Don Sankey man of silver

Don Sankey teaches regular people how to make their own gorgeous silver jewellery.

Don Sankey, Silversmith teaches a class in Al Bateen. Ravindranath K / The National

When Don Sankey was a teenager, his parents worried he was spending too much time in school working with his hands.

After decades spent working as both a silversmith and secondary schoolteacher, the 52-year-old Dubai-based father of two now makes his living teaching regular folk and students in the UAE how to make their own silver jewellery.

It just took a while to get there. As a student, Sankey loved working in the metal and wood shop. The sciences and English? Not so much.

“I am one of those prime examples told by his parents that he was spending too long in the wrong department of the school,” he says.

Yet all those hours paid off and when it came time to leave, he was chosen by a company in his home city of Liverpool that renovated and furnished churches, right down to the candlesticks and silver chalices.

“They start you at the bottom, then trust you with precious metals,” says Sankey. “They also sent me on a weekly course, where I earned my degree in silversmithing.”

He was ready to move on after eight years, studying to become a teacher in design and technology. At the time, the UK was facing a shortage of such instructors and seeking people with industrial backgrounds to fill the posts.

Sankey spent 25 years in the classroom, with various jobs in the UK, Brunei and eventually, in 2002, in the UAE.

Although he always used silver in his teaching and worked on projects when he could at home, he yearned to make it his living. After reading Ken Robinson’s The Element, a book about natural talent and personal passion, he took action.

“It struck a chord, because whenever I was told by my mum and dad I was in the wrong place in the school, I was actually in the right place for me,” he says.

Giving day, evening and weekend workshops gives Sankey a lot of insight into human nature. Once the pencil and paper come out, he sees “a lot of inhibitions and a lot of insecurities”.

But once people work through their fear, making their own piece of jewellery tends to awaken the creative spirit participants once had and thought they lost. “There’s no way to get it wrong, really.”

• For more information about Don Sankey’s workshops, go to www.dssilversmith.com. There are still spaces in a new, six-week silversmithing workshop at Abu Dhabi’s Al Bateen School design and technology department starting this Sunday from 7pm to 9pm. The cost is Dh190 per week with all tools and equipment provided, plus the cost of silver, which is imported from the UK and varies according to the market. Call 050 784 0509 or email [e-mail]