In the Prenoa Workshop: The Journey of the Jeweller
November 2025 – Week 2
November has slipped in softly this year, with a warm gentleness that seems to echo everything happening in our home and workshop. Halloween arrived with a sweetness I hadn’t expected. We took Lily pumpkin-carving at a nearby farm for the very first time, and as she sat there in her big coat and her pink-purple painted face, scooping seeds with great seriousness, something washed over me. These small celebrations — dotted through the year like beads on a cord — are becoming her anchors in time. One day she’ll look back and feel the shape of her childhood through them. I felt that deeply.
On Wednesday we celebrated the Burghley fireworks and watched as the deer silently inspected the groups of people gathering around the perfectly lit bonfire. The fire licked the air and warmed us, along with hot pork cobs with apple sauce. The fireworks shot into the sky and through ear defenders and an oversized woolen hat my little girl's eyes lit up and said "Wow".
And then on Friday she came home clutching a handful of red poppies she’d made at nursery from buttons, pipe cleaners and crinkled tissue paper. I’ve placed them in a little Victorian bottle on the windowsill, a quiet tribute for Remembrance, but also a signal to her — this is a ritual that returns every year, one she will grow to understand. It feels tender, somehow, to be shaping memory while living inside it.
The workshop itself has been a little quieter this week. Not idle, just restful and on light duties. I’ve stepped away from the torch momentarily to focus on the website and the photography for next year’s pieces. There’s a quiet satisfaction in planning ahead — tracing the lines of what Prenoa will offer in 2026, refining the stories each collection will tell, capturing coins against soft winter light and garden foliage. It’s a different kind of creating, but still creation all the same.
Next week the bench will wake up again. The soldering block will come back into play, and the familiar chorus of the workshop will return: metal being cut, edges filed smooth, pennies domed into their gentle curve, silver annealed to a soft glow, and the steady rhythm of polishing wheels coaxing each piece toward readiness. The festive season is beginning to stir in Stamford town, online and I can feel that lovely shift — the moment when nostalgia meets anticipation.
November feels like a month of transition. A period where darkness envelopes us for a time, encouraging us to rest and remember. A moment to breathe before the golden rush of Christmas and a new calendar year emerges. A moment to notice the rituals, the memories, the small red poppies in the window. It all makes me think of the coins, in fact, it always comes back to coins. The ritual of giving, of exchanging, of laughing and sharing - of pound coins that used to be celotaped in Christmas cards and the dropping of coins into the dish at church as we were leaving. The coins and the people, connected forever.
Thank you for being here, walking this unfolding path with us.
With heart and metal,
Rebecca x
October 2025 - Week 3
Welcoming the Season of Gold & Good Fortune
As late October in Stamford has unfolded with gentler than usual breezes and softer light than many seasons, the workshop feels alive with calm anticipation. The garden outside still holds a trace of summer’s warmth, the south-facing window to my studio bathing me in that mellow October glow, while inside the workshops the brass clamp and silver-trays whisper of what’s coming next, all organised and laid out by Paul.
This year, we’ve created a new iteration of our charming wreath-pennies — domed Victorian and early 1900s pennies transformed into beautiful talismans for the season ahead. Each coin, once worn in circulation, has been gently shaped and polished, and is now ready to hang as a marker of good luck, at doors, frames or wreaths. There is something timeless in the weight of a past life, revived now for new meaning: the memory of hands, the chime of a coin in pocket, the promise of welcome. I love how the aged copper tones catch the flicker of candlelight, how each small domed surface reflects both decay and renewal. I gifted one of these pennies to my in-laws around six years ago; and the beautiful thing is, when they heard of the tradition of a penny at the door for good luck, it has hung in the viewing window of their main door ever since. Every time I visit, I am reminded of the connection between people and what a gift it is to cherish.
And that’s not all. I am absolutely thrilled to say that more of our sixpence and world-coin jewellery have just returned from the platers. These are my new favs.... drenched in warm 22 ct gold, glistening and decadent. These pieces will become our “lucky sixpence for Christmas” collection: starting at £100, they merge the centuries-old tradition of the sixpence as a symbol of prosperity with the moment’s upsurge of gold, of shine, of thoughtful luxury. A sixpence gifted, worn, carried — becomes a vector for meaning, hope, love and a touch of sparkle.
In the workshop I’ve been standing at the torch, the polishing wheel whispering, the gentle draught from the west-facing window stirring soft curls of metal dust. As this year has matured, my love of flowers, bees and gardening has found its way into these pieces more than ever before: the revamped Prenoa garden has been a lifeline during times of uncertainty and pivot.... coins like little petals, or hives of story, stories of circulation and transformation keep me steadfast when I need them.
When you choose a wreath-penny or gilded sixpence from Prenoa, you are not just choosing a piece of jewellery: you are choosing a story resurrected and redesigned. You are choosing tradition worn lightly, and revived for the present. You are choosing something that feels personal, meaningful — a heartbeat of past and present. You are choosing passion for coins, love and respect for countries and traditions far and wide and you are choosing to honour slow mindful making.
