua flame soldering machine and a bench polisher.
Unfortunately we’re not in a position to spend any time offering training so it is essential that anyone contacting us is able to carry out all of the above tasks to a really high standard.
This would suit someone who is already working as a jobber, someone who is just starting out as a self employed jobber (but is already fully trained), or someone who produces their own collection or bespoke work and is looking for some additional work to support that. If you are living locally but not currently set up with a workshop but you have all of the skills we need, we would also be happy to discuss a ‘rent a bench’ agreement to allow the right person to work on their own jewellery in our workshop as well as assisting us with our own work.
In the not too distant future we have hopes of being able to employ a jeweller on a permanent basis but we’re not quite ready to take that step. Love from Skye is run by both of us / employs us both and we have already taken on one full time member of staff, 2 part time staff and a Saturday assistant since we reopened after the second lockdown. However, we really need help with the workshop side of our business now!
If you’re interested in working with us on a flexible basis, please email bryony@lovefromskye.co.uk initially so that we can schedule a chat or a wee visit.
Bryony & Paul
During our quieter months we like to showcase a ‘featured design’ and offer it at a special one off price. When we were about to launch this idea, lockdown #1 happened. Our initial idea was to showcase one of our higher end designs but, well, so much has changed since then hasn’t it. It now doesn’t feel right to only showcase a luxury piece so we feature an affordable version as well and offer both at a one off special price.
Once each one has sold at the special price there will be more of the design available in silver immediately but at the normal retail price. There won’t be another of the higher end version available – the next one will be made to order and will only be available at the normal retail price.
Our featured designs are back now!
Our current featured designs are our Triskelle bracelet in silver which you can see here and a luxurious combination of rose gold & silver which you can see here.
Somehow Love from Skye is 8 years old! At the end of 2021, we celebrated 8 years since we opened our shop & workshop.
To celebrate we gave the winner of our free prize draw £100 to spend on our jewellery at Christmas! This could help with Christmas shopping budgeting or be a Christmas treat for them.
Over the course of a year we do lots of different prize draws and raffles but this one was available in store only. We try to keep our social media platforms positive, and just be positive generally. We all know it’s been a hard time for most people without anyone else shouting about it, but you know what, it really has been a hard time for bricks and mortar shops. Real shops – businesses with overheads and staff and everything else. Sometimes we feel as though shops get forgotten about amongst all the talk of things like VAT reductions for hospitality & tourism and all the platforms for businesses without shop fronts. It’s so often the shops in our villages & towns which are a big part of creating a community and it’s those shops that get asked for raffle donations all for the fundraisers & fairs. But we love our shop and would never want to change what we do or where we are. So this giveaway was just about the shop. (We do love & appreciate our customers further afield too – our regular website customers and the customers who have come to our shop while visiting Skye!) This one was just specifically to thank those of you who shop with us in our bricks and mortar shop. It’s the heart of Love from Skye. Our workshop wouldn’t have a place to showcase Paul’s products without the shop and there would be no website without the shop either because the website is a continuation of our shop.
It’s been a whirlwind 8 years! It feels like they’ve passed in a flash, but when we think back to how the shop looked when we opened, all the changes it’s been through, how packed it is now in comparison and how much our own collection has grown over those years then it does actually feel like 8 long years!! It’s been hectic! We’ve loved it and we’ve met a lot of great people & made a lot of friends in our shop. Here’s to loads more years!
Big thanks to our customers, friends, family and employees past & present.
Since the second lockdown lifted, we were on the look out for new members for our wee shop team! We’re so happy to say that we now have a full team!
One of our new ‘lockdown 2020 designs’ and the first we launched was our Skye heart necklace, a detailed silhouette of the map of our island within a heart.
Our design is inspired by people’s love of our island and by the community heart groups working to help others during the Coronavirus crisis.
This design is now a normal part of our collection, but first, we decided to donate the full proceeds of the first 20 necklaces we sold to Broadford & Strath Community Company. We hoped we would be lucky enough to sell all 20, to raise £1,170 for the company, but due to the unbelievable interest from our amazing customers, we decided to add another 10 necklaces to the fundraising sales so we raised a final total of £1,755.00! In March 2021, BSCC planted a community orchard with this donation. Our new design is now available as a normal part of our collection here
We wanted to raise some money for the community company to help a small way towards the wonderful work they are doing. The work they do is extensive at the best of times but during the Covid-19 pandemic they organised almost daily food shares, co-ordinated & delivered cooked meals to the vulnerable people in our community and grew their own veg at their Growers Hub. We felt it was important that those of us who were able to start returning to ‘normality’ to keep this in mind and do something small to help.
