Every jeweller who hand makes their work does so at a jeweller's bench. The part of the bench they work against is called a benchpeg. It’s a piece of wood that sticks out from the bench and each jeweller's peg will look different. Every jeweller will adapt their peg to support them whilst making. Over time, their peg will gain its own personality of grooves, holes and weathering. Eventually a jeweller will replace their benchpeg when it becomes too brittle with holes or too short after being sawn into over the years.
On Instagram there are a number of hashtags you can follow to get an insight into jewellers' working environments and see their workbenches or benchpegs. These inlcude #benchpegselfie and #benchpegwednesday.
Here you can see the benchpeg of Exmouth jeweller, Claire Lowe:
Left is a work in progress shot of her pull through earrings and right is a shot of the finished pieces. Her jewellery is stocked in both Exeter and Taunton stores.
You can view Claire's collection here.