Thank you. I really mean it.
Discover our new gold-drenched pieces under our dedicated collection: Collection:22 — your perfect gift for someone who appreciates history, meaning and the glow of something deeply personal.
We hold true to our sustainability promise too: off-cut coins that didn’t quite meet our new festive line become spacers, washers, even garden bells — our small way of honouring every piece of metal, every lineage in copper and silver and gold. The workshop is always full of these little side-stories: coins that didn’t sell become small objects of utility around here, and I love that ripple of second-life.
So as autumn deepens, and the kitchen will inevitably fill with the scent of cinnamon and hearth-light, I invite you into this moment with us: hold a piece of heritage in your hands, let it glow for the festive season, let it carry your good fortune, your welcome, your intention.
PS: Don’t forget to sign up to our mailing list — subscribers receive our cheeky Christmas discount code, a little gift from us to you.
Thank you, as always, for being part of this journey. May your door-wreath or your wrapped gift always catch the light just so, and may the years ahead gift you both nostalgia and renewal.
With heart and metal,
Rebecca x
September 2025 - Week 2
This week started by taking an inventory of what we needed to change up for the Autumn/Winter. As the light starts to wane and the days get colder, it's a stark reminder that summer has kissed our foreheads and gently slipped away until next year, and fight it as I might, it is time to succumb to the change of season and start gathering the fallen acorns off the dampened leafy ground, as the Prenoa oak lessens her grasp.
Once our inventory was taken, it was time to work out what we no longer needed in the workshop and the office and throw it out. Autumn is a great time (like Spring) according to Feng Shui to flush things out, to realign and to reassess what needs to be done. We certainly managed to clear out lots of packaging and plan the kinds of materials we will need for the months ahead. It's important to say, we always try to reuse whatever we can, giving it a new application if possible. Metals are certainly at the forefront and our offcuts are melted down and stored. Coins that didn't quite make the grade to sell, are used as spacers, washers and solder blocks. The copper coins can be used outdoors to deter slugs, hang as small bells to scare hungry pigeons from the vegetables.... and no doubt Paul will come up with more uses as time goes on!
Once we had made some space, Paul came to me with a proposition. We had been talking about a second plan chest, and he had found one he thought was perfect. So after a measure up, a few nods of the head and points of fingers about where it would go, we put in a good offer on a certain online auction and it was ours. She has been collected today and she will be known as Ophelia.
Ophelia will house our polished coins, as currently we have polished and unpolished in the same unit (Cecil, after Sir William Cecil or Lord Burghley). Together they will sit side by side like a vintage married couple and create extra work space once a solid oak top has been laid across. Operations will therefore run more smoothly and as the workshop expands, so too will our coin collection and our dreams.
In terms of actual work, our gorgeous 2.5mm round wire bangles are now all ready for a final polish. They will be online soon, as there's nothing more fabulous than the soft tinkle of coin bangles under wooly jumpers.
We have also been working on two new product lines, which Paul has pioneered and now they are in their third prototype stage, I think we could launch those in time for Christmas. Both are influenced by British past, and will be rich in story - that is all I shall say for now.
Each of these changes - from the letting go of summer and clutter, to the finding and welcoming of a new piece of furniture and getting our hands dirty in metal, has helped the transition into the cosier months and ended the week with gratitude and hope.
I hope you've had a lovely week and enjoy some nourishing broths, a warming fire and the sharp morning breath of autumn.
Shop our beautiful collection of jewellery and accessories here
With heart and metal,
Rebecca x
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August 2025 - Week 2
We love the sunshine here in Stamford, it's been lifting our spirits and inspiring us this week as we do the last summer push before taking a short break.
It's been a great year so far, with a few ups and downs in the economy and platforms making unexpected changes, but all in all, we have made big leaps. The short videos from our filming day last month are now back from the videographers and we couldn't be more pleased. Our first time behind the cameras left us feeling exuberant and glad we did it.
We’ve been sketching by hand again, talking through how these ideas might be finished in precious metal. It’s always a curious balance — our research quietly shapes us, yet we’re fiercely protective of what makes Prenoa singular. The work keeps drawing me back to our core values and the early sketches from when it was just me at a spare-room desk. Often we rush towards the new and shrug off an awkward past like a coat that no longer fits, forgetting it may contain a meaningful crumb — a lesson, a thread — worth keeping for who we’ll become. Yes, I do a lot of thinking while cleaning coins, but when you’re surrounded by history, perhaps that reflection is only right.
In other areas, we've made quite a few new sterling silver hammered bangles for the launch that is scheduled to land on the website in time for Christmas. We have also sent some coins away for a secret collaboration, which will be shared in a month or so when they are back with us.
Wishing you late summer sunshine and a prosperous week. We will be back in September after a short trip to the south of France.
With heart and metal,
Rebecca x