20 Years of Sally Lees (London) Contemporary Jewellery - Erasmus Students from Escola d'Art de Menorca

My first student was Rut a student in her final year of studies. Rut was able to gain valuable experience as while she was with me I received the commission to make over 150 pieces of jewellery for The Houses of Parliament gift shops and online store. The jewellery was to accompany the 'New Dawn' light sculpture to be installed in Westminster Hall. Rut was able to practice cutting out components as the job required over 500 disks of different sizes for the pieces of jewellery ordered.

We weren't allowed to talk about the 'New Dawn' sculpture or the  jewellery collection until it had be installed and the opening night was the 6th of June. So we had to keep it secret for the whole time that Rut was working with me. Luckily Rut is a very trustworthy person and although was really keen to tell her family about the project at the time she didn't!

Thank you Rut!

Rut stayed with me for only a few weeks. She worked really hard on her workbench experience and I was really sad to loose her when she returned to Menorca!

My next Erasmus student was Vanina an equally capable student who stayed with me for four weeks. During this time she was able to attend two Cockpit Arts Open Studios where she gained experience in setting up exhibitions and also valuable sales experience. At King's Cross Canopy Market Vanina was able to experience setting up a market stall and selling in that environment.

One day during her stay Vanina came in quite excited. A friend of hers had sent her a Whats app message with an article from the Menorcan newspaper the Menorca Diario with a photograph of us both in my studio in London. We were pleasently suprised to be featured in the newspaper and many phone calls were made to and from friends and family in Menorca that day.