Beginning Metalsmithing for Jewelry workshop
This course is designed to impart practical metalsmithing techniques and skills tailored specifically for jewelry making. This class is fast paced, so hold on to your butts! We’ve worked very hard to fit a TON of information into a short amount of time. With this class you have the opportunity to dip your toe into metalsmithing without spending thousands of dollars to set up your own studio or committing months/years to participating in a full college course.
By the end of our 3 week course, you will have the basic skills and confidence to dive head first into hand fabricating your own jewelry.
our beginning metalsmithing for jewelry class is for you if…
You’re a total beginner, but are ready to learn a new skill!
You’ve taken a couple of our ‘Make and Take’ workshops and want to level up your skills to work independently.
You’re eager to gain a foundation of really practical metalsmithing techniques.
You’ve dabbled in other jewelry making techniques, but haven’t held a torch, jeweler’s saw, or stone setting tools yet.
You’ve taken a class in the past and are looking to get an efficient refresh on all your skills
WHAT DO You NEED TO BRING TO CLASS?
A good attitude
A way to take notes
We provide all the tools, materials, handouts and resources that you need.
What exactly am I going to learn in this class?
The workshop spans 3 weeks, 9 hours of education total, covering 5 lesson topics.
Lesson 1 - Sawing & Piercing
Lesson 2 - Texture, Forming & Forging
Lesson 3 - Finishing
Lesson 4 - Soldering
Lesson 5 - Bezel Setting Cabochon Stones
With each lesson, the instructor will discuss and demonstrate the above techniques, after, you will get hands on practice. The third and final day of class is dedicated to fabricating from start to finish your very first jewelry project, a simple copper (or for $20 Sterling Silver) ring featuring a bezel set cabochon!
You may be wondering… Why is the final project so simple? Maybe you’ve taken or seen our ‘Make a Ring’ class and are wondering where are all the silver balls, wires, and other embellishments? Well, in that class, you get A LOT of extra help from our instructors to make your designs come to life. This beginning workshop is geared towards YOU truly learning these techniques and being able to complete them independently.
Will I get studio time outside of class to practice?
If you already know that you want to hit the ground running with this new skill, then I’d highly recommend starting a bench membership alongside taking our ‘Beginning Metalsmithing for Jewelry’ class. Although you do get practice in the workshop, our class structure is really geared towards covering a lot of ground and self motivation is key to building on what you learn in class. With a bench membership, you have access to our shared tools cabinet and our outfitted soldering station, but you’ll need to bring your own hand tools. Our beginner’s tool kit has been curated by our teachers with this in mind and has everything you need to get started successfully in our studio.
what if my schedule doesn’t align with the workshop?
We try to offer this class as often as possible, which ends up being 1-2 sessions per quarter. Firstly, make sure you are signed up for our newsletter to hear first when we release new classes! If you are dying to get started and our class is full, doesn’t work with your schedule or isn’t being offered right now, Private Lessons can be the perfect solution. It will cost you a little more to take our foundations curriculum 1 on 1, but depending on your personal learning pace, we can usually cover all of the lesson topics in about 6 hours. The final project can be completed in an additional 2 hour lesson or you can get straight to work on your own!
Metalsmithing is an extremely broad field with hundreds of techniques that can be learned. Experienced metalsmiths have most likely acquired hundreds, maybe even thousands of tools. Materials aren’t cheap either. I bring this up because it can be a huge time and financial commitment to really develop your skills as a metalsmith. We developed this class to cover the most important foundational skills in metalsmithing with a relatively low monetary investment so that you can BEGIN your journey in metalsmithing and find out whether or not you truly want to commit.
If you decide to take this workshop, the best thing you can do for yourself is commit to some serious practice time when class concludes. Keep things fresh on your mind, gain some confidence and build some muscle memory in your hands. Don’t worry, you’re going to mess some things up, but generally we learn more when we make mistakes than when we do things perfectly the first time. You may get so excited about metalsmithing that you’ll want to start learning new techniques, but I would strongly encourage you to practice and get really good at these core techniques first, and then start to expand your repertoire.
some of the lovely things past workshop attendees have to say…
“These humans are awesome. I wanted to meet more metalsmiths and grow my skillset. Then I received the greatest gift last year, private lessons at Alloy! I loved it so much, took some smaller workshops, went to as many socials as I could, and I couldn’t be more grateful”
“I absolutely loved your Metalsmithing class! I am amazed by how many skills you taught us and by my final creation! I am already excited to start future projects. This spark has lit my fire! Very excited to see what the future holds.”