[Jewelry making - Article 00609] - Re: [Orchid] Jewelry design - what & where to learn

[juliette arda]

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Bonjour Kelley,

    I don't know where you stay and if there is any design evening class
    near you. Neither did I ever heard about design class through
    mail...(though it must exist somewhere!) 

    However there are lots of things that you can do by yourself. These
    are the advices I often give to my students : 

    If you want to improve your design skills, you'll need to build up
    your own "vocabulary". 

    DRAW 

    Take evening lifedrawing classes if you can. 

    Carry a sketchbook everywhere you go. 

    Drawing is not only a good skill to have, it is also eye-mind-hand
    discipline. It teachs to watch, to understand what you see and to
    accuratly move your hand according to your will. 

    It is a skill that you will bring back to your bench pratctice. 

    Make collage with everything you fancy in magazines, or fabric
    offcuts, or plants, take pictures or molds of textures you like...
    try to reproduce it on metal. 

    When you see an object that you like, draw it again and agian until
    you undertstand why you like it... is it for its outline, its colour
    or its texture... is it because it reminds you of something else? 

    Explore jewellery through the five senses. 

    You can look at artist's sketchbooks and observe their design
    process... not only in jewellery, You'll find lots of them on
    illustrations, movie making-of.... 

    You can also look at history of art and design, feed your mind with
    it. Are you an Art Deco, Art Nouveau or rather a Post Modern person?
    Give some thought to what jewellery means to you, what it means to
    others or in other cultures.... 

    You could also challenge yourself : instead of thinking : "I am
    going to make a ring with a cabochon stone" you could give yourself a
    diffrent brief like... 

    A pendent featuring two different textures and one coloured
    element... What piece of jewellery can I make if I want to carry a
    secret meaning or message with me... or... start with a title... how
    would a piece called "evening rose" or "oedipian distress" look like?
    or start just with a word : "Flight" for example, research and sketch
    everything related to this word : creatures, devices, symbols,
    homonymes,...you'll come across so many inspiring stuff! 

    Have fun, maybe you could tell a story or a riddle with your work...
    or maybe you are drawn to pure aesthetic experiments. 

    Discover who you are as a jeweller. 

    EXPLORE AND EXPERIMENT. 

    As all this will gradually sink in, you will devellop your very own
    style. 

I hope this will help a little...
Have fun!

Juliette Arda
Artiste-Bijoutiere
Aix en Provence, France
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