Introduction to Jewelry (Saturday)
Adult Class | This program is completed
In this introductory course, students will learn an array of technical processes and tools to design and create their own jewelry. Some basic techniques that will be covered include sawing, filing, riveting, surface texture, soldering, introductory stone setting, and finishing. We will also discuss the contemporary art jewelry movement, material considerations, and jewelry’s relationship to the body, preciousness, and social symbols. Through playful conceptual prompts, students can expect to complete two to three projects that could each take the form of a pendant, ring, brooch, pair of earrings, or small sculptural object.
What you will learn:
1. Techniques to make jewelry using metal sheet and wire
2. How to safely use specialized hand tools and equipment
3. A brief sociocultural history of metalsmithing and contemporary art jewelry
4. Creative approaches to designing your own jewelry pieces, integrating students’ artistic interests into introductory projects
Please note: This is a 9-session class. Class will not meet on Saturday, October 12 in observance of Yom Kippur, and on Saturday, November 2 during our annual Día de los Muertos celebrations.
Note that this classroom is accessible by stairs only; please contact Fleisher for more information.
Recommended Jewelry and Metal suppliers:
Hagstoz 709 Sansom Street. Phone: 215-922-1627
Pamma Tools 809 Sansom Street. Phone: 215-928-6004
Rio Grande: www.riogrande.com Phone: 1-800-545-6566
Start the term with these supplies:
• Herkules saw blades 2/0 – 2 dozen (24 total)
• 3” x 3” 20 gauge copper sheet
• 3” x 3” 20 gauge brass sheet
• 1ft. of 18 gauge round brass wire soft
• Sketch book or paper to draw on
• Fine tip Sharpie
• Pencil and pen
• Old rag or t-shirt for drying metal
• Chain or leather cord for a pendant
• Wire solder in hard, medium, and easy - 6” of each
• 3 small plastic baggies or containers to keep solder in
Midway through the term students may need these supplies, depending on their final project which will be discussed with the instructor:
• Cabochon stone or flat-backed found object
• Sterling silver earring posts and backs (2 of each)
• Sterling Silver Bezel Wire
(No steel in the studio unless previously discussed)
Materials are extremely important to have because without them projects will not be able to be completed.
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Lia Musante
Lia Musante is a maker working in Philadelphia. Since their undergraduate studies in community-based oral history, they seek to link embodied storytelling with metalsmithing, using jewelry as a worn archive, and teaching in accessible art education.
Lia plays with the lifetimes objects carry to re-forge narratives of possibility. Forgotten detritus reunites with the body as sentimental jewels as part of the cycle in which man-made objects are made, found, and remade. Jewelry externalizes inner feelings, as hardware for tenderness. But this two-ness is slippery: at times the object outlasts fleeting feelings, or the feelings linger far after the object expires. By teasing apart this connection with repaired electronics, faux stones, steel, and sound, these re-linkings and re-contextualizations remember the everpresent kinship we share with our belongings and each other in the end times.