BENCHspace ...because making matters
creativity, community, craft
BENCHspace is a silversmithing and jewellery workshop that offers you the opportunity to come and make bespoke jewellery in your own unique style.

Taster Sessions
BENCHspace offers a range of taster sessions, courses and masterclasses to build up your skill set with step-by-step expert tuition, enabling you to spend some creative ‘me’ time in our fully equipped workshop. For all abilities, from absolute beginner to competent jeweller.
Taster sessions are a perfect gift for those special celebrations – including birthdays, anniversaries, hen parties, bridal parties, (to make bridesmaid, best man, bride and groom gifts) corporate away days, team building and creative time with friends.
Great for friends and family
Bring your friends and family to share your special occasion, creating amazing jewellery to wear home with pride and great memories to share.
Your Expert Instructor
Karen Cooke
I have over 30 years of experience in the jewellery trade and am a fully qualified teacher, silversmith and jeweller and have taught all ages and abilities over the years. I look forward to supporting you in all your making adventures.

In the last 12 months


Why Choose Us
Here are a few reasons
- Enjoy learning in our fully equipped jewellery workshop.
- Each person has their own jewellers’ bench with full set of tools.
- Make your own amazing jewellery to fit perfectly in your own unique style!
Testimonials
What people are saying
Jul 9

One from last night’s class …
Nice little silver labradorite pendant inspired by the planets…
Oops but Kelly forgot to add a bail before securing the stone, a very common thing to do in the excitement of finishing a piece. (The chain needs to go through at right angles to the pendant otherwise it won’t sit flat on the body). We can add jump rings etc but can’t solder it with heat unless we take the stone out or protect it from the heat, or do a cold connection such as riveting. I think Kelly is going to make some thick jump rings to fix on the top which will be strong enough not to need soldering. 👌👍
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Jul 8

Prong practice…
Lovely labradorite silver pendant made by Niki on our L3 classes. The double prongs were a challenge but she got there and it looks great!
🥳⚒️
Well done with persevering with those soldering skills Niki, one day you’ll love it!
#benchspacejewelleryclasses #jewellerymaker #jewellerybeginner #jewellerymakersofinstagram #handmadejewellery #jewelleryworkshop
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Jul 7

Fancy new aprons!
I’ve just collected these from @myiconbranding who embroidered them all and they look amazing.
A very big thank-you to my fabulous student Liz who hand-made twelve of them, all out of beautiful heavy duty duck canvas.
Not only will they protect you all but you’ll all look super stylish in the workshop too 🤩
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Jul 6

Our beginners absolutely loved it!
It was the last week of our 8 week L1 course last week and these are the first pieces made by our lovely students!
All very different ideas and styles emerging. Lots of skills learnt from week one and they are ready now to progress to our L2 course with a focus on technical skills.
Well done folks! See you all in September for more adventures in metalsmithing ⚒️👍.
If you’d like to join our growing BENCHspace family, sign up to our newsletter
(via website- link in bio- hit subscribe )
so you get first dibs on release dates for booking a course. Quite often the L1 course dates are booked up before I get to advertise them.
🤫 sshhhh but I can tell you that the next L1 course will commence week beginning 08/09/25 on :
Monday mornings 10am-12.30pm
Thursday evenings 6.30-9pm
L I M I T E D S P A C E S ‼️
C O M I N G S O O N ‼️
P.S. Please note that when bookings go live on the website we can’t hold, reserve or pre-book any spaces. All spaces must be booked via the website. We don’t hold waiting lists.
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Jul 5

Well done you smashed it! ⚒️
Literally…we spent the morning hammering and hitting things and made beautiful jewellery.
Well done lovely people… see you again soon for more adventures in making! x
#benchspacesilverschool #benchspacejewelleryclasses
#jewellerytastersessions
#jewelleryworkshops
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Jul 3

Some of the things we made in June….
It’s been such a busy month with all our weekend taster sessions, weekly courses (L1-4) and our monthly masterclasses - and our lovely guests and students have been smashing it!
Look at all the wonderful things they’ve made!
It was week 8 (the final week) last week and so look out for the bragging post coming soon with all the amazing results from the beginners course….
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Jul 2

Prong setting practice…
These are Kelly’s little prong settings for her 5mm sparkly stones, that may or may not become earrings. She hasn’t decided yet as they are her first practice of making these types of settings on our L3 class. These can be a bit fiddly to get the wire prongs soldered on straight and equally spaced around the setting to begin with plus the little jump ring soldered centrally too.
She has done really well and is making excellent progress in levelling up her techniques!
#benchspacesilverschool #benchspacejewelleryclasses #handmadejewellery #jewelleryworkshop #jewellerymakers #jewellerybeginner #jewellerymakersofinstagram #
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Jul 1

We still have a couple of spaces on our earrings and pendants workshop on Saturday 19th July..
It is a great introduction to traditional silversmithing techniques to learn how to make your own designs in silver. With expert tuition and a workshop full of tools, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve!
Plus you go home wearing your own fabulous jewellery.
Visit bench-space.com for more details.
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Jul 1

We introduce prong setting on our L3 classes alongside bezel setting. Prong settings are very versatile and can be used for faceted or cabochon stones of any size and so are a great technique to learn!
#benchspacejewelleryclasses #benchspacesilverschool #jewelleryworkshop #handmadejewellery #handmadestonesetting #stonesetting #prongsetting
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Jul 1

We introduce prong setting on our L3 classes alongside bezel setting. Prong settings are very versatile and can be used for faceted or cabochon stones of any size and so are a great technique to learn!
#benchspacejewelleryclasses #benchspacesilverschool #jewelleryworkshop #handmadejewellery #handmadestonesetting #stonesetting #prongsetting
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Jun 29

Nominations close today for your Tendring Creative Champion Award 2025…. ⬇️
🔗 https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=UjyhhT5pOUy9-oXDqQR9Fc4kOatjOApHs_yI7gt9IURUMkZZMDA2STU4N1RZN0w3TktGTFEzV09CUiQlQCN0PWcu&route=shorturl
If you’ve attended one of our classes and would like to make us do a happy workshop jig-
Copy & paste the link - ⬆️
Our email address is benchspacestudio@gmail.com
Can we win 2 years in a row? 🤞
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Jun 29

The Death’s-head hawkmoth has distinctive markings on its back that look to us like a skull, it is however a cunning disguise.
It is mimicking another insect (that is smaller than itself) and so its lower wings and head markings are designed to look like a queen bee and steals honey using a clever disguise. It emits a scent that mimics the bees’ own pheromones, allowing it to sneak past guards and enter the hive undetected. Once inside, it feeds on the honey, sometimes even making a high-pitched squeak that might further confuse the bees.
Clever eh? I learnt all this from my eldest who is off to uni soon to study entomology- so this is for him as it’s his second favourite insect.
Hand fabricated from silver using fusing techniques inspired by @ringgoldnicole
#handmadejewellery #benchspacesilverschool #jewellerymakersofinstagram #handfabricatedjewellery #nicoleringgold
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Jun 29

Look what we made today 🤩
30 handmade rings made in lots of different sizes and lots of different styles, some set with gemstones too!
All made by our fabulous guests in our spinner/ stacking rings taster session.
Well done folks and thanks for visiting us to make your amazing silver jewellery!
Quality handmade jewellery sessions with expert tutors and a fully equipped jewellery workshop- you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.
#benchspacejewelleryclasses #benchspacesilverschool #jewellerytastersessions #spinnerrings #stackingrings
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Jun 28

Gem-set rings!
Well done to our fabulous guests today who came and made these beautiful gemstone set silver rings.
We chose and set malachite, kyanite, ruby in zoisite, moonstone, garnet, onyx, sodalite and opalite cabochons into handmade silver rings. We even made all the patterned silver wire 👌
Well done folks! You were amazing 🤩.
#jewellerytastersessions #handmadejewellery #benchspacesilverschool #jewelleryclasses #jewelleryclassesuk
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Jun 27

Some lovely jewellery made on our L3 class today !
A very big well done to Fiona @colchestercaninemassage for making this lovely silver amber ring today and her rose quartz silver pendant.
⚒️👏👌
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Jun 25

We’re finishing up our L3 course with some prong settings…
…a great way to set all types, cuts and sizes of stones from large cabochons to small faceted stones.
Most of these are a still in progress and I look forward to seeing them all shiny and sparkly soon.
These set stones were made by fabulous Melanie on our Tuesday evening class 👏👏
#benchspacesilverschool #stonesetting #stonesettingclass #prongsetting
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Jun 23

Beautiful Labradorite pendant by @gailparkes1 finished this week on the L3 course.
A brilliant bold statement design and it looks amazing in the light with all those flashing colours!
Well done 👏
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Jun 22

Brilliant concentration from all our lovely students today learning the subtle art of flush setting…
They did amazingly well and all left with a little flush set sparkly silver pendant to wear with pride.
Many thanks as ever to @marlieswhite for her expertise and patience 👏👌!
#benchspacesilverschool #benchspacejewelleryclasses #jewelleryworkshop #handmadejewellery #jewellerymakersofinstagram #flushsetting #flushset
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Jun 22

jewellery classes for all abilities.
Creativity with community and connection.
You’ll be amazed at what you can achieve .
#benchspacejewelleryclasses #benchspacesilverschool #jewelleryworkshop #jewellerymaker #jewellerymakers #jewellerybeginner #jewellerymakersofinstagram
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Jun 21

If you always wondered what Pi was about in your maths class at school, you definitely find out if you need to make a ring (especially 3 rings interlinked)…
Our L2 technical skills course includes a Russian wedding ring as they can be really tricky to make exactly the right size.
We concentrate on taking our measuring skills back to basics and drawing wire down into a half round profile, before making our calculations to get the size just right.
Richard finished this beauty in last night’s evening class and hand polished it to a brilliant shine ✨.
#benchspacesilverschool #jewellerymakingskills #beginnersjewellery #handmadejewelleryuk #russianweddingring
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