Top 10 – Best Jewelry Design Schools in the World 2015
The Best Jewelry Design Schools
Jewelry Design is a ltitle more niche than other design subjects covered at DHS, so it can be harder to find useful information in order to inform your choice of Jewelry design education.
Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers use a variety of common and specialized hand tools and equipment to design and manufacture new pieces of jewelry; cut, set, and polish gem stones; and repair or adjust rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and other jewelry. Jewelers usually specialize in one or more of these areas and may work for large jewelry-manufacturing firms, for small retail jewelry shops, or as owners of their own businesses. Regardless of the type of work done or the work setting, jewelers require a high degree of skill, precision, and attention to detail.
Job Outlook (US Department of Labor)
Moderate competition is expected for skilled positions, and strong competition is expected for lower skilled manufacturing jobs. New jewelers also will be needed to replace those who retire or who leave the occupation for other reasons. When master jewelers retire, they take with them years of experience that require substantial time and financial resources to replace. Many employers have difficulty finding and retaining jewelers with the right skills and the necessary knowledge. Some technological advances have made jewelry making more efficient; however, many tasks cannot be fully automated. Jewelry work is a labor-intensive process that requires excellent handiwork
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Top 10 Jewelry Design Schools in the World 2015
1. Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY, USA
Rochester Institute of Technology ‘RIT’ is one of the oldest universities in the United States, founded in 1829. The College of Imaging Arts & Sciences offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts, B.F.A – Metals and Jewelry Design and a Master of Fine Arts M.F.A within its School for American Crafts Department which also has Ceramics, Furniture Design and Crafts programs. The school is internationally recognized with a learning environment that focuses on both the concepts and practical techniquies of metalsmithing and design.
Students the opportunity to learn about hollowware, jewelry, sculpture, and furniture within the metals environment.The school also focuses on preparing students for life after graduation by teaching core skills such as soldering, stone setting, silversmithing, forging, fabrication and casting. The school also gives students the opportunity to study 3D design and concept drawing. The school maintains close connections with industry and creative leaders with invited guest speakers from the field conducting discussions in topics such as design, studio management, gallery relations, professional practices and technical and aesthetic issues. Students may participate in fild trips to museums, artists’ studios, and art centers.
The program enhances students’ drawing and rendering skills and develops their design ideas and artistic methods. The final year of the program involves students presenting their work in a senior exhibition. By the time students graduate they will have build a portfolio and a resume to showcase for potential creative projects and to present to potential employers.
In the 2 year Master of Fine Arts program students participate in a residency program at the School of American Crafts, a community of creatives with students collaborating with experts and specialists.
2. Istituto Lorenzo De Medici – The LdM School of Design, Florence, Italy
The LdM School of Design ‘LdM’ was founded in 1973 in Florence, and is Italy’s best established international institution of higher learning. LdM has its main campus in Florence, and additional campuses in Rome, Tuscany and Venice. LdM hosts over 2800 international students each year from all over the world.
LdM offers an artistic and cultural reference program for students who want to pursue their degree in the field of Jewelry Design. A variety of jewellery-making techniques will be taught by experienced designers. Jewelry students learn to drill, file, weld and shape materials, before polishing and setting precious and semi-precious stones into finished products. Students at LdM learn every step in the jewellery-making process, ensuring they have the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in creative and professional endeavours.
Students are encouraged to develop their own style using metal as well as alternative materials and jewels to create rings, earrings, bracelets. LdM is one of the few schools in the world to teach students the to create relief works, a centuries-old Florentine traditional craft. Students at LdM learn every step in the jewelry-making process, both in the classroom and in the workshop from design to finished product.
It’s also worth checking out LdM’s Jewelry Design Blog
3. Birmingham City University, Birmingham, United Kindgom
Birmingham City University offers a range of practical degree programs from its internationally renown jewellery design school based in the heart of Birmingham’s famous Jewellery Quarter. Being based in Jewllery Quarter the college is in the middle of hundreds of Jewellery shops design studios. The school has outstanding industry connections and many chances to work on live briefs. Graduates from the university have gained international recognition and have been commissioned for works or exhibited at the United Kingdom Royal Mint, V&A Museum, Goldsmiths, Saatchi Gallery, Sieraad, Inhorgenta Talente and Galerie Marzee. The school has unrivalled expertise and facilities and offers a variety of courses on the subject of jewellery design.
