Develop your jewellery design and jewellery making skills with the Flux accredited one year part time jewellery course.
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– On this one year part time jewellery course we present a rich and varied programme of study for you to develop solid foundation skills in jewellery design and jewellery making. It’s perfect for you if you have an interest in learning to design and make jewellery, and you want to work with silver and other precious materials. We put the focus firmly on your personal development, and you’ll be assigned a tutor at the start of the programme. This connection with your tutor provides us all with a clear avenue for communication. It also ensures that you get the very best experience of learning during your time here.
We have put together a combination of weekend and evening study which we have selected from our full range of courses. The core of your learning is delivered through the wednesday evening sessions that run through the academic year. Additionally these classes provide you with regular weekly contact with your tutor. Then to complement your skills we have selected a series of short specialist courses. Here we introduce new techniques to further enrich your skills development.
How will my learning be structured?
This is a one year part time jewellery course. Between September and July you will have attended three 10 week evening courses and 4 specialist weekend courses that focus on delivering the skills you need to design and make jewellery. Additionally, across the year you will have 3 enriching personal development days with your tutor. You’ll spend an additional weekend at Flux for your exhibition and in total this amounts to more than 180 hours of workshop time. With a maximum ratio of 1 tutor to 6 students this means we can provide the input you need to keep developing to the highest level. To gain the Flux One Year Foundation Certificate in Jewellery you will need to attend all sessions. (flexibility around dates can be arranged but please discuss this with us in advance). You can see the full timetable at the bottom of this page.
What will I learn?
By the end of this course you will have developed the core skills that underpin every jeweller’s practice. These fundamental skills include measuring, cutting, filing, drilling, bending, soldering and polishing. It’s especially important to develop these skills and you will have extensive practice through your project work. The projects we set usually give you opportunity to explore design as well as technique and material, and by the end of the course you will be able to design and make jewellery with confidence.
We have a strong interest in your creative development and we will support your jewellery design skills through assignments, project work and study days. However, fabulously creative ideas need to be achievable. Therefore your creative development will be grounded through application. We have planned every project to give you new insight into the possibilities – and limitations – of process and material.
Which techniques will I explore?
Connections – we explore how to attach metal and other elements together, and techniques include silver soldering, setting, riveting, using tabs.
Forming – how do we shape metal to create light 3D form? We introduce common forming techniques for working with sheet metal, including doming, folding, bending, forging.
Casting and related processes – we examine a range of approaches to creating solid 3D form. You will explore studio casting techniques including cuttlefish casting and delft casting. We’ll also discuss methods for one-off and limited edition production.
Decorative techniques – you’ll get to experiment with keum boo, enamelling, textures and simple patination techniques. furthermore you will explore ways to integrate other media into your jewellery.
Stone setting – How do we permanently attach gemstones to our jewellery? We present a series of product-based projects that explore the rub-over stone setting technique.
Designing for silver jewellery – designing is of course integral to your project work. Additionally, we structure the Personal Development days to further support your jewellery design skills. On these occasions you will work with your tutor to develop research methods and drawing skills, sketches and presentation skills, and design ideas that will feed your creative output.
What will I produce for the Flux Foundation Certificate in Jewellery?
Physical objects – Since your creative spirit knows no bounds we cannot precisely say what you will make during your year here, but we can suggest you will produce a minimum of: 3 silver rings, 2 hollow formed pendants and a small lidded box, and a charm and a ring each with a stone setting.You will also have made earrings with silver and keum boo, enamelled pendants and maybe some tags, delft-cast charms, cuttlefish-cast objects, and you will have made a brooch that incorporates metal and textiles.
Sketchbook work, and notes – You will produce at least one sketchbook over the year. In your sketchbook you will record ideas, technical problem solving, sources of inspiration, drawing and sketching exercises and design work. You may like to keep technical notes in your sketchbook too – or if you prefer you may have a separate notebook for these.
Treasury of samples – We find that people best learn through experience, so all your courses begin with experimentation. These experiments and tests form the basis of your own, personal reference treasury – a visual, tactile library of materials and techniques that you can use to develop future jewellery projects. How is this useful? Those periods of experimentation are aways followed by a project with a brief. As your skills develop you will gain progressively more freedom to explore your own design ideas, informed by your tests, and within the context of a brief.
An exhibition – At the end of the year, as part of your final assessment, you will present a selection of all of these outputs for exhibition. This normally exhibition normally falls in mid June, as part of Camberwell Arts Festival.
What do I gain?
In addition to all of the products listed above, you will be presented with the Flux One Year Foundation Certificate in Jewellery. The certificate includes credits and evaluations for each module of learning that you have completed. These can be used to support the physical evidence of the skills you have implemented in your project work. And of course you will have gained solid foundation skills that will enable you to to design and make jewellery.
What next?
Take the Flux One Year Intermediate Certificate in Jewellery to extend your skills, or use your products and supporting evidence to gain for work in the jewellery trade. Subsequently, there is the option to take the Flux Advanced Certificate in Jewellery.
Course Fees
The fee for the Flux one year, part time Foundation Certificate in Jewellery is £2850. You can pay in instalments too:
- One payment of £2850
- 2 instalments of £1440 (Course fee total£2880. additional cost to cover admin)
- 3 instalments of £980 (Course fee total £2940. additional cost to cover admin)
If there are any aspects of this course you’d like to discuss you can Email us
Ready to leap into your future?
Book now.
Course Tutor: Vicky Forrester
Max Student numbers: 5
Dates: 22 September 2017 – 27 June 2018
Class Times: Evenings, Weekends
Timetable for the Flux One Year, Part Time Foundation Certificate in Jewellery
Term 1
- 3 ways to make a silver ring Weds evenings 20 Sep – 22 Nov 2017, 10 meetings 6pm – 9.15pm
- Saturday personal development day – accent on design (Autumn term, we’ll agree a date with you) 10am – 4pm
- Keum Boo for jewellers, Weekend 18-19 Nov 2017, 10am – 5pm daily
Term 2
- Design and make 2 hollow pendants and a lidded box Weds evenings 17 Jan – 21 March 2018, 10 meetings 6pm – 9.15pm
- Casting processes in metal Weekend 26-27 Jan 2018, 10am – 5pm daily
- Experiment with Enamelling Weekend 24-25 Feb 2018, 10am – 5pm daily
- Cold Connections: Textiles and metal Weekend 10-11 March 2018, 10am – 5pm daily
- Saturday personal development day / 2 – accent on design (Easter break – we’ll agree a date with you) 10am – 4pm
Term 3
- Design and make a stone-set silver charm and a ring Weds evenings 18 April – 27 June 2018, 10 meetings 6pm – 9.15pm
- Saturday personal development day / 3 – accent on design (Summer term, we’ll agree a date with you) 10am – 4pm
- Exhibition of work and participation in the Creative Urges weekend (to coincide with Camberwell Arts Week)