Jewelry & Small Metals
The Jewelry and Small Metals program provides a strong technical, historical and aesthetic education, blended with creative thinking and artistic problem solving. Students concentrate on the thinking and creating, of wearable jewelry, conceptual work, functional and non- functional objects and small-scale sculpture.
Students can expect visual stimulation through technical demonstrations and samples, contemporary and historical slide shows, videos, and art objects.
The lower division classes stress basic fabrication methods, soldering skills, proper tool usage and safety. The upper division classes build on your foundation skills, offering enameling, raising, anodizing and more. The emphasis at the upper levels is on developing your personal artistic vocabulary and practice.
Although there is an emphasis on non-ferrous metals, exploration is encouraged in a variety of materials including acrylic and resins, tagua nut, leather, handmade papers, exotic woods, found objects and other non-metal materials.
Our studio is well equipped for basic fabrication techniques, chasing, forming and raising, casting, forging, enameling, aluminum anodizing, etching, and basic finishing and polishing processes. Divided into bench and large equipment areas, the studio is a clean and safe environment complete with metal and wood bandsaws, spray etcher, sand and bead blasters, drill presses, bending break, rollers, belt sanders, rolling mills, anvils, and a large assortment of forming hammers and stakes. Every student is assigned a large complement of hand tools for their use during the semester.