Back to Learning

One of the reasons for my long absence and neglect of this blog over the last year is that I went back to uni to do some classes. I attended my old Art School to do two courses in advanced jewellery techniques as I wanted to learn some new skills. I had no idea how time consuming this would become though, but I do feel I have learned a lot that has benefited the progression of my work. As I am mostly self-taught, I thought it would be good to get a better grounding in jewellery making and try out some new techniques that are not so easy to achieve in my little workshop due to the range of equipment used.

The courses were in 'Colour and Construction' and 'Wax Carving and Casting'. Two completely different areas of jewellery making with many different components in each. 

Some enamelled test pieces.

The 'colour' in 'Colour and Construction' was enamelling. A great technique for introducing colour into jewellery but also very frustrating to control. I had some very mixed results but more on that later...

Fold formed shapes.

The 'construction' element included a number of metal forming techniques including: fold forming, forging and using a fly press as well as making handmade chain. (So mainly lots of hammering!). 

Chain making.

The 'Wax Carving and Casting' course introduced the use of wax to form a piece of jewellery rather than soldering and forming metal. It also covered three casting techniques: cuttlefish, clay and lost wax. All have very different results.

Cuttlefish Casting.

Cuttlefish casting is the technique that requires the least specialist equipment as a shape is either pressed or carved out of a cuttlefish shell. While it is the quickest casting technique and the least expensive, it is difficult to produce really detailed results.

Wax carving and silver lost wax casting.

Lost wax creates casts with much more definition however it is a far more time consuming technique which requires a lot more specialist tools and machinery.

This is really just a wee sneak peek of some of the things I have been working on as I will be posting more information on each technique in due course.