- BA (Hons) Jewellery and Silversmithing – Design for Industry : a 1 year full time program.
- Jewellery and Silversmithing – HND : a 2 year full time program.
Gemmology and Jewellery Studies – BSc : a 3 year full time program.
Jewellery Design and Related Products – BA (Hons) : a 3 year full time program.
4. Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London offers a 3 year Bachelor of Arts (Hons) – Jewellery Design at its College based near Kings Cross / St Pancras in central London. Students have the opportunity to acquire a range of skills in hollowware, jewellery, sculpture, and furniture within the metals environment. The College encourages innovation and original creativity which is fostered and displayed through project work, including projects undertaken with industry names such as Cool Diamonds, Swarovski, Nissan, Avakian, Topshop, Chow Tai Fook, Legle.
In 2015, a small number of students from the Jewellery Design major were selected to work with jewellery designer and retailer Theo Fennell. Each student was presented with a stone and given the task of using the stone within a piece of jewellery. Students selected the materials to use and worked with craftsmen to bring the designs to life and on to market where the final pieces were put on sale in the firm’s main store.
The College operates exchange opportunities with Geneva, Switzerland and Pforzheim, Germany during year two of the degree and has held study trips to Amsterdam and Munich to gain insight into jewellery design in the creative and commercial world. The program also benefits from shared resources and collaboration with other design programs run at the Central Saint Martins College.
5. The University of Kansas, Lawrence, USA
The University of Kansas ‘KU’ offers a four year Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Art program in which students can select from a variety of studio design courses including jewelry design, hollowware, rendering, professional practices, enameling and gemology. Students of the B.F.A. may choose an elective or major course of study.
The department is well equipped with Metalsmithing / Jewelry facilities including a 3,800 square foot studio divided into 7 rooms:
- Beginning Room (Patina area, Soldering, Plate shear, drill press, Stakes, hammers, handtools, Anvil).
- Metalsmithing room (rolling mills, Gas fluxer, smithing stakes, specialized hammers and forming stakes, Box bender, Di-Arco sheet metal tools, Metal spinning lathe, forge, blacksmithing equipment).
- Plating/electro-forming room (Large Copper electro-forming tank,Plating baths for silver, gold, nickel).
- Mill room (Revo 5 axis CNC milling machine, Graver Mach AT – pneumatic engraving and stone setting machine, Orion Micro Welder, Computer workstations with Matrix 3D software (jewelry-specific CAD), Maker Bot 3-D printer.
- Finishing room (Hydraulic pressing, Deep draw equipment, Bead blaster,Dual speed exhausted buffers, Belt sanders,Grinder,Stake polishing machines,Pressure pot for resin casting, Hydraulic pressing).
- Enameling facility (Work space for twelve, Four kilns).
The College also offers a B.A. in Visual Art which requires only 24 credit hours in Visual Art beyond the foundation year unlike the B.F.A. which requires 49. Therefore the B.A. is more a traditional liberal arts degree allowing students to pursue a double major with other more traditional undergraduate degrees, for example Visual Art/Psychology; Visual Art/Chemistry; Visual Art/Museum Studies.
6. California College of the Arts , USA
California College of the Arts is one of the oldest and most well-known Jewelry and Metal Art Programs. The program allows student to learn the foundation of traditional and contemporary metalsmithing techniques. Moreover, the school enables students to learn emphasizing skilled craftsmanship, conceptual rigor, design, and aesthetics. Students are engaged to discover their artistic expression and encourage personal voice through the invention of jewelry, and well-designed objects.
7. San Diego State University, USA
San Diego State University is a famous public institution located in California, USA. This school offers more than 300 international design education programs. School of Art of SDSU offers a Bachelor of Arts specializing in jewelry and metalwork. The program engages student with the knowledge of metals, through researching issues in the fields of art and design. Outstanding students will have the opportunity to participate in a foreign exchange program in order to share experience in the field of their studies.
