March 2023
CHIMERA ARTS
Website: www.chimeraarts.org
Instagram: chimera_jewelry_studio and chimeraarts
1. Tell us a little about your school or program. When did it start? What format do you use (online/in person)? How many students per class?
Chimera Arts is a member-supported nonprofit community maker-space located in Sebastopol, CA. We provide resources, education and community to creative people in Sonoma County and California’s North Bay & beyond. We offer training, tools and services to our community.
The jewelry program at Chimera has been an active and impactful program in the community since 2015. We have 8 benches in our fully equipped studio for in person classes. Most classes have a limit of 8 students so we can provide in depth individual attention to each student.
2. What range of classes do you offer? Does your program have a focus or area of special study that is unique?
We offer beginning, intermediate and advanced classes in the craft such as Wax Modeling, Precious Metal Clay, beginning metal fabrication, intermediate/advanced skill building classes, metal etching, stone setting and casting. We are always working hard to improve & expand the classes and are always looking for guest instructors.
We provide affordable monthly memberships for members to work in the studio when classes are not in session but also provide information and support for students who want to create a home studio.
What makes our jewelry department unique is that it exists within a makerspace that includes laser cutters, blacksmithing tools, woodworking, CAD and more.
3. As an educational program, what do you hope your students learn about jewelry and metalsmithing outside of making it?
Our students learn that the metalsmithing community is a supportive one, whether you are coming as a beginner, a hobbyist or a professional. There are so many processes to learn in this industry and our students find the encouragement to take the next step from instructors and fellow students.
4. What are some of your students’ favorite tools or skills? What materials do they work with the most?
Torch work is usually the fire that draws new students to our metalshop and keeps people coming back. Wax modeling has become a popular class that we offer, as well as beginning metalsmithing classes, both of which are project-based. Students work in a variety of materials including various types of silver, bronze and gold.
5. What is the biggest challenge that your students face and how do you help them overcome it?
Learning something new can sometimes be intimidating. But our program walks students through at their own pace to understand the foundations, the tools and materials needed and how to go from design concept to execution. We teach technical skills, provide samples, literature, resources and videos. Through learning jewelry & metalsmithing techniques our students gain self confidence while building new skills and exploring creative ideas.
6. What piece of advice do you give students who are just starting out in metals?
Explore new things. It’s ok to make mistakes. You will get better the more you practice. Take the pressure out and have fun surprising yourself with what you can do when you have a supportive community showing you the right tools and techniques.
February 2023
ACADEMY OF ART
Website: www.academyart.edu
Instagram: academy_of_art
1. Tell us a little about your school or program. When did it start? What format do you use (online/in person)? How many students per class?
Academy of Art University was established in 1929 and the Jewelry and Metal Arts Department began in 2013 to help jewelry designers and metal artists find their unique voice. We focus on combining traditional and cutting-edge techniques for an innovative contemporary outcome. At AAU students can earn several degrees, Associate of Arts, Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts. We offer onsite classes in downtown San Francisco, asynchronous online classes and virtual classes that meet over zoom. Classes generally run for 15 weeks on a semester basis and are 10-20 students per class.
2. What range of classes do you offer? Does your program have a focus or area of special study that is unique?
We offer a wide range of classes that cover traditional techniques like wax carving and casting, forging and forming, welding, stone setting, enameling and papermaking. Students can combine these techniques with contemporary technology in our laser cutting, 3D printing and electronics classes. Our students also have the opportunity to take classes in other departments such as fashion or industrial design. AAU offers the only accredited, fully online Jewelry and Metal Arts degree in the country.
3. As an educational program, what do you hope your students learn about jewelry and metalsmithing outside of making it?
Research is key for our students to understand how their own work fits within an historical context. Our students study the history of metal sculpture and jewelry and follow contemporary artists who work with similar materials and techniques. As our students learn a wide variety of new skills, we encourage them to gather inspiration in order to design and work conceptually, so their pieces convey a deeper meaning. The goal for many of the student’s larger projects is to create show-stopping pieces that they might envision on a runway or in a gallery.
4. What are some of your students’ favorite tools or skills? What materials do they work with the most?
Copper, brass and bronze are great materials for beginning students to learn how to manipulate metal and build confidence for working with sterling silver and gold. Our raising stakes and planishing hammers get a lot of use. The 30-ton hydraulic press is a favorite for making hollow forms. In our welding classes students work with steel and aluminum on MIG and TIG welders. Many of our classes include a mixed media component involving, wood, plastics, glass, paper, recycled materials and found objects. We focus on the importance of using ethically sourced materials and upcycling materials like single-use plastics.
5. What is the biggest challenge that your students face and how do you help them overcome it?
As students work on developing their technical metal working skills, it can be difficult to begin the design process, especially when facing uncertainty with new materials or techniques. On top of researching historical movements and contemporary trends, we encourage the students to do inspirational research in their journals and sketch every day. Sketches can be a quick and non-committal way to get out your ideas and often lead to something more complex and well thought out. With practice, legible sketches can help convey ideas to future clients.
