THE work of 10 professional, local craftsmen is being shown as part of the annual Christmas exhibition of the Worcestershire Guild of Designer Craftsmen.

The event is being held at Worcester's Guildhall from Thursday, November 14, to Saturday, November 16.

Among the exhibits will be jewellery created by 85-year-old Malvern Link craftsman James Pearse.

Mr Pearse began his foray into creating silver jewellery along clean and simple lines in 1980, when he retired as a county council officer.

In the years since, he has exhibited in London's Goldsmith's Hall and sold his wares as far away as Liverpool and at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Although not an artistic sketcher, Gloucestershire-born Mr Pearse began his working life training to be an architect and learned a draftsman's skills.

When the war cut into his studies he joined the army, after which he put his knowledge of architecture to good use by joining a Government training scheme to become a planning officer.

Of his jewellery and lapidary work, he said: "There's an element of design in architecture in that - it's a matter of proportion and of colour.

"I'm bad at drawing and hopeless at sketching but everybody has a different approach to jewellery.

"I do things very differently to a lot of jewellers. Where most buy their stones first and fit the jewellery around it, I do it the opposite way round because I can cut and polish my own stones."

Those non-precious stones have been found by Mr Pearse and his wife during travels in such far-flung places as Siberia, China, Norway, Yemen, Ethiopia and Oman.

A recent rocks and gem show at Cheltenham Racecourse also offered some interesting stones from Madagascar which the jeweller is planning to incorporate in future pieces.

"The most precious stone I use is opal," he said.

"I don't use them in their natural state at all - they are usually domed squares and oblongs, and I finish a lot of them flush with the silver."

For further information about the exhibition, visit www. worcestershireguild.org.uk.