8. China Academy of Art
The Jewelry major in China Academy of Art was established since 2004. This school offers students a four year Bachelor program plus a three years Masters in the field of jewelry design. There are numerous laboratories of sculpture, glass, ceramics, and handcrafts in the jewelry studio. Through a challenging program, students are encouraged to think individually, master the basic design method and create their own unique pieces of jewelry.
9. Edinburugh College of Art
Edinburgh College of Art ‘ECA’ is considered one of the strongest international standing and most successful art colleges. This school offers programs at both undergraduate and postgraduate level in the field of jewelry design. ECA is known for its successful awards for its creativity and the system of education. Its staff engage with the students and balance innovation with old and new methodologies for traditional craft techniques.
10. Estonian Academy of Art
Estonian Academy of Arts offers the curriculum of jewelry and blacksmithing includes also artist’s project with an aim of developing creative ideas in students. The school enables students to strengthen their own ability under instruction of acknowledged professors. In the department of Design, students are allowed to broaden their skills and knowledge about the jewelry design. However, in the curriculum of jewelry encourages students to have a creative skill and be professional on the design materials.
fantastic usage of language in the post, it in fact did help
when i was reading
please announce some of the best jewelry design schools in (Vienna
Austria) that have Practical training
I went to San Diego State for jewelry / metalsmithing, it was (and is) lousy. if you’re looking for jewelry programs, try FIT, or in studio jewelry try Cranbrook or New Paltz – SDSU is a bad joke
I find this to be a very un-serious article. What were the criteria for choosing these jewelry design schools as the best in the world? A list like this which does not include the Jewelry program at the Academy of Arts in Munich, the Escola Massana in Barcelona or Alchimia in Florence has just not been thoroughly researched.
Yes and try to have a look at BA Jewellery, Technology and Business at KEA in Copenhagen, Denmark.
It is the only education that has all the 3 fields of the jewellery industry incorporated. This is design, technology and business.
This program has projects in cooperation with businesses over the whole world, 20 week internship and the students understand the whole process from idea to selling the product.
The eighth is wrong, it should be the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. These two school names are so often confused, China Central Academy of Fine Arts is China’s best art academy, and in 2004 set up jewelry design, China Academy of Fine Arts is not
The most famous jewelry design school in the world has been left out… One of the oldest and most connected design schools. BJO is the name of the school, it’s in central Paris. It also has all three parts of jewelry design (not just Copenhagen has this). All of the students end up with immediate jobs with Place Vendôme level houses. I’m surprised this school has been left out as it is in direct connection with billion-dollar businesses and has one of the best world-wide reputations.
What about German Jewelry Design Schools – most of the teaching methodology was incubated right there
Hi everybody 🙂 I’m relatively new to 3d printing and I have a lot of questions on the matter, so I hope you will not get mad at me for asking here at least a few of them. I think even before I’ll get seriously into designing and sculpting I should focus on the software I’m going to use, and that’s what I’d like to ask you about. Mainly, should I look for the most crudest CAD there is or would it be better to look for something more complex? I’m worried that I’ll get some unwanted quirks while working on less complex software. Currently I’m trying out some online software called SelfCAD (I didn’t have to download anything). I’ve read some good opinions about it, but maybe you could share yours as well? The second question is about the CAD software as well: should I search for software that would allow me design and slice it in it, or should I use a separate software for each? The one I’m suing allows me to do both i it. Does it even make a difference? Surprisingly, I couldn’t find the answer to that, as it seems like most articles want to focus on the very basics (like what is 3d printing and so on), and while the answers to those questions are fine, it seems like no one wants to go into the details (it looks like some of them even plagiarise each other! I swear I’ve read the same answers to the same questions on at least 3 different sites) but I’m getting off-topic… The last question is about 3d pens. Would it be possible to somehow convert whatever I draw with a 3d pen to a 3d model in a software? For example, if I’ll draw a horse with 3d pen, would it be possible to get its design in a software? I’m not sure how that would even work, but the very idea sounds appealing to me. Anyway, I think I’ll stop here just in case no one will answer me and all of this writing will go to waste. I’m sorry that I’m using your content to ask questions, but I hope you can relate and advice a beginner like me. Anyway, thank you for posting. I did learn something from this and that’s always appreciated. Thank you, and I hope to hear back from you very soon 🙂
Is there any PhD in jewerly design offered at some college?