classes

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This introductory class is intended for those with no previous experience. It provides a great opportunity to explore, experiment and develop the basic jewelry-making skills essential for building a lasting foundation for this craft. Through our instruction and demos, participants will be introduced to handtools, flexshafts, polishing equipment, soldering torches, and various other jewelry making tools. Using silver, copper, and/or brass, you will complete 2 or 3 pieces of jewelry in this 6 or 8 week session.

Get your feet wet and create holiday or personal gifts in this 4 week session. You will learn how to cut, stamp, drill, pierce, file, form, texture and finish metal. Available to you will be ‘alphabet’ and ‘number’ stamps for creating monogram and/or birthdate pendants (if you choose). Participants can easiy make 3-4 pendants in this class.

For those with previous experience, this class builds further foundation skills. In addition to becoming more familiar with working in metal, you will learn how to lay out your designs, make bezels for stone setting, make jump rings for handmade chains, and more advanced training in soldering. Our instructors will walk you through 2 projects, start to finish, in this 6 week session. I also cover flushmount settings in this class!

These classes are designed to further your progression in technique and design. With the practical and technical skills you have acquired, you will be encouraged to create and challenge yourself with more sophisticated self-directed projects. Our instructors will introduce more advanced stone setting and soldering skills through demos and will teach a variety of surface treatment techniques to further enhance your design ideas. We encourage more freedom of expression in these classes and will help you navigate the steps in creating more complex pieces.

Learn how to make pure silver jewelry in this Introduction to Precious Metal Clay workshop. PMC is a material that looks and feels like clay and yet when fired, it becomes pure precious metal. Model it, give it texture, shape it and fire it as you would any other clay and precious metal clay is transformed into pure silver. It’s the perfect material for jewelry making! You will learn design and construction of jewelry pieces, firing techniques, applying patina and finishing. Join us and learn to create with this amazing material.

Instructor: Karen Schulz, Certified PMC instructor

Participants will learn about the different types of enamels used for the various enameling techniques such as, cloisonné and scraffito. You will learn how to prepare the metal surface and how to design your pieces for the special constraints of enameled surfaces. This class will cover both, kiln firing and torch firing techniques.

Enameling has a long, rich and prestigious history, and is a great way to add color to you metalwork.

Instructor: Karen Schulz