Cooksongold Hamper

I occasionally enter giveaways — though not the ones on Instagram because of the insistence on tagging other people to enter — but I never really expect to win anything.

I’ve bought a few bits and pieces from Cooksongold over the last year; their main focus is jewellery making, but that covers a wide range of techniques, many of which have the potential to come in useful for mixed media art as well. They regularly run competitions and giveaways on Twitter and elsewhere and if it’s something I might be interested in, I enter with the absolute expectation that I will not win.

But I did.

And not just a small giveaway. I won the “Best of 2018 hamper” giveaway. Though I honestly did not expect it to come in an actual hamper!

So… what exactly was in it? So much stuff! I had to make a proper record of it all and I’m including links to the products (or a close match where I’m not sure exactly which variant of a thing I have). There’s only one thing I haven’t identified and it’s really bugging me because I know I’ve seen it before but I can’t think of the right search terms to find it again: it’s the white conical item in the first photo…

• Beadalon jewel loom
• Picklean safe pickling powder
• Busch set of 12 burrs
• Super Pike jewellers saw blade starter set
• Multipurpose bench peg
• Side-cutters
• Plastic 5″ tweezers
• Rawhide mallet
• Cooksongold 16cm needle file pillar, cut 2
• Cooksongold 16cm needle file crossing, cut 2
• Emery paper 1200 grade (not shown)

• Impressart Stamping Enamel Marker Pen
• Impressart Aluminium Ring Stamping Blank
• Impressart Heart Rope Design Stamp
• Fimo Effect metallic copper
• Fimo Effect mother of pearl
• Beadalon Artistic Wire 28 Gauge Silver Plated Rose Gold Colour
• Beadalon Artistic Wire 28 Gauge Silver Plated
• Precious Metal Clay Flex 16.7g Fine Silver Flex
• with 3ml sample of PMC aqua (rehydrater) full product PMC aqua 10ml

• White Wooden Ring Box
• Gold Tone Lox Secure Earring Backs
• Silver Tone Lox Secure Earring Backs
• Town Talk Silver Cloth
• Sterling Silver Crystal Shimmer Earrings
• 2x Sterling Silver Guardian Ear Fitting
• 2x Gold Plated Sterling Silver Magnetic Clasp
• 2x Rose Gold Filled Beaded Ring 1.5mm
• Sterling Silver Feather Design Necklet
• 5x Swarovski Zirconia Round Pure Brilliance Cut 5.0mm Fancy Morganite

And all finished off with some sweeties and a pen.

There is just so much stuff! I got this on Friday, catalogued it over the weekend and I’m still shocked at the amount of stuff in it. Some things, like the beading loom, I had been thinking about picking up. The silver clay, I was curious about, but probably wouldn’t have got because it’s an expensive thing to get on a whim. Tools are always handy and the Impressart bits will go nicely with the other metal stamping bits I have.

If you have any interest in anything related to jewellery making, I would wholeheartedly recommend Cooksongold — and not because of the hamper — they have a massive range of products, helpful customer service and deliver promptly. Just remember to click “Show Prices inc VAT” if you’re an individual ordering from within the UK.