Jewelry Class

I have been taking a Jewelry I class through the Gem Cutter's Guild of Baltimore since the end of January.  We only have 2 more classes left and I feel pretty sad about that!  I have always considered myself pretty crafty, but this class has definitely given me a new appreciation for the jewelry I have purchased over the years.

We started out learning how to heat sterling silver, use pickle and bend the silver into a ring.  Our next project was to earrings.  We learned to texture cooper through a mill using paper designs and then cutting out discs to create earrings.  We used dappers to create a sauer shape and then drilled small holes and created our own earring hooks.

The third project was learning to use the jewelry saw (not easy at first) and creating a key chain.  We used our sawing skills to create the bracelet below.  After we used the piercing technique to cut out our design, we sanded and buffed the project, shaped it around a mandral and then textured it.

The past two weeks we have been working on soldering sterling jump rings to make a bracelet.  We learned how to solder, make jump rings and S hooks.  During the next two weeks we will learn how to set a stone into a bezzel.

They are not offering Jewelry II until the Fall, so I am thinking about taking the Jewelry I class again just to keep honing those skills.