The community orchard, funded by the sale of 30 Skye Heart necklaces, has come on leaps & bounds and now features leaks to maximise the space in the raised beds! Photo taken August 2021.
During lockdown 2020, we ran our biggest ever giveaway on our Facebook page. Each month – April, May, June & July – we asked our Facebook followers to nominate people doing amazing things during this crisis. We had 4 catagories – someone in isolation (as a reminder that they weren’t forgotten) a key worker (so that they knew how appreciated they were), someone voluneering in their community (another reminder that their work was appreciated) and a member of NHS staff so that we could say thank you.
A local lady who normally lives & works here in the village won the first giveaway after receiving an overwhelming amount of nominations due to being in isolation in the Children’s Hospital in Aberdeen with her husband and their young son who is just 6 years old and receiving cancer treatment. They have’t been home since New Year & miss their home terribly but are thankful to all be together. This special lady received an Isle of Skye necklace and matching bracelet to remind her of home & of everyone thinking of her & her family.
See our Isle of Skye range here
The owner of one of our local village shops & Post Offices over in Kyle had a huge amount of votes for the key worker catagory and won a pair of our Celtic cufflinks. This shop owner has worked so hard since lockdown was announced, really going out of his way to provide his community with what they needed, also taking on the extra task of delivering to those who couldn’t get to his shop.
See our Triskelle cufflinks here
Another local lady, who has a farm in Plockton, won the third of our giveaways. She usually supplies the local community plus a wide range of B&Bs & hotels with her delicous fresh eggs. During lockdown she supplied the local community with her produce, including fresh veg, totally free of charge. This kind lady received one of our Cridhe necklace & earring sets, Cridhe meaning ‘heart’ in Gaelic…perfect for someone who really was at the heart of her community during lockdown.
See our Cridhe collection here
The final of our giveaway winners was a nurse working in Glasgow. We are currently making her winning piece to order for her. She has chosen one of our Cuillin Ridge rings which we know will remind her of all the happy holidays she’s spent on Skye and will hopefully remind her that her hard work is so much appreciated by so many.
See our Cuillin Ridge rings here
The Coronavirus crisis has brought many things to us all. This is of course less important than many of the effects of the virus but it has also increased precious metal prices, something which we can’t ignore.
Gold, in particular, has increased substantially – to an all time high. So if you have noticed a jump in our prices, please understand that we have had no choice and that any changes are in line with the industry standard rise in precious metal costs. We have not increased any aspect of our pricing other than metal costs. Please also consider that VAT registered shops are not receiving the VAT deduction which hospitality businesses are receiving.
We thank you for your understanding and for your continued support.
In relation to jewellery repairs, the same increase will apply to any repairs which involve using metal. As with our jewellery pricing, we haven’t increased any charges other than metal.
We have made a very slight change to charges for our jewellery cleaning & polishing service and also our replacement watch battery service. Prior to lockdown, we did a little research into charges for these services at jewellers off the island after receiving many comments about these services seeming cheap with us. We had been charging £7.50 per item for cleaning & polishing but found that some jewellers charge as much as £30.00 for the very same service. We found that the best price we could find at a professional jewellers or watch specialist for replacement watch batteries was £10.00 (with the charge often being £25.00 – £40.00 and sometimes being as much as £80.00 depending on the watch brand), while we have always charged £5.00. We have therefore decided to increase our polishing charge to £10.00 & our watch battery service to £6.50. We hope our customers will still feel they are receiving a good service at a good, and most importantly, fair price.
Please note that the cleaning & polishing service we offer is not the same as ‘dipping’ jewellery in an ultrasonic bath which is sometimes the method used for a cheaper service. Please also note that we charge the same price for replacing a watch battery regardless of the brand of watch, ie, we don’t increase the charge for high end watches as some businesses do.
Once again, thank you for your understanding and for your continued support of our business.