Custom Jewelry and Bead Setting - Portland Jewelry Academy

This course is designed to take the skills learned in Introduction to Jewelry Manufacturing and fine-tune them for use in custom jewelry and bead setting. This is not a licensed course and does not offer anything toward employment as a bench jeweler on its own. However, this course can help give student a deeper understanding of the jewelry trade, their personal style in bench jewelry and jewelry design, as well as further mentorship from Jason Chandler in honing their skills. In order to take this course, completion of our Introduction to Jewelry Manufacturing Course is required.

Custom Jewelry and Bead Setting Course Goals

In Custom Jewelry and Bead Setting students use the skills learned in Introduction to Jewelry Manufacturing to complete a series of projects base on their own designs. In this course student learn:

To determine when it is most appropriate to use CAD and 3D printing versus wax carving base on the requirements and knowledge about jobs.
How to price their work for retail, wholesale custom, and production (mass production of jewelry lines).
To determine when it is profitable to make a custom piece of jewelry.
What makes a profitable mold for production and reproduction.

Focusing on Student Design and Interests

Projects assigned throughout this course require students to us the project parameters to create jewelry pieces of their own design from rendering to finished products. Additionally, students who complete all assignments before the end of the course may move on to independent study. During this time they will have access to research and learn using Portland Jewelry Academy’s extensive library as well as Jason’s own knowledge. With this independent study option, students have a chance to learn a build skills outside of those offered in the curriculum.

Some independent study choices of past students include:

Enameling
Granulation
Mocame Gahn

Tool List

GRS microblock XL
2 GRS wood bench pins (just wood, not the kit)
12-piece beading tool kit and handle
Milgrain tools 6, 8, 12, and 15 with handle
GRS adjustable height bracket
GRS engravers balls shelf
12-piece ball burr 3.1-8mm
4mm and 8mm wheel bur (2 burs total)
8mm round edge wheel bur
4.7mm inverted cone bur
Carbide cylinder bur
1 box of #11 scalpel blades
#5 castaldo white label mold rubber
Sintered diamond disc
2 small rounds tins
Arbe Wax pen with 2 tips
12 knife and 12 square edge green all in one rubber wheels(24 total)
20mm mounted square edge diamond wheel
GRS 3-piece graver handle set
Jiffy Jig
12 8/0 saw blades
3 EVE diamond polished wheels
Stone setting graver set (Lindsay tops)