Improver Course: Silver Jewellery

Our Improver courses are designed to further develop skills garnered on our Beginner Jewellery Course and a great option if you have attended classes elsewhere and know how to anneal and solder. Contact us if you require a skill level assessment.

On this course you will learn how to build on your basic jewellery making skills through a series of set project briefs. The projects focus on a particular process to improve your technical proficiency and develop your making repertoire.

Sawing and soldering are the foundation skills of jewellery making, master these and you will be able to make anything. The first two projects in this term focus on these skills.

Piercing Project

The piercing project introduces students to using a piercing saw to make a decorative brooch or pendant. You will learn how to properly insert the blade into a piercing saw, how to thread the blade through metal and how to saw accurately to a pattern.

What is piercing?

Piercing is the process of cutting sheet metal using a metal framed saw which holds a fine blade at tension. The blade can be threaded through small holes allowing the jeweller to pierce out intricate internal patterns.

Chain Project

The chain project helps to hone your soldering skills by making either a necklace or bracelet from individual links. This chain is comprised of repeated elements. It is through this repetition that students practice and hone their soldering skills which can be transferred to other projects.

What is silver soldering?

Silver soldering is the process of joining two or more pieces of metal to one another by melting a filler metal called solder into the join. Silver soldering differs from welding as none of the parent metal is melted. Silver solder melts at around 450°C therefore can only get hot enough using a gas torch. An electrical soldering iron will not achieve these temperatures. Silver solder is unlike glue in that it bonds directly with the metal surface. These are all important distinctions to make to understand silver soldering.

Tube Setting Project

In this project you will learn how to set a faceted stone into a tube setting. This includes using a burr tool fit your stone into a tube and using a collet closer to set the stone. If you haven’t set stones before this project is a good foundation in faceted stone setting.

What is a tube setting?

A tube setting is a method of setting a faceted stone using silver tube, a burr and a burnisher.

This class combines students new to jewellery and those with a small amount of silver jewellery making experience - each with their own set of projects to follow.

Materials

Sundries such as solder and saw blades are included in the course fees. Metals, findings and a variety of stones are available for purchase at the school or feel free to bring your own to work with.