One of the things to do in Yogyakarta is a short (two hour) silversmithing course where you get to make your own piece of jewellery! For about $35 you can make your own ring, earrings or a pendant under the guidance of an expert silversmith (and polyglot).

Our family all chose to make rings of different styles, some with stamped letters inside. They give you a basic overview of the process (see M’s page below) before guiding you in more detail through each step.

You do it all yourself and they check at each stage and adjust if required. The other person in our session made earrings as she’d already made a ring in Bali. Afterwards she said that this course was much more hands on – apparently in Bali they do most of it for you. Which is probably safer, given the mini flame thrower we all got to use and the jar of sulfuric acid nearby…

They collect and reuse all the off cuts of silver, including the filings, so when doing any filing (which for N & I was a LOT) you had to do it over a little drawer in the table:

After cutting, filing, heating, cooling, stamping, twisting, sizing, washing & polishing they were complete!

Pretty impressive for a morning’s work by complete beginners!