Transforming your creative vision into a piece of jewellery can be exciting. For jewellery designers, inspiration is only the beginning. This course will explore how to transform inspiration into the concept for a piece of jewellery by delving into the jewellery design process. Looking at the basics of this process, you can learn how to break down and understand sources of inspiration and use your inspiration constructively to drive the design process. Through a series of visual examples and exercises, you will develop drawing skills to progress your ideas through sketching and design development into jewellery designs.

Techniques will be learnt to communicate your ideas with others through an introduction to technical drawing and jewellery illustration. Technical drawing skills assist in planning how to make jewellery pieces accurately, whether you are making them yourself or communicating with a manufacturer or CAD designer. Jewellery illustration, also known as jewellery rendering, is a way of presenting jewellery designs formally.

You will be introduced to a jewellery illustration technique using coloured pencil and highlighted with white watercolour and gouache. You will leave with ideas to progress into a fully realised colour illustration of your own jewel that you can continue to progress by using coloured pencils and white paint in your own time, putting into practice the techniques you have developed during the course.

At the end of the course, there will be an informal presentation and discussion about your inspirations for the jewellery piece. Throughout the sessions, you will be looking at examples of jewellery illustration through the ages from archives both here in the UK and Europe and from practising contemporary jewellery designers.

You will explore:

• How to use visual research and other non-visual influences to provide a foundation for designing jewels
• How to progress concepts and ideas into designs through sketchbook work and design development

You will be introduced to drawing techniques:

• To explore shading light and form
• To accurately draw jewellery to scale (technical drawings)
• To illustrate jewellery using coloured pencils, and introduce the use of paints in jewellery illustration through white watercolour and gouache paint
• To illustrate a selection of metal surfaces and gemstone shapes and types

Included

On this course, the College will supply some of the materials, including white paper, grey paper, tracing paper and graph paper, two fine paintbrushes and a set of coloured pencils per student, and some white gouache paint, white watercolour paint and masking tape to share amongst the group.

What students need to bring

• Your sketchbook for taking notes and for drawing out ideas
• Retractable pencil with a 0.3mm, preferably H, lead or a mechanical pencil, 2mm H lead
• Rubber/eraser (preferably handheld retractable)
• Hole guide (this is a plastic template with lots of different circles cut out)
• Sharpener for 2mm mechanical pencil or some sandpaper (your tutor will explain the technique to save using up your pencils)
• Paper smudge stick
• Graphite pencils in HB, B, 2B, 3B
• Sharpener (regular) for coloured pencils and graphite pencils
• Printouts of images you are inspired by or magazine clippings. You are required to arrive with a good selection and variety of images. These can be magazine cutouts or printouts of images. If cut from magazines – try to bring the whole page or a square/rectangular clipping (not outline cuttings like you would use for a collage).

Optional (you might also find these useful but they are not essential):

• Fineliner pens (pigment liner) in 0.1 and 0.05
• Templates with ovals, other shapes and ellipses
• A small shapes template (plastic template with different geometric shapes cut out – circle, square, triangle, etc. - found in most art shops or online, usually for architects or engineers)
• Curve templates – static or flexible

Additional information

Please wear appropriate clothing/aprons for the workshop or studio, this includes stout covered footwear (no sandals or open toes).

Daily Timetable

Course teaching: 11am–5.15pm
Students arrive: 10.30am-11am (coffee optional)  
Morning teaching: 11am-1pm
Lunch break: 1pm-2pm (lunch is not included)
Afternoon teaching: 2pm-5.15pm (15 minute break, 3.30pm–3.45pm)
Teaching finishes: 5.15pm  
 

Short courses are open to anyone aged 18 and over. The course fee covers tuition and materials where stated. You will need to bring all other items listed under the ‘Materials to bring’ section.

Refreshments

Coffee and tea