6. What piece of advice do you give students who are just starting out in metals?
Record your progress and seek feedback at every step. Group critiques are large part of our classes because it helps to see how other artists relate to same material, what they master quickly and what they struggle with. Instructors and classmates offer a new perspective on your work. Their feedback will help you gauge how other people react to your process, what questions they ask and what suggestions they might have. One of the greatest assets the students have is each other. We actively encourage our students to join MAG and other organizations like it, to get perspective from the larger jewelry and metal arts community.
January 2023
Silvera Jewelry School
Website: silverajewelry.com
Instagram: Instagram: silverajewelryschool
1. Tell us a little about your school or program. When did it start? What format do you use (online/in person)? How many students per class?
Silvera Jewelry School offers both online and in-person classes, and many of our classes are both! We have 9 in person desks that are fully equipped, and our classes tend to have a maximum of 15-18 students so we can spend time with each student individually. They share live magnified demonstrations on our big screen tv with up to 9 more students online. Our classes include handouts, recordings of the live classes, and some materials.
It’s our mission to help students to learn traditional and contemporary jewelry techniques, using home studio friendly tools and chemicals, so that they can easily continue to work at home.
It’s very important to us that students feel comfortable and safe in the classroom, and now online as well. All of our teachers are patient, generous and encourage students to be passionate about creating and learning.
January 2023 is our 12 year anniversary. Our school was started by Joe and Anat Silvera, who have been teachers since 2002 and the 90s, respectively. Jenn Parnell Kirkpatrick joined in 2019 and we all became joint partners, running the school together, in 2021.
2. What range of classes do you offer? Does your program have a focus or area of special study that is unique?
We offer classes from complete beginner through advanced techniques for practicing jewelers. These include fabrication, casting, enameling, stone setting, jewelry business, and more. We’re especially proud of Jenn’s Jewelry History+ Technique classes that teach you about jewelry from specific periods of time and show you techniques or skills that relate or materials that were used during that time. For example, in our Ancient Egyptian Jewelry class, you make, sculpt, and fire faience.
We also expose our students to a wide range of teaching styles by bringing in so many new classes with amazing guest teachers. Every teacher offers their own perspective on the craft, which in turn adds to the resources students have to build their own voice as jewelers.
Silvera Jewelry School is unique in that we have always focused on green solutions for home jewelry studios, that include safer alternatives for pickle, torches, gasses and flux, for example. We also teach studio ergonomics and encourage students to make taking care of their health and bodies as important as making jewelry.
3. As an educational program, what do you hope your students learn about jewelry and metalsmithing outside of making it?
Jewelry has a long history and beautiful tradition of passing on the craft from master and teacher to apprentice and student. We want students to find their place in that lineage of makers. By showing them the wide world of jewelry, and how the materials and processes work, students can find the combination that works for them, and gain the understanding to experiment beyond what we show them, to find their own voice and style.
All of us at Silvera Jewelry School teach the value of patience, practice and the importance of making mistakes. It takes discipline, play and being open to learning from ‘failures” to grow. You can teach only so much during class, but if we can help them to become comfortable with experimenting, they can go on to become great jewelry artists.
4. What are some of your students’ favorite tools or skills? What materials do they work with the most?
Lots of folks love stones- in fact that is what brings them to the beginning classes is a desire to learn how to set them. Our basic classes in fabrication, casting and enameling start with base metals, and quickly move into silver alloys. As their skills develop, we introduce gold and palladium. But we also want students to learn about the role of alternative materials, like steel, plastic, etc, in contemporary jewelry.
Students love tools and stones. It’s hard to pick a universal favorite tool. It’s interesting that before COVID, most of our students had a lot of basic tools and maybe a small space to work. During the pandemic, many students invested in bigger home studios and they were able to buy larger equipment like kilns, rolling mills and hydraulic presses, which normally they only used in the classroom. So they used that money that would have been spent on traveling to workshops to make a fabulous studio of their own!
5. What is the biggest challenge that your students face and how do you help them overcome it?
Two challenges for any student of just about any craft are building confidence and practicing. We promote the idea of embracing mistakes, imperfection and unexpected results as a valuable part of the creative journey. It’s all too common for beginners to be impatient with themselves and to expect professional results – even if it’s their first class!
It’s not going to be perfect the first time and reassuring folks that it’s okay and normal to struggle in fact, it’s why success is even sweeter. Many students haven’t taken art classes or took them a long time ago, and so they lack confidence in designing or drawing their ideas. A big part of our teaching is friendly support and encouraging students to figure out what they actually like and what they want to make.
Of course, what builds confidence is frequent practice, or you can’t develop your skills. We offer lots of classes and some open studio time, but we also show our students how to set up safely to work at home. Because they need that time in the studio and the discipline of practice to improve.
6. What piece of advice do you give students who are just starting out in metals?
We tell students that a lot of what you make will look very different from your initial idea or plan, and that is wonderful! Be open to unexpected results. They are often better than what you had in mind. If you can see beyond the sketch to appreciate the beauty of what is happening on your bench, you will get to some very interesting places. And take photos and notes so that you can reproduce it again.
Push the materials, push the technique. Once you understand where the breaking point is, you can do so much more with jewelry. A great example is soldering. Almost everyone is terrified of melting silver (or gold). So melt it! See how much heat that really takes, watch the metal as it starts to melt. You’ve now learned what to look for when the piece is in danger of melting. Plus, you can always hammer or roll that melted bit back out and use it. Or you may even love the form the metal takes on the way to melting!
