Beginner's Weekend

A fabulous and fun introduction to jewellery making over two mornings, this is our most popular short workshop!

Students start with basic ring making in copper or brass. We begin with ring making as this process teaches students many fundamental techniques in one project, measuring, texturing, shaping, cutting, soldering and finishing are all included in this one ring. Students will learn how to measure their fingers to get an accurately sized ring, later they will also learn how to take sizing from existing rings. They are shown how to use a jeweller’s saw to cut their metal to the correct length, how to form it up and how to solder. Then they learn how to shape their rings and finish them up into a wearable piece of jewellery, all in the first class! In the first morning they are also shown how to texture metals, cut and layer shapes, melt balls of silver and other techniques to create decorative elements.

Students can spend their afternoon and evening thinking about and planning their design in silver for the next day. We encourage them to carefully plan this project and think about how they might make their peice before they begin, including creating drawings and notes. (We always say drawings don’t need to be “good”, they just need to make sense to the student and their tutor!). This project can be another ring, or earrings or pendants. We have a great selection of example pieces in the workshop so they can see what’s achievable in the 3 hour time frame. Sometimes students can make more than one silver piece if they have enough time.

Included in the class fee are copper and brass for practising on, up to 8 grams of sterling silver and all consumables such as sandpaper, solder and chemicals. Extra metals and chains are available for purchase in the studio. Kids 12 and up are welcome in this class, any person under 16 years old must be accompanied by an enrolled caregiver.