In this live, virtual workshop, students will join master jeweler Kristin Mitsu Shiga to learn gypsy setting and easy tube setting for production. Students will create their own custom tools, cover alternative methods for holding pieces, and proper preparations and use of rubberized abrasives. 

Advance your skills in making filigree jewelry with Canadian filigree artist Milt Fischbein! In this interactive virtual workshop, students will learn the fundamentals of making filigree coils and Middle Eastern style flowers. By the end of this course, students will have created a pair of filigree teardrop earrings and a multi-level three dimensional filigree flower pendant.

In this virtual course, students will learn how to fabricate their own prong settings using a dual-gas torch and how to then prong-set their stones appropriately. Strong emphasis will be placed on torch temperature control, as well as flame placement. Students can expect to gain knowledge, strategies, and confidence to make both calibrated and free-form prong settings. 

This three-session class will examine the design structures borrowed from botany. Student will learn to translate, interpret, and design using motifs such as twigs, leaves, vines to create unusual pieces of jewelry that reference or mimic elements in nature and botanicals. Techniques such as forging, texturing, tapering, fusing, and fabrication in Argentium will be demonstrated and larger design discussions will be had in regards to making methodology and visual language. 

This intensive 3-day virtual class is intended to establish a solid foundation in the art of chain maille for studetns with no prior experience. Focus will be placed on creating 3 essential chain maille weaves, Byzantine, European 4-in-1 (E41), and Half Persian 3-in-1 (HP31), which are the basis for numerous other chain maille weave patterns.

In this virtual workshop students will explore just how much a single sheet of metal can do and will leave with the understanding of how to achieve a huge variety of results for creating volume. Demos will cover numerous approaches to add form and depth. Working predominately with sheet metal, the class will explore slot & key construction as well as drilling, sawing, bending, and forming in order to achieve shape and volume using both hot and cold fabrication techniques.

So you’ve taken a ton of classes, honed dozens of techniques and skills, and made the samples...now what? In this hour-long creative coaching session, participants will discuss how to tease out their inner creative voice and how to apply that aesthetic to make a piece of jewelry that is distinctly their own with Metalwerx instructor and artist, Paulette Werger. Come talk shop amongst a small group of peers with one of your favorite teachers! 

This live, virtual course will focus exclusively on two distinct stone setting processes - the first being bead setting and the second being hammer setting on a thick walled tube. Students will be guided on how to expertly hold and use bead setting tools, how to measure and construct an extra thick tube, and then how to hammer set a round faceted stone. Learn to to add perfect highlights to nearly any surface and create a clean visual frame that emboldens your stones to act as a focal point, while giving the piece a secure and structurally sturdy setting suitable for daily wear!

In the course, students will learn all about hinges, hinged closures, and catches that are highly suitable for bracelet construction when you want a large, yet flexible clasp option.

This virtual course offers participants the chance to learn lapidary techniques for carving stones from the comfort of their own studio bench! No large lapidary equipment required! Students will be shown numerous diamond bits to achieve a variety of designs and textures, as well as how to polish those carvings. Ryan will also cover the process for creating laminations and gold inlay designs in stones!

Steel is a fabulous metal for jewelry—lightweight, malleable, and strong. Steel also plays well with other non-ferrous metals, particularly silver, offering opportunities to create dramatic mixed metals jewelry. This techniques-focused workshop will cover a wide range of methods for combining silver and steel.

Learn to add dramatic movement and satisfying functionality to jewelry and small-scale metalwork of all sorts in his technical workshop designed to introduce students to spring-based mechanisms that can be used to make lids pop open, make catches easier to use and more secure, as well as to make mechanisms last longer.

This workshop will help jewelers and enamelists approach the setting aspect of the jewelry making process as an integral part of their design, starting with examining historic and contemporary examples to help develop design strategies and moving into learning two styles of reverse settings, simple and advance tab cutting, placement for findings, strategies for properly fitting back plates, preparation of the tabs, notching prongs, and safe setting techniques. 

Learn to fix, modify, transform, morph, and adapt varying jewelry tools to work better, easier, or in a different more custom way. From adapting pliers to make bezel bending easier and making a file that cuts square corners without undercuts to sharpening a drill bit yourself, making a tool to sand hard to reach places, polishing and texturizing a hammer uniquely your own, and much more. 

Create a fantastically original necklace with individual components that have been composed to both please the eye and move comfortably on the body. Students will focus on a necklace construction method that can be used with basic polymer skills or the most complex of canes. creating a variety of effects using wire armatures and linking system, fitting the complex curves of the body, how to create individual components with marquetry techniques, as well as how to carve, add textures, arrange, and connect components.

Led by expert wire wrapping jeweler, Steven Manchini, this two-day course will teach students how to manipulate various types of wire to securely entrap stones or small objects, create cascading textures, and build volume using numerous weaving, coiling, and framing patterns.

Explore new possibilities in your jewelry making process with Computer Aided Design (CAD)! In this virtual course, students will learn the basics of designing 2D objects and patterns using the Rhinoceros design software and will aim to translate their ideas quickly and effectively into workable computer files in preparations for laser cutting unique jewelry components, production line multiples, or even templates and blanks.

At least half the challenge of metalsmithing is being able to hold onto your project while you manipulate it with your tools. The great news is that, though a strong grip is helpful, it’s not always required. In this demonstration-format workshop, students will be introduced to a collection of tools and techniques, from simple to elaborate, that have been developed over the centuries to address the challenge of holding our jewelry work.

In this tricks and tips virtual workshop, students will learn to speed up their production and understanding of goldsmithing from a master in the field, Charles Lewton-Brain. This course is a loose, eclectic collection of short cuts, bench tricks, stone setting and polishing hints, and alternative equipment options. Cheap tool making, jeweler’s secrets, and unexpected sources for tools will be covered. Learn to free your thinking and find solutions to whatever technical problems that might arise!

Bezel setting is a simple, yet attractive method of setting cabochons or other stones and is a relatively simple process to learn when setting basic ovaloids or stones in the round. However, taking this setting to the next level requires a lot more practice and mastery over the technique. In this virtual workshop, students will learn ways to improve their bezel setting skills by setting a cabochon with a sharp edge, as well as setting a delicate cabochon with an unusual convex shape.

Over this intensive 2-day workshop, students will not only learn about flush setting tools and how to properly use the flush setting technique, but will endeavor to perfect it by setting numerous stones, becoming more proficient from one to the next. With guidance, tips, and tricks from the instructor every step of the way, students can expect to leave with finished flush set pieces of jewelry they can show off to their loved ones!

Confused by the dizzying array of rotary burs, bits, and mandrels on the market? Ready to invest in a flexible shaft machine, but don’t know where to start? In this essential skill-builder, we will cover all the flexible shaft machine basics, from choosing the right motor, handpiece, and rheostat to maintenance and choosing the right bit for the job at hand.

This workshop is a perfect introduction to many of the basics in jewelry making! Learn the fundamentals of sawing, filing, annealing, polishing, and of course forming. Finish up the day with at least two unique, textured cuff bracelets you can wear home. 

Forging is an ancient art of controlled hammer blows aimed at changing the look of wire or thick sheet metal into varying shapes and patterns. In this one-day course, students will learn to understand how to control the direction and movement of metal (an essential component of metalworking), how to do a "change of direction", how to taper, all about hammer textures, and more! The focus of this course will be placed on bracelet forms that can be worn home!

Every jeweler eventually tires of buying typical stones and setting them in conventional settings. Come spend five days with Michael Boyd and learn how to cut and polish your own cabochons with limitless shape, size, and color options, as well as how to design using stone as a medium--not only an accessory!

This intensive three-session virtual workshop explores the traditions of Keum-boo with a variety of techniques and variants to create jewelry in an economical way. Students will learn about the properties of gold and silver foils, how to create their own foils, and multiple application methods in combination with embossing, stamping, roller printing, soldering, and many more tips and tricks!