CityLit Jewellery Metalwork Course: sessions 1&2
Saturdays are currently very full (and somewhat exhausting) for me - I'm doing a Jewellery Metalwork course at CityLit college in central London.
I was impressed with the quality of the teaching on the Casting and Photoetching courses I took there, and I'm happy to say the quality for this course is just as good. Nina, my tutor, is very thorough, and is showing us how to metalwork the proper way, rather than with quick 'n easy methods. She also explains the physical reasons and reactions, which I find always makes me comprehend much better. And of course there's all those tips you never get out of books. I've learnt an incredible amount in the two sessions I've been to (it's 7 sessions altogether). She has even got me enjoying sawing and piercing work, and I've always hated that before.
I have two projects in the works at the moment; from Session 1, a sea-themed copper pendant cut-out and pierced with a soldered silver add-on; and from Sesson 2, a plain silver ring. There's a bit of finishing (read: sandpaper, sandpaper, sandpaper and then sandpaper some more) left to do, and the ring is going to get a patterned finish, though I haven't decided which yet.
Next week she's going to be going over stone-setting, which I'm looking forward to immensely. There are 12 in the class, most of whom are pure beginners. There's a pair who've done a couple of things before and myself as the only medium-experienced student, however everybody is keeping up with no problems. It's a much more social class than the one I went to at Hammersmith and they're a really nice bunch.
I was impressed with the quality of the teaching on the Casting and Photoetching courses I took there, and I'm happy to say the quality for this course is just as good. Nina, my tutor, is very thorough, and is showing us how to metalwork the proper way, rather than with quick 'n easy methods. She also explains the physical reasons and reactions, which I find always makes me comprehend much better. And of course there's all those tips you never get out of books. I've learnt an incredible amount in the two sessions I've been to (it's 7 sessions altogether). She has even got me enjoying sawing and piercing work, and I've always hated that before.
I have two projects in the works at the moment; from Session 1, a sea-themed copper pendant cut-out and pierced with a soldered silver add-on; and from Sesson 2, a plain silver ring. There's a bit of finishing (read: sandpaper, sandpaper, sandpaper and then sandpaper some more) left to do, and the ring is going to get a patterned finish, though I haven't decided which yet.
Next week she's going to be going over stone-setting, which I'm looking forward to immensely. There are 12 in the class, most of whom are pure beginners. There's a pair who've done a couple of things before and myself as the only medium-experienced student, however everybody is keeping up with no problems. It's a much more social class than the one I went to at Hammersmith and they're a really nice bunch.