A bit of Bedale bling

IT'S a jewellery shop with a difference.

As well as buying a piece of jewellery at Silverdale in Bedale, you can also make your own. In a single £10 session, customers can learn basic techniques and come away with a finished necklace, complete with its own presentation box. Very posh.

"Some people find it very easy and take to it straight away. Others find it a bit fiddly, but we promise that everyone will end up with a necklace," says Angela Shevels.

A former geography teacher, she opened Silverdale in 2003 and was joined by her daughter Helen, a fine art graduate and silversmith, who has a tiny workshop next door to the shop.

The first of the jewellery making courses were run just before Christmas and proved very popular.

"The nice thing was that we had all ages here," says Angela. "It was a very sociable occasion and everyone made something really nice in an hour or so."

The new courses start on Saturday, February 9 and will run once a month.

Each one is self-contained, but Helen promises to introduce more advanced techniques as the course goes on.

"I've always enjoyed making things,"

says Helen, "and jewellery is a lovely way of using quite simple things - cable, beads - and putting them together to make something gorgeous.

For me, this is the perfect job."

Sharing that pleasure seemed an obvious step.

"Many more people are interested in making jewellery as a hobby and this is a good way of getting started, seeing what's involved without the expense of buying all the equipment," says Angela.

Helen designs and makes jewellery for the shop - there some stunningly simple designs using pearls and pendants, but found it has other spin-offs too.

"We started because we wanted to offer small repairs ourselves as it takes so long and often costs so much to send things away. But it also means we can make our own designs as well as alter and adapt things we have in the shop.

We can make things longer or shorter, or make things using different beads or stones. Our cluster necklaces are very popular and we can make those in the colours and styles people want - so you have something that's very individual and just right for you.

Other jewellery in the shop ranges from simple silver ear studs at £4 to pieces at well over £1,500, but the emphasis is on interesting modern designs.

"We carry a range of gold jewellery, but we stock far more silver. We want jewellery to be fun and affordable. We also have a lot of pearls, which are very popular again, especially when done with a different twist."

Working on the basis of catching them young, they have a range of children's jewellery which they are developing as a distinctive "Oh Baby"

range.

And they have also just launched a new service - hiring jewellery.

"We're thinking of it mainly for brides who want a stunning piece of jewellery on their wedding day, but who might not want - or afford - to buy it outright and keep it. We have some lovely ensembles of wonderful necklaces and earrings that would cost around £500 or more to buy but which can be hired for a fraction of that."

After all, you can hire the dress, the suits, the hats, so why not the jewellery as well?

Whether you buy it, hire it or make it yourself, jewellery is there to be enjoyed.

■ Silverdale, North End, Bedale. Tel: 01677-427222. Open Monday to Saturday, 9.30am-5.30pm. As well as the planned sessions, they will also offer jewellery making sessions for groups. They are planning jewellery preview evenings for groups as charity fundraisers.

Wine drinking with a clearer conscience

WINE drinking with a clearer conscience could be easier now, thanks to an initiative in South Africa, where most of their wine is produced in the Cape Floral Kingdom, the smallest, yet richest plant kingdom on earth.

The CFK, a World Heritage Site, contains over 9,600 plant species - more than can be found in the entire northern hemisphere. Concern that vulnerable natural habitat might be destroyed as vineyards expand, has led to the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative.

Basically, it means the wine industry works with conservationists to protect certain areas, uses farming practices that help maintain the number of plants and animals, respects the environment and also the producers and people who work in the vineyards.

South Africa is the world's ninth largest producer of wine and hopes to make its biodiversity initiative a peg for marketing and tourism.

It also gives us an excuse to show you a nice picture of this beautiful kudu.

Top shops and high street flops

GOOD service is the way to customers' hearts and shoppers seem willing to pay extra for it, according to this year's Which? retailers' survey.

Despite high prices, customers voted Waitrose their favourite shop, knocking sister company John Lewis into second place.

The supermarket received an impressive customer service score, with 75 per cent rating the store excellent or very good.

Although pricey, local independent stores did exceptionally well, scoring highly for quality service from friendly, knowledgeable staff. Bucking the trend, discount stores Aldi and Lidl made it into the top ten, showing that if the price is right, customers are sometimes willing to accept the no-frills approach.

JD Sports, at the bottom of the league, scored an abysmal six per cent for service.

"The shops are a jumbled-up mess," one customer said. Another complained that "staff seem more interested in carrying on their own conversations than looking after a customer".

Big names such as JJB Sports, Woolworths and Somerfield, which scored poorly last year, still linger at the bottom of the table. As do the shops in the DSG International group - Currys.digital, Currys and PC World.

Other notable top shops and high street flops in various categories include: ■ Groceries: Marks & Spencer (M&S) achieved second place in the groceries category after Waitrose. None of the big four supermarkets - Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco - made it into the top five of this group.

■ Clothes, shoes and accessories: John Lewis was rated top in this category, while Topshop and Topman were bottom.

■ Entertainment: Woolworths came bottom of this group with the lowest marks for customer service and shopping experience.

"If you have a query it is almost impossible to find a member of staff in Woolworths to help," said one customer.

Bouquets of the Week

Dear Sharon,

WE would like to nominate the students and staff at the Central Park restaurant at Darlington College, Haughton Road. Before Christmas a party of us went there for Christmas dinner and the service and food was excellent.

We would just like to say well done and for them to know how much we appreciated their hard work.

Mr and Mrs C Bell, Darlington.

catering and hospitality courses at the college and is open for snacks and meals on weekdays.

A three-course lunch costs £7.50. When so many places, who charge a great deal more, often do very little to make their customers feel really welcome, we think Central Park is doing a great job, so we're sending them this week's bouquet to make their pleasant room look even nicer.

AND when we keep reading of feral teenagers, here's an email to cheer us all up. The week before Christmas, Shoana Hall took her dog to the vet in Crook. "Getting her back into the car, I put my bag down. At my daughter's later I realised my bag was missing and that I must have left it in the car park.

As I was due to go out for a Christmas meal I had much more cash in my purse than usual, along with various credit cards and my chequebook. I went to the police station to report the loss before I went home to cancel the cards.

"As I was leaving I was told that my bag had just been returned to my home. Two young ladies, who my husband guessed to be about 15 or 16, had found it in the car park, found my address on some mail inside and brought it straight round.

"My husband didn't get their names and addresses, so I am unable to thank them personally, but in these days of seeing only "hoodies" and "chavs", it is very easy to forget that there are many really nice kids out there who get on with their lives pretty much unseen by the rest of us. If they happen to see this, I can only say thank you very much."

■ If you want to say a public thank you for good service or to a helpful neighbour, kind stranger or efficient business, then just write with all the details to Sharon Griffiths, Bouquet of the Week, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF. Or email sjgriff111@aol.com. Each week the person nominated in our main letter gets a real bouquet of flowers or a box of posh chocs.

PS: Slightly sad, but you might be able to help.

Dear Sharon, IWAS heartened to read about all the kind acts that won your bouquets of the week throughout 2007. I live in a town, Barnard Castle, where kind acts like this abound. You fall down, someone picks you up. You lose something, someone hands it in.

Before Christmas my husband bought me a necklace from Hoppers. He'd only parked a short distance away, but by the time he got home his carrier bag was split and the necklace was gone.

To date, no one has handed it in either to Hoppers or the police. The necklace was dichroic glass and therefore unique. He would recognise it should anyone be wearing it.

Has Barnard Castle finally gone over the edge and become just like everywhere else?

Kathy Harris, Barnard Castle.