Class Listing

This two-day workshop aims to teach the fundamentals of jewelry making through a project driven curriculum, with the ultimate goal of building a foundational knowledge of all things metalsmithing, while working to create a ovular bezel-setting with a textured band. Students will learn fundamental fabrication techniques, hot connections, texturing methodologies, finishing, ring sizing, and bezel setting.

This three-session weekly virtual class will delve into the vast topic of earring design and fabrication, with focus on Argentium fusion and torch use. Students will design and make several earring styles using fused Argentium wire and sheet metal to create hoops, kinetics, links, and post style earrings. Embellishment, texture, pattern development, as well as tips and tricks for soldering findings with Argentium will also be covered. 

Learn methods to add subtlety, complexity, or gestural quality to your cloisonné designs. In addition to the basics of wire bending and wet packing, we will cover an assortment of techniques for incorporating texture, pattern, and markings into the cloisonné. Texturing base metal, using textured foils, creating a smooth color gradients, inlaying opaque enamels as accents, using underglaze and diamond burs for mark making, and much more will be explored.

In this virtual course students will learn how to make a small amount of gold take up a whole lot of space. Techniques covered will include making a gold-sheathed sterling silver band, a gold-rimmed bezel, making bi-metal, and much more!

This demo-focused virtual workshop has a bit of everything - enameling, silver fabrication, and tap-and-die connections. Students will learn how to create a fanciful flower out of enamel, copper, and fabricated sterling silver.

From bracelet forming to embossing and silhouette dies, this comprehensive class will teach students how to utilize the hydraulic press to explore numerous design and 3-dimensional form possibilities.

Learn to add visual intrigue to your jewelry in this virtual workshop which will go over several different methods and styles of wire twisting, as well as some examples for jewelry application. Students can choose to purchase the materials kit and follow along or absorb the information in this demo-focused course.

Ready to make some magic with the wave of a hammer?! In this intensive 5-day course, learn to raise (form flat sheet into a 3D shape) and planish (smoothing the forms surface with hammers) metal into a refined volumous vessel, before moving on to chasing and repoussé techniques using pitch, unique hammers, and chasing tools to alter and embellish a vessels surface with patterns and textures.

Every jeweler eventually tires of buying typical stones and setting them in conventional settings. Come spend three days with Michael Boyd and learn how to cut and polish your own cabochons with limitless shape, size, and color options.

Learn how to integrate stone and metal as a whole, rather than as separate objects. Demonstrations include how to shape rough stones, drill through them, make perfect bezels for unique shapes, set stones on top of stones, add decorative rivets, and more.

This virtual class will focus on fabricating a negatively pierced and layered earring component which can then be transformed into numerous earring formats from stud or post earrings to various types of hoops and dangles. Best practices for hand-finishing will also be discussed. 

This three-day workshop will incorporate Michael's technique for fusing gold patterns onto Argentium silver and torch setting stones.

This class is specially designed for makers who want to take a mixed media approach in their making process and will emphasize working with Argentium silver and polymer clay. Through the making of veneers that employ a variety of approaches for pattern making, students will combine the rich colors of polymer with fused-formed and soldered silver to create jewelry pieces that twist, pivot, swing, drape, or otherwise move. Address the puzzle of combining unlike materials and incorporate color with technical fabrication into your design!

In this live, virtual workshop, students will learn the basics of working with mild perforated steel sheet and wire in a range of patterns, how to fuse high karat gold and other metals to steel, how to finish the edges of perforated steel, and how to seal their jewelry pieces. 

Links are a way to provide points of connections in the construction of your jewelry. Most commonly, they are used as connection points in a necklace, but they can just as easily be used in earring, bracelets, and even brooches. This demo-focused virtual workshop will illustrate how to create links of various shapes using multiple gauges of wire and then how to incorporate them with polymer clay. 

Learn how to increase light reflection or to add another layer of intricacy to your designs using the Basse-taille enameling process which offers exciting possibilities that can add dimension and complexity to enamel pieces through engraving, roller printed hand-made and laser cut textures, and etching techniques. Finishing techniques will additionally be covered. 

Fall in love with hinges as Jenn Wells guides you through your hinge-making journey! This demo-focused virtual class will cover three ways to create a hinge both directly into a jewelry piece, as well as one you can attached at after the fact. Focus will be placed on multiple soldering setups, creating proper range of motion, and sort of situation suits each hinge best. 

This intensive three-session virtual workshop explores the traditions of Keum-boo with a variety of techniques and variants to create jewelry in an economical way. Students will learn about the properties of gold and silver foils, how to create their own foils, and multiple application methods in combination with embossing, stamping, roller printing, soldering, and many more tips and tricks!

This demo-focused virtual workshop will show you how to control warpage of sheet metal, refine your torch work, and perfect your filing, fitting, and finishing proficiencies in the construction of rectangular or cylindrical box form - and all without the use of binding wire!

GET FIRED UP! In this workshop students will learn how to effectively use a torch to fire enamels. Numerous aspects of enameling basics will be covered, including efficient and safe home/studio setups, metal typing and preparation, enamel variants and applications methods, as well as multiple sifting techniques and firing methods for creating dynamic designs