ANTIQUES collectors Derrick and Christine Sanderson taught the experts a thing or two when they used spaghetti to repair jewellery for a TV programme!

The couple, from Colne Road, Reedley, were asked by a researcher to take part in the BBC2 Arts and Antiques show as part of the craft hour which will be screened on Wednesday at 1.10pm.

Derrick said: "We were on the first series of the Great Antiques Hunt and that is why the researcher contacted us.

"We were given the challenge of finding Victorian and Art Deco jewellery on a budget of £75 to match a black dress a woman from Prestwich was wearing for a ball.

"The pieces had to be in a poor, dirty condition and we had to repair them, all within the budget. "We spent four weeks travelling to car boot sales and antiques fairs in Lytham, St Anne's, Preston, Blackpool, Charnock Richard and Burnley.

"While on holiday in Bournemouth, we checked out a fair and found the brooch. We got the ring from Lytham and also the stones to repair the jewellery."

Christine is on an antique restoration course at Burnley College and also makes Faberg eggs.

She has devised her own techniques for picking up tiny jewels using dry spaghetti!

Derrick said: "You wet the end of the spaghetti and the gluten acts as an adhesive to pick up the jewel. Glue is then added and it can be stuck on to the item being repaired."

The work was so intricate the film crew had to use a magnifying glass to show Christine repairing the jewels.

Judith Miller, the show's presenter, publicised Christine's technique in an article in the BBC's antiques magazine.

Derrick said: "We completed the outfit with a collarette, tiara and chain mail flapper bag which we own.

"The items were very hard to locate but we had a lot of fun travelling round and were able to pick up one or two for our own collection."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.