The Precious Metals Workshop

Established in 2010 by Goldsmith Ian Nicholson and located in Edinburgh’s creative space Out of the Blue, the Precious Metals Workshop (PMW) is Edinburgh’s leading independent workshop for goldsmiths, silversmiths, jewellers and hobbyists.

We run courses for all levels of skills and provide access to a large range of tools and facilities necessary to create jewellery. We are a safe space for creative minds, home to a family of makers who share their knowledge and skills while inspiring each other and benefiting from an artisan vibe within the workshop.

We operate several programs based on helping people start their own jewellery careers, providing a free bench and facilities access as well as weekly business mentoring. See our Inclusions page for further information on this.

At the PMW we are very aware of our supply chains. There is continued exploitation in the mining of metals and gems and we are proud to support two third-world women’s mining groups. Please see our Facets page for further information.

The Precious Metals Workshop is a community of makers, where we share our knowledge, skills and inspire each other as creative individuals. We provide a range of specialised equipment including soldering stations suitable for casting, pickling tanks, wheel and barrel polishers, ultrasonic tank, bubble etching tanks for copper and silver, fly press, ring stretchers, stone setting tools, heavy duty vices, bench drills, hammering stumps, silversmithing hammers, draw bench and plates, metal guillotine, rolling mill, large and small kilns. We have an extensive collection of resource books on techniques and practices to support both our emerging and established makers.