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Make Your Own Jewelry Findings
This one-day workshop is for anyone seeking to learn how to make their own findings for jewelry. If you love to bead, or you've been buying commercial findings out of a catalog and are tired of the same old design and high cost, this course is the perfect solution!
Learn to make different styles of ear wires, wire clasps, pin backs, headpins, and hairpins. In addition, this course will cover easy methods for cleaning and polishing metal, simple cold connections, drilling, and sawing. Techniques covered don't require a lot of tools so students can repeat the process at home without a substantial investment.
Joy will introduce an alternative to the traditional soldering torch -- the hand held chef's torch, usually used for caramelizing creme brulee. It is actually superb for balling up wire for those who don’t have a torch at home.
Meet the instructor
Joy Raskin has been a silversmith since 1984 and has exhibits throughout the United States, Ireland and New Zealand, showcasing both her jewelry and flatware designs. Joy is a native of New Hampshire, having attended public schools in Manchester and Concord and was accepted as a member of the League of NH Craftsmen while still in high school. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Joy is an instructor at Metalwerx in Waltham, MA, The Craft Center in NH, Sharon Art Center, and many other schools.
Joy has received many awards for her work. She was commissioned by the NH State Council on the Arts to create the Cultural Access Award for the Governor’s Awards in the Arts in 2001. Her work is included in many collections, including the White House and Smithsonian Institution. Joy's work is found in multiple galleries throughout New England, including the League of NH Craftsmen Galleries, Boston Society of Arts & Crafts, Guilford Art Center, Millbrook Gallery, and others.
Materials & Tools
A materials fee of $25 is payable when signing up. It includes sterling silver and base metal wire in a variety of gauges (12 ga - 20 ga) to make findings based on demonstrations shown.
- Any beads, jewelry, components you want to make findings for and work with.
- Any wire or silver you already have.
- Any pliers you already have - make sure to mark them with tape/nail polish so you don't confuse them with other students' tools.
- Any pieces of jewelry you've made that you have questions about. This will be used to discuss and find new solutions for design problems
- Optivisors or magnifying glasses if needed.