Theory and Practice of Metal and Jewellery Design

At the end of the course, students should be able to: 1. to understand the properties of metals, alloys, and how they are formed; 2. understand their usable states and nature in the jeweller’s craft and trade; and 3. effectively engage studio processes.

The course provides a survey history of metals and basic metallurgy of noble metals, iron, aluminium, copper and its alloys, alloy calculation and chemical and mechanical properties of metals, identification of metals, and assaying processes. Studio assignments will focus on workshop methods/processes such as etching, metal lacquering, embossing colouring, heat treatment of metals, hardening, tempering, normalizing, metal joinery techniques such as brazing, soldering, welding and more like it.