From growing up playing with beads and Fimo as a child, Fiona Dowling always knew she wanted to be a jeweller.
But, being a real people person, the real joy for her comes with sharing her skills and her creative passions with others through her Jewellery Moves workshops. Being an Army wife with three children, she finds that running jewellery workshops in a host of different venues and always meeting new groups of people works perfectly with her rather nomadic lifestyle.
After studying at Edinburgh College of Art, in her hometown, Fiona completed her MA at London's Royal College of Art before becoming design director for a luxury cuff link business and freelanced for various jewellery companies before having children and deciding to set up her own jewellery making business.
But, when her husband joined the Army and the family were posted to Cyprus eight years ago, Fiona had something of an epiphany.
'We were on the beach all the time,' she says. 'I was talking to a lady in a café and was saying I really wanted to teach people to make their own jewellery. She said I could do it on the beach and I could use the bench at the front of her café. She said she wouldn't charge me because people would buy tea and coffee etc.
'So I went on Facebook and said if anyone would like to pick up a pebble, I would teach them how to set it in silver.'
From Cyprus, where Fiona had run a number of successful sessions, the family were posted to Andover about six years ago, and Fiona started working with different venues in the area, setting up a range of jewellery workshops. Having moved again to Winchester in the last couple of years, Fiona revelled in making more new connections and finding new venues to run courses.
'Wherever we are, I just find new venues,' she explains. 'It's the way of the lifestyle – there's not really space for me to set up my own studio because we can be moving on in a few years' time, so I work with different venues and do pop-up workshops. We share each other's social media and it's a really nice USP.
'Doing the jewellery on the beach made me realise that you really can make jewellery anywhere.'
From beautiful stately homes, kitchen tables and farms with chickens running around, Fiona has hosted workshops at a plethora of different venues for events including birthday parties, hen dos or girls' nights.
'I like the idea of creating an experience for people,' she says. 'They're having this experience and creating a piece of jewellery at the end of it. It's like a bonding experience.
'A lot of them haven't made jewellery before so it's their first time using a blow torch or a saw. It's quite empowering creating something for yourself.
'I really encourage people to personalise their jewellery. If it's a ring workshop, we hand stamp the inside of the ring with a date or a message or a name.
'It's not just a memory of the experience but they have a physical product at the end as well that they can remember.'
Fiona clearly has a passion for sharing her jewellery making knowledge but, almost just as important, is the social aspect of her workshops.
'I absolutely love to meet new people,' she smiles, 'I think people are fascinating and I love to build those connections with people and pass on my skills and my knowledge. The idea of sharing my jewellery skills is really important to me. I just love making those interactions with people — it's really important.
'People are different, and their stories are different.'
It's also something of a privilege, she says, to be involved in such a personal experience.
'I had one lady they organised it for her because her grandad was terminally ill with cancer. She decided she was going to set up a workshop for all the female members of the family. He selected what stone they were going to make it with. He was there at the workshop and he was well and making teas and coffees. It was a lovely afternoon.
'The fact that I'm in their homes doing it as well, I'm getting to be part of their family situation. Jewellery is so personal and crating these personal moments is another layer to it.'
Finding that some of her workshop participants wanted to take things further, Fiona now also delivers online courses for those who really get the jewellery making bug.
'Some people come for a one-off experience but some people are really like "this is for me",' she explains. 'I love that people want to learn these new skills or a new hobby. More and more, people are doing it just for themselves, just as a mindfulness activity. It's lovely that people are just doing it for their enjoyment. More and more, people are just looking for an escape, that therapy.'
While Fiona and the family are aware of how long they'll be posted in each location, they have no idea where their next posting will be. But she says she enjoys the challenge of setting up new connections in each place, and says, as her workshops can be held anywhere, it makes a successful business model for Jewellery Moves.
'It's very much based around our lifestyle,' she adds. 'I know this is the lifestyle that we have. But I'm not afraid to travel – I'll load up my little Mini and go around the county for workshops. That's what makes it exciting for me, the fact that I can travel around.
'I would now love to push the boundaries of where you can make jewellery. I think it would be really cool to test the boundaries of where that can happen. Where is the most crazy place you can make jewellery? I would love to find some really unique venues.'
For Fiona, her career has 'massively evolved' from where she started, which was working in mass production, seeing her designs come off the conveyor belt in their hundreds in China.
'It was fantastic to see,' she admits, 'but that lifestyle doesn't work with the lifestyle we have now. Getting married and having children means I've managed to pivot.
'The boys are all at school now, so I can work around them. I try to limit it to one day every weekend. But I work for quite a few craft barns as well, so I do day workshops — they hire me as their tutor. Then I do the private workshops as well.
'People say "how can you have that military lifestyle?" The fact that you can collaborate with different people and different small businesses, it's just a lovely way to work and to grow my business.
'I feel really lucky and really privileged to still be working in the jewellery industry but just in a different way. But I think that all came from my love of meeting new people.'
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