[Jewelry making - Article 00806] - Re: [Orchid] Jewelry design - what & where to learn

[David Phelps]

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    This is what I love about creating jewelry. It is the marriage of
    art and engineering. It requires both the creativity and
    free-thinking of an artist and the analytical mind of an engineer to
    create a piece of jewelry that is not only beautiful and functional,
    but that can survive the daily life of the person that loves it, and
    beyond. 

    In my experience, and I'll probably get some flak for this, time at
    the bench trumps formal art training in the real world of jewelry
    design, big time. You can do many things with pencil and paper that
    look great, like make a diamond "float" over a ring, but when it
    comes to making the diamond "float" over a customer's finger, you
    have to deal with things the non-goldsmith "designer" doesn't. Take
    gravity for instance. Pendants and earrings always hang straight on
    paper, wherever the bail and posts are, and you never have to worry
    about knocking a stone out of a drawing. 

    I have worked with jewelry designers that have multiple art degrees
    but haven't ever put torch to metal. I have also worked with
    goldsmiths that have no formal art training and are not particularly
    skilled with a pencil and paper, but have an understanding of the
    interaction of colors and shapes and the experience of engineering
    and constructing wearable jewelry. Almost always, the experienced
    goldsmith's design is superior in every respect, especially when it
    comes to actually making, marketing and wearing the piece. The best
    design ever drawn will look like crap if the goldsmith making it
    doesn't have sufficient skill, but an accomplished goldsmith can make
    even the most questionable design look good. 

    Pay attention to the world around you. Nature is the universe's
    consummate artist and engineer. She understands that form follows
    function and uses that knowledge in everything she designs and
    builds. (Since Neil brought up WWII airplanes, Willy Messerschmitt
    borrowed from the shark and the swallow when he designed the fuselage
    and wings of the ME 262 Schwalbe [Swallow], the world's first
    operational jet fighter. He knew it's hard to beat Mother Nature when
    it comes to streamlining and going fast. Beauty and previously
    unattainable speed naturally followed.) 

    Start learning to sketch by sketching. Sketch everything. Study the
    designs of others by drawing them as two dimensional three-view
    drawings, and then change them. These are good drawing exercises, but
    it is much more important to spend the bulk of your time perfecting
    your bench skills. If you feel the need to take courses, take courses
    in stone setting and wax carving. Your design skills will come with
    improved bench skills. You will find that it takes much less time to
    learn to draw a curved and graduated channel than it does to learn
    how to carve, cast and set one well. As you learn how to do it, you
    will learn how to use it in your designs. 

    To become a great guitarist, you must first learn to play the
    guitar. Some of the world's best had no formal training in music
    theory, in fact they never had a single lesson and couldn't even read
    music. Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn come to mind. Same with
    jewelry design. To become a great designer, you must first become a
    great goldsmith. The art is within you. You just need the skills to
    let it out. 

Dave
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