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Stone Setting: Beyond Basic Bezels and Prongs

If you love stone setting and want to expand beyond the basic bezels and prongs traditionally taught in beginning jewelry classes, then this is your chance to explore new grounds in setting stones. Beyond Basic Bezels and Prongs will cover new applications for stone setting, ranging from taking thick-wall bezels and modifying them by filing, drilling, and texturing - creating new, more elaborate designs - to using sheet metal or wire to create cones that can be shaped into unconventional, free-form prong settings for irregular or odd-shaped stones. In short, this class will help you take chances, meander down the "rough-cut" road of funky stones, and refine your stone-setting skills along the way!

This course will also cover explanations of custom tools, modification of existing tools, and learning to use your flex shaft to make the most of it’s capabilities.

Please bring your own stones to class and any silver that you would like to use. This course is designed with a loose curriculum structure, allowing you to explore stone setting in any number of ways. 

Meet the instructor

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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

There is a $50 materials fee payable upon registration.  Materials kits include several gauges of sterling silver round wire, heavy walled tubing, sterling silver and fine silver sheet, heavy sterling silver stock, as well as communal use of all Metalwerx equipment, tools, and expendable materials.  

  • You are also invited to bring any of your own silver in addition to this materials kit. 
Students should bring

Metalwerx has some of the following tool for communal use, but strongly encourages you to bring your own if you have it and don't want to share or if you tend to be prolific in your making process:

  • The instructor requests you bring in any and all stones you wish to set or turn into jewelry -- stones will not be provided
  • A sketchbook for taking notes and designing 
  • Personal hand tools, such as files, pliers, and Optivisors or magnifying lenses
  • Any silver tubing, bezel, wire, and sheet you will want to use in the class
 

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