If you want to expand your skills by taking some jewelry making classes but are not sure where to begin, take a look at these courses. We’ve listed some online options as well as in-person courses.
The online section below outlines several of the popular courses sites that have a jewelry making section. While online options are a lot cheaper, sometimes it may be worth attending workshops or classes at a local college or university to get hands-on experience.
Online Jewelry Making Classes
1. Skillshare (jewelry making)
Skillshare is an online course website that let’s you learn across a variety of topics. They have a jewelry section that has several courses on how to make jewelry. At the time of this writing, they charge $15/mo or $99/yr if you decide to sign up annually. You can watch as many courses as you want for the monthly price.
2. Craftsy (jewelry making)
Craftsy is similar to Skillshare but they charge by the course instead of a flat monthly fee. So check Skillshare if they have the courses you want. If not, then check Craftsy. They have jewelry making classes with filters for beginner, intermediate or advanced.
3. CreativeLive (jewelry making)
The difference between CreativeLive and other online course sites is that they have the instructor teach a live class and record the class in their studio. And when the class is being taught live, it’s free for anyone to watch. Once the class is over, they put up the recorded version for sale. Since the course is professionally recorded, the quality of the video is much better than other sites – but the price is higher too. They frequently have coupons so Google it to find coupons before you buy. Here are their jewelry related classes.
4. All Free Jewelry Making
This site has a whole bunch of free tutorials on how to make jewelry. They focus more on beads and other fashion jewelry that you can make from home. You can explore different tutorials and find the ones that work for you. Details here.
5. Fire Mountain Gems
Fire Mountain Gems is a jewelry supplies retailer – they sell chains, beads, etc at wholesale prices. To support their customers, they have a jewelry making tutorials section that walks through many of the common jewelry making techniques. It’s a comprehensive lineup of projects that is completely free! Some are videos and some are blog posts.
6. The Spruce
This is not a jewelry specific website. But this page has a lot of DIY projects on jewelry making. They walk you through different techniques in a project format i.e. you learn each step in making a piece from start to finish. This are pretty basic though. It’s a good place to start if you’ve never designed jewelry before. It’ll give you a flavor of the different things that go into it.
7. YouTube
This goes without saying but many people don’t check YouTube for jewelry making videos. If you know what you want to learn, then YouTube should probably be your the first stop. You’ll find multiple videos from different people on the topic you’re interested in. The problem with YouTube though is that there are so many videos that you have to spend time viewing multiple videos to find one that teaches you what you need.
Courses & Programs on Jewelry Making & Design
If you’re looking to take your jewelry making skills to the next level, it’s time to consider a formal education in jewelry making & design. These courses below are specialized programs that will help you grow your career and/or help you build your own jewelry business.
To give you an idea of what’s out there, we listed a few college level programs here in the US. If you’re not in one of these locations, look at the syllabus and try to find a similar course near you using Yelp or of course, Google.
GIA Jewelry Design Program
This is a prestigious course. GIA is the an authority on gemstone grading and research so this is one that is great to have on your resume. Other than helping you design a line that you can sell yourself, it will also help you get a job as a jewelry designer. This course covers design theory, how to mix and match gemstones, metals and textures and how to illustrate / draft jewelry designs. Details here.
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
The Massachusetts College of Art and Design has undergraduate and graduate level degree programs specializing in jewelry and metalsmithing. The department offers degrees for students and for anyone who want a complete education in jewelry making.
American School of Jewelry
The American School of Jewelry will get you certified as a Bench Jeweler, Jewelry Designer, or a Master Jeweler. They have some short focused courses like Diamond Grading (2 days) and Stone setting (5 days) but also have longer courses like a certified Jewelry designer course (5 months) or even a Master Jeweler course that is a 12 month program.
They are located in Sunrise, Florida. View the 2017 Course Schedule here. They will likely put up the 2018 schedule soon.
California College Of The Arts
With undergraduate and graduate degrees in jewelry and metal art, the California College of the Arts is one to consider as well. They have a faculty of accomplished jewelry designers who help you through several hands on projects.
State University of New York At New Paltz
As their site says “SUNY New Paltz is among the largest graduate metal programs in the country and has earned the distinction of being the #1-ranked public university metal program.” With seasoned designers as instructors, you’re sure to learn a lot of practical knowledge stemming from years of experience. Most notably, the university’s metal program has been ranked as the best spot for this type of instruction by US News and World Report. Here are the details of the metal program.
These are just a few of the options we found. Comment and let us know other jewelry making courses or sites you’d recommend and we’ll consider adding it to this list.
Recommend an online course below and we’ll publish it in a future blog.
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