Blog

Chain Making: Expand Your Jewelry Making Repertoire

July 09, 2024

Learn to make cable, loop-in-loop, and woven chains. Using the skills mastered you will make your own unique chain designs. We will work in copper and Silver. Leave class with lots of samples and as many finished chains you can make!

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Silver Metal Clay Jewelry

July 09, 2024

Learn to work with metal clay, a malleable, metal-bearing material that is perfectly suited for creating jewelry. Use your hands to shape it and a variety of tools to add detail and texture. You’ll fire the metal clay to transform it into a silver object. Add a new skill to your repertoire each week and […]

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Copper Cuff Bracelet + Ring Workshop

July 09, 2024

Learn how to use antimicrobial copper and make a adjustable ring and cuff bracelet. We'll learn how to hammer and stamp textures, letters and symbols. We'll creatively plan and design your project as you practice these skills. Using hammers and stakes, shape your executed designs to fit perfectly. You will leave with a polished or […]

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Intermediate Metal Jewelry (B)

July 09, 2024

Take your metal jewelry making to the next level. We’ll focus on design execution, stone setting as well as fabricating and soldering with sterling silver. You’ll also advance your polishing skills for finishing pieces.

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Forging Basics for Jewelry

July 09, 2024

Forging is a process which changes the cross section of a metal bar, rod or wire with pressure applied by a hammer. We will cover three basic forging processes: flattening, drawing with the rolling mill, and upsetting. We will focus on how to "scroll" wire using both pliers and hammering methods. You'll have time to […]

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Introduction to Metal Clay Workshop

July 09, 2024

Metal clay is a malleable material that can be used to make jewelry and other small, sculptural objects. Make a pair of silver earrings and a pendant that features a coil frame and appliqué focal design.

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Introduction to Metalworking

July 09, 2024

Learn basic small metalworking techniques to make small containers, jewelry boxes, or other hollow form sculptures. To create your piece, we'll learn sawing, filing, sanding, forming, texturing, annealing, multiple styles of soldering, and patination. We'll focus on laying out different sculptural shapes, high temperature soldering, and tension lid construction. While this is a beginner class […]

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Intermediate Metal Jewelry (A)

July 09, 2024

Take your metal jewelry making to the next level. We’ll focus on design execution, stone setting as well as fabricating and soldering with sterling silver. You’ll also advance your polishing skills for finishing pieces.

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Stackable Bands

July 09, 2024

Create a sweet stack of rings from 14-karat yellow gold-filled wire and silver. You’ll learn to solder bands and become proficient at single seams. We’ll also cover fabricating, embellishing and forging simple bands in different gauges and types of metal.

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Learn to Make Wire Earrings

July 09, 2024

Wire earrings! Learn to manipulate wire using pliers, mandrels and hammers to create unique styles. We will experiment with flat and dimensional ideas. You will work in copper and make final earrings in Sterling silver.

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Foldforming: Leaf Pendant + Earrings

July 09, 2024

Fold forming is a technique using the metals characteristics to bring organic dimension and form to cut out shapes of metal quickly. Experimenting with copper and basic forged line folds we will create leaf and pod forms. Learning to anneal (soften) our metal and open our hammered folds will reveal our unique shapes. Filing, finishing […]

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Spinner Rings

July 09, 2024

Experiment with spinner rings, which allow several rings to be made into one. The outer band supports one or more moving rings. We’ll cover sizing, shaping and soldering sheet metal and wire into rings. The rings will become one using a forming technique known as anticlastic. We’ll also cover basic solder, forging and forming techniques.

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Introduction to Metal Jewelry (B)

July 09, 2024

Learn how to transform metals into beautiful works of wearable art. We’ll cover techniques such as sawing, drilling, texturing, working with wire, filing, sanding and polishing. We’ll also cover riveting, soldering with a torch. You’ll use these skills to make one finished piece of jewelry.

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Color Survey in Metals

July 09, 2024

Survey the expansive world of color on metal! This fast-paced workshop will cover color application on small metals. Each week we will explore the possibilities of patinas, color pencils, ink, enameling, and powdercoating to add color to your small metals projects. Basic skills such as sawing and soldering are recommended but not required. All levels […]

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Lost-Wax Metal Casting

July 09, 2024

Learn to cast metal using the lost-wax technique to cast work in bronze and silver. By creating jewelry models of your own design, you’ll learn about model preparation, investing, burning out and casting with vacuum-casting machines.

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Cuttlefish Bone Casting

July 09, 2024

A simple, traditional metal casting technique that takes advantage of the finely porous texture of the bone and imparts it on your cast piece. Carve the cuttle fish bone and cast the same day!

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Introduction to Silversmithing

July 09, 2024

Jump right into working with sterling silver for jewelry. Basic jewelry fabrication techniques will be demonstrated or reviewed including sawing, drilling, sanding, polishing, and soldering. You can expect to leave class with one finished piece of jewelry. This class is accessible to the beginner but is also ideal for someone looking to polish their beginner […]

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Metal Clay Sage Leaf Bling Ring

July 09, 2024

Use a real sage leaf as texture for a sterling silver ring that will shrink to fit perfectly. Adorn the ring with a CZ 'water droplet' as you learn how to set small, faceted stones.

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Cloisonné Enameling (this class is only offered a few times a year)

July 09, 2024

Learn cloisonné enameling, an ancient technique with contemporary applications. You’ll explore basic enameling and learn how to create cloisons (French for “compartments”) that separate different colors and shapes in a finished cloisonné design. Each student will finish this class having completed one small piece.

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Cold Connections in Metal Workshop

July 09, 2024

Learn the basics of working with metal and creating forms with cold connections. You will be amazed at what you can create in one day without using soldering techniques! We will work with copper and brass and explore surface texturing, stamping, annealing, hammering and wire forging. Plan to create fasteners, chains and charms you can […]

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Introduction to Metal Jewelry (A)

July 09, 2024

Learn how to transform metals into beautiful works of wearable art. We’ll cover techniques such as sawing, drilling, texturing, working with wire, filing, sanding and polishing. We’ll also cover riveting, soldering with a torch. You’ll use these skills to make one finished piece of jewelry.

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A Taste of Blacksmithing: Wands at the Ready

July 09, 2024

Start the spooky season off right by conjuring a wand of iron! We'll use basic blacksmithing techniques—and perhaps a little magic—to forge the top accessory no witch or wizard would be without.

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Stone Setting Basics

July 09, 2024

In this 6 week course, students will learn a variety of basic stone setting techniques including bezel setting, tab setting, prong setting, flush setting, and bead setting. Each week we will introduce a new setting skill. Over the 6 weeks students will be asked to design jewelry that houses any of the stone setting techniques […]

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Tree of Life Wire Pendant

July 09, 2024

We will use traditional jewelry making tools, wire and beads to create a tree of life pendant or small window ornament. You may bring an item to incorporate if desired. You will leave with at least one finished pendant from this class and have many options within your design repertoire to express your own creative […]

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Metalworking: Designing Rings + Things (Ages 12-14)

July 09, 2024

Students will learn the basics of metalsmithing to fabricate rings, earrings, pendants, or small sculptures. We'll cover measuring, piercing, soldering, filing, sanding, and other finishing techniques. Students will leave with several finished projects and a great base-level skillset.

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