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Casting is a beautiful, ancient and organic way to create jewellery.

This Wild Casting Week allows students to experiment with many natural methods of low tech casting, as well as learning fundamentals of soldering, working with stone and shell, and finishing techniques to create wearable, personal jewellery.

The focus of this week is to develop the student's understanding of how to design and plan for casting in metal; how to create structured pieces with soldered elements and how to add in parts such as stone settings or shell / stone pieces that they have hand-crafted themselves. 
With a whole week to explore there is plenty of time for an exciting adventure in jewellery making. You can find the in-depth curriculum below

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This programme is open to learners of all levels. Complete beginners will gain foundational jewellery making skills and can expect to produce 2 or more well-finished pieces. More advanced students will be able to develop their existing abilities and learn some new techniques. Depending on where they are in their jewellery making journey, they may wish to spend more time on design fundamentals, and/or discussing their developing practice with their tutor mentors. There is also the option for those advanced students looking to create works to sell to have a business discussion with Workspace Studios founder and expert tutor Annie Collins about their next steps. 
From 4.30pm on Friday we will display student's works to friends and whānau, and have some drinks and nibbles to celebrate the close of a magical week!

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Our class size in Ōtaki is a maximum of 8  students. This group size allows for flexibility in how students work and what they create, though we are unable to introduce additional techniques beyond those planned for the week.
If you have specific questions about your level, the curriculum or what you can make please email us.

Course fees include a generous metal pack, extra materials will be available to purchase and advanced students are welcome to bring along their own materials.

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Course Curriculum:

Monday: Introductions, Possibilities & Casting

 

Health and Safety induction and studio familiarity session. 

As a group we will explore our samples, which serve as demonstrations for the techniques we'll cover on the week, and their possible combinations.

Then we get straight into casting. Beginner's will be introduced to the basics of sand casting, along with salt and water casting, while those with some casting experience can begin work on wax models to use as forms for casting.  

We will be casting using sterling silver or shibuichi (another silver alloy) and some pieces may be kept for working on during the week - or simply use this chance to practice the skills.

 

Tuesday: Hot Stuff Ramps Up! Wood Casting And Soldering Insights

We keep the heat on with casting - this time taking it up a notch to learn the exciting process of casting into wood, as well as how to plan for soldering cast items, whether you're adding catches and connections or creating settings that complement your cast elements - there's so much to learn and do.  Vaune will also be discussing options for stone setting, as well as stone or shell cutting and finishing which we will dive into on Wednesday.

There will be more time in the afternoon for additional casting as today is about generating stunning casts to use in your designs.

 

Wednesday: Bringing In Special Elements - Stone, Shell Or More To Your Designs. 

Today we look at adding elements to our cast pieces: fittings and connections and settings or claws. Those who are interested can learn to cut and polish natural materials - found stone and shell. There are many possibilities for combining materials - other metals, wood, recycled materials or even gemstones. 

Students will work on planning their designs and learn techniques for soldering with castings.  

Beginners will be guided to work on simpler constructions, while more experienced students can push their technical skills further.

 

Thursday: Production

Students will work on their final designs. The focus of this day is fabrication and connections. Stone / Shell elements can be finished and polished 

Your pieces will start to come together today - a very exciting stage in the week!

 

We often see a lot of peer to peer mentoring at this point, where students support each other and grow in the process.

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Friday: Finishing and Exhibition

This day will be spent getting pieces into a finished state ready to exhibit in the evening! Finishing is a very important step in jewellery making, it is what takes a piece from "student work" to "saleable". Our tutors will encourage those on the selling path to really up their quality. There is also the option for those advanced students looking to create works to sell to have a business discussion with Annie Collins about their next steps. 

 

From 4.30pm on Friday we will display student's works to friends and whānau, and have some drinks and nibbles to celebrate!