Basic Jewelry Techniques
This five-day course will equip students with the foundational jewelry making techniques. These include sawing and piercing, hammering and adding texture, shaping the metal, finishing with sandpaper to polish. This course is great for those interested in trying their hand at jewelry making in the first steps of making. No experience is required.
Basic Jewelry Sketching
Drawing is a foundational design skill every artist should include in their craft practice. Designers and makers should work through their thoughts on paper before moving onto metal or the final material for the design. This is a great workshop for those interested in learning how to sketch and draw something to appear three-dimensional and life-like. Jewelry is often difficult to draw because of the angles and best position to draw from. This workshop will teach students how to draw what they see to appear realistic, which helps explain their ideas to others. No experience is required.
Stone Setting (Bezel)
In this workshop, students will learn the oldest type of stone setting- the bezel. Found in all civilizations, the bezel is the first solution to fasten a gemstone to a piece of jewelry. Students will design and make their own piece of jewelry with a bezel set stone. These techniques include sawing, filing, measuring and making a bezel seat for the stone, and finishing this piece of jewelry using sandpaper and polishing. No experience is required.
Make Your Own Cuff
The cuff is a fantastic piece of jewelry to learn basic techniques on or to work on and develop skills in jewelry making. In this workshop, students will learn all the techniques in designing and making a cuff from measuring to the final polish. These techniques include sawing, piercing (also known as fretwork), shaping, filing and sanding to a desired finish. No experience is required.
Chain Making and Wirework
In this workshop, students will learn how to work with metal wire to create chains and other types of jewelry. At the center of this course are the various ways to make different shaped jump rings using round, square or other types of metal wire. Students will design and make their own chain or bracelet in this course. No experience is required.
Dip & Form Wax
In this workshop, students will be introduced to the many ways of using wax material. Wax forming and casting are some of the original and oldest techniques in jewelry making. Relatively unchanged as a technique for thousands of years, this course will walk students through mold making and using wax to create impressions, forms and ultimately jewelry pieces cast in metal. The possibilities are endless when it comes to using wax in jewelry making. No experience is required.
Filigree
This incredibly intricate and delicate technique offers existing makers the chance to learn something new. Over the course of five days, students will learn the steps in using fine silver (pure) wire to create detailed designs in new or existing pieces. This is a fabulous technique to work on precision and detail in your practice as a maker. Experience is required.
Jewelry Rendering
In this workshop, you will learn the techniques of drawing to render an object or a piece to look three dimensional. Before working in metal or other materials to make a piece of jewelry, the idea and concept must first go through stages of drawing and rendering to understand better what exactly you are making. You will learn the technique of drawing a piece from different points of view, called orthographic drawing- a very professional skill to have when designing for a client or a commission or even just for yourself. To finish you will learn coloring techniques in pencil and paint to better show what material the design is made from, and how it is finished (polished, matte, rough, etc.) No experience required.
1 Day Soldering
In this course, students will learn the fire technique of connecting pieces of metal called soldering. This is a foundational and very important technique in making, and is found in almost all pieces of jewelry. In just one day, students will learn all the steps to successfully make the technique, and finish with a soldered piece of jewelry. This is a great step in new jewelry makers interested in expanding their skills. No experience is required.
Building a Collection
In this workshop, students will discover the different aspects of the jewelry design process: inspiration, concept phase, design, and prototyping. We will discuss what is a collection, where inspiration may come from, and how to harness this information to make something uniquely your own. Students will be led through the basic principles of design starting from mood boards, analyzing the inspiration and reflecting on personal aesthetics. We will work towards the prototype phase for students to continue on their own. No experience required.
Create Your Own Ring
In this exciting course, students will be able to design and make their own ring in just two days! You will learn all the steps in making a ring- measuring your finger size, sawing metal, soldering the band and rounding it. Final steps are sanding and polishing to the finish you like best. No experience is required.
Wax Carving
This workshop presents a thousand-year-old technique that is unchanged to this day. Beginning from a solid ‘block’ of wax, students will learn different techniques to carve away the wax to create rings that will be cast in metal. This is a great opportunity to learn a very different set of techniques in jewelry making. Wax is more forgiving than metal; you can shape and form it to create shapes that would be nearly impossible to do in metal sheet. Once the rings are cast and become metal, students will learn how to clean up their rings using filing, sanding and polishing to their desired finish. No experience is required.
Cold Connections
In this workshop, students will design and make a bracelet from metal using the cold-connection technique of tab and slots. Cold- connection is the term used for describing a technique which does not require any fire or soldering to make. Through sawing and piercing loops from metal tabs, individual elements are connected to form a flexible “chain” to be made into a bracelet. Students are to design a minimum of six elements to be connected using tab and slot with motifs derived from patterns they bring with them to the first class. No experience is required.