During the recent months, I've developed an interest in jewelry design, including rendering and fabrication. I thought I'd dedicate this blog post to summarizing my journey so far.

– OCTOBER 2024 –

I took a ring making intensive class with LILOVEVE, which was the first jewelry fabrication class I've ever taken. I learned how to make a sterling silver ring, which involved sawing the rod to size, filing the ends to join together, soldering with a torch flame, hammering the ring into shape using a mandrel, sanding, applying texture, polishing, and so on. The process was quite arduous, and there were a few times I got a little frustrated with myself (doing my all to prevent letting my critical faculty obstruct my creative faculty with negative thoughts related to perfectionism, something I am working so hard to overcome). That being said, I had a great time learning overall, and the instructor was very helpful and patient with me. I am extremely satisfied with the result.

I also created a small drawing of my ring. I was so fascinated by the texture, I tried to recreate it in pen with this little study in my sketchbook.

– NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2024 –

I signed up for courses with Alzerina Jewelry. These classes are a lot different from the ring making intensive, as there is no metalsmithing involved. It focuses more so on beadwork and wire wrapping, which I absolutely love. I learned how to work with jewelry findings (jump rings, headpins and eyepins, clasps, hooks, etc.) to create a charm bracelet and dangle earrings. Oddly enough, the most challenging thing for me so far has been creating the ‘perfect’ loop with headpins/eyepins and properly closing them, and that is something I'll be practicing at home.

My personal favorite skill to learn so far has been beading hoop earrings with wire. After I created my first red, orange, and yellow-beaded arrangement on a set of medium-sized textured silver hoops with Alzerina (shown below), I grew excited and have made additional sets on my own at home since then. I've been experimenting with different bead types, hoop sizes, silver/gold/rose gold wire in different gauges, and color palettes.

Below is the second pair of beaded hoops that I created on my own at home. Created with green seed beads of various shades, and light blue and pink seed beads of a smaller size.

– JANUARY 2025 –

Most recently, I've signed up for two additional classes - Traditional Gouache Watercolor Techniques at the New York Jewelry Design Institute (Tuesday evenings until March 11), and Intro to Jewelry Fabrication at Fashion Institute of Technology (Tuesday mornings until around mid-May).

At NYJDI, we started with some watercolor techniques for painting cabochons, as well as a lesson covering the refractive characteristics of various gemstones and how this is rendered. I'll be posting photos in my next post.

At FIT, we've started off with a pendant project . I sketched out a few designs, chose one of them, and I am now on my way to finishing it up. With a drill and jeweler's saw, I cut out the pieces of my pendant's inner shapes yesterday during open studio hours. My next step is to file the edges.

I'll be back soon with future progress! Thanks for reading!