A new creative studio is setting up shop on a high street in south Bristol with the help of a grant from Bristol City Council. New jewellery-making space, Silver and Steel Studios, is hoping to break down some of the boundaries of the craft and create an accessible, welcoming space for the community.
Studio owner Bethany Morton started her jewellery-making journey just five years ago. She has taken over the lease of the empty unit on February 10 in between Preserve and Greggs, a site previously home to a convenience store.
Funding for Bethany's first permanent site was made possible through the council's Vacant Commercial Property Grant scheme as part of its city centre and high streets recovery and renewal programme. The council has allocated £1.3 million to support small businesses, sole traders, charities, community interest companies (CICs) and arts and culture groups.
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Grants of £2,500 to £10,000 are available to help you open new premises and applications are still open until May 22, 2023. For Bethany, her grant will allow her to fund the refit of the East Street space.
"It's an opportunity to show that you're bringing some value to Bristol's creative scene and you're changing the high street for better. I encourage everyone to go for," Beth said.
The site on East Street is the first incarnation of Silver and Steel as Beth has spent the past five years hiring studio space for her work jewellery work. She wanted to create a space for other jewellers and metalsmiths to work together, having first learnt from Alice Goldsack, a renowned silversmith in Bristol.
"I just fell in love with it, it's very elemental and like alchemy. You're using really primal processes like setting things on fire and hitting things with hammers and you create something really delicate, beautiful and shiny out of all of this noise and mess."
The studios will have four primary functions: offering jewellers benches for designers to work on their products in house and offering tools for hire to support the jewellery-making and metalsmithing community in Bristol.
"These pieces of equipment are really expensive to buy on your own and it can be a really inaccessible craft to excel at unless you've got a lot of money behind you. The equipment is humungous and you've got to be quite far down your career to invest in it."
Thirdly, the space will offer workshops for members of the public to learn how to create jewellery to inspire people and open up the industry to new people. There will also be a gallery space at the front of the studio to allow Bethany to platform local, contemporary designers on a rotating calendar of exhibitions, which will also be available to purchase.
"Since the pandemic, I feel there's a lot more rhetoric in connecting with smaller designers and people have more of an interest in how things are made. There seems to be a resurgence of connecting with crafts like pottery and different skills.
"This new appreciation for how things are made means people are more interested in spending money on independent designers and I feel like people want to connect with what they're spending their money on. It makes it much more meaningful if you can go into a shop and chat with a designer."
This change in some people's shopping habits as well as the community feeling in south Bristol is what drew Beth to East Street. The Bedminster high street is several steps behind neighbouring North Street, but Silver and Steel Studios is one of several new creative arrivals in recent months including Make potters and the East Street Emporium.
"I've really fallen in love with East Street. There's a lot of development so the area is changing a lot, but there's a lot of creativity and independents around. I feel like there's a new generation of local creatives bringing something different to the high street and the council has really supported that with this grant."
Beth said she hopes East Street becomes more of a destination for shopping and experiences. Silver and Steel Studios is set to open in April - you can follow its Instagram page for updates.
Silver and Steel Studios will be located at 74 East St, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 4EY. The gallery will be open from Wednesday to Saturday (10am-6pm), workshop times may vary. www.silverandsteelstudios.co.uk
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