School holiday fun! You will have the opportunity to make a beautiful sterling silver ring. Suitable for participants aged 11 years of age and up to 15 years of age.

In this beginner's class you will experience the use of a range of jewellery tools and techniques in a friendly and relaxed environment.

When: School Holidays (please check schedule)
Duration: 1 day (3 hours)
Class size: Maximum 7 people
Cost: $110

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As part of Joynton & 107 Projects, The Bench will provide subsidised courses to residents in the Zetland, Sydney area. For further information please email us at jewellery@thebench.sydney

ABOUT THE COURSE

Prerequisite

There are no formal entry requirements for this course. You do not need to be artistic or creative - you’ll be surprised what you can create under the guidance of our expert tutors. Our taster classes are perfect for absolute beginners with no previous experience.

Creative Kids Jewellery Making class is perfect for enthusiastic beginners with no previous experience.

*The Bench tutors have obtained their Working with Children Check. If you require the WWCC number, please contact jewellery@thebench.sydney

Course Objectives

You will be guided through the following techniques in this one-day workshop:

Saw piercing - Become proficient in setting up and using the jeweller's piercing saw to cut metal to size.

Annealing/ Soldering - You will gain an understanding in how to gently heat your metal to soften it, allowing you to then decorate and shape your metal. You will learn how to measure a ring size; form, shape and use a hand held oxy/gas torch to solder your silver ring.

Texturing – You can add texture to your ring through a variety of different tools.

Finishing - You will acquire knowledge of how to file and polish your finished design and introduce colour to your work using patination techniques.

Course Outcomes

You will learn the basic skills needed to create your own beautiful sterling silver ring. The workshop begins with short, structured technical exercises and lots of material play in the morning. Then fabricating, decorating and joining will be demonstrated.

What’s Included

All materials are included. Including sterling silver to make your ring, copper sheet, brass sheet and consumables (saw blades, emery paper, patina). Everyone finishes with a beautiful ring to wear home (& show off their new jewels to family & friends).

Parents, guardians and caregivers are welcome to stay on site - free WiFi available, comfortable lounges & excellent coffee available at nearby cafes. You're welcome to stay for the duration of the workshop, but we believe that your young creative will work more effectively if they’re able to independently learn to make jewellery with The Bench tutor.

The Tutor: Erin Keys

Erin Keys has over 20 years experience as a jeweller, designer and educator with a diverse range of achievements in various facets of craft and design. Participating in nearly 100 exhibitions in Australia and overseas since 1999, her practice spans one-off exhibition pieces, bespoke commissions and a limited edition laser cut production range available through several stockists.

Erin has taught beginner to advanced jewellery courses at Sturt Summer School, JamFactory, SquarePeg Studios and is currently a sessional teacher at UNSW Art & Design.

For the past 10 years Erin has had extensive involvement with design and education, working as a Jewellery Design Developer for over 5 years at one of Australia's leading design companies Dinosaur Designs and for Louise Olsen X ALEX AND TRAHANAS.

The Workshop

The Bench is a modern, light filled, industry standard workshop focusing on education and training. It is a relaxed and friendly place to learn traditional and contemporary jewellery techniques, a space to develop ideas and projects such as ring making, silver jewellery and stone setting gems. We provide concept based jewellery classes to the absolute beginner, the aspiring maker and to the professional jeweller.

The Bench is a safe working and learning environment, complete with a wide inventory of tools and equipment, such as Vaniman polishing extraction, enamelling kiln, fume cabinets, micromotors, soldering torches, rolling mill, tumbler, ultrasonic and more.

Location

The Bench acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of our land – Australia. The Bench acknowledges the Gadigal of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of this place we now call Sydney.

The Bench is located at the exquisite historic site, Joynton Avenue Creative Centre in Green Square, and is easily accessed by bus, train (Green Square Station), ride or walk.

The Bench cultivates inclusive, creative and accessible spaces for everyone to have the opportunity to feel safe and welcomed.

The building has full wheelchair accessibility, ramp access from street and park entrances, internal lift for access to upper levels and a unisex accessible toilet on each level.

THE BENCH, Joynton Avenue Creative Centre
3A Joynton Ave, Zetland NSW 2017

Additional notes

All the tools, materials and consumables you need for the course will be available at the venue; including an apron. You may want to buy further materials from our metal suppliers – your tutor will provide you with supplier information.

For health and safety reasons, please bring along with you the following

Hair tie: If you have long hair, please bring along something to tie it back with
Closed in shoes: We will be working with hot, sharp and heavy tools, so please wear shoes, which will protect your feet. Avoid wearing loose flowing garments.
Sketch book/note book/ pen and/or pencil: Please bring along a notebook for your own notes and design ideas. Notes will be provided to complement the techniques you will be learning but you may wish to make your own notes.
Remember: If you use glasses for reading and /or close up work please remember to bring them along.

Book your course

Questions?

Email us at: jewellery@thebench.sydney
or call us on: 0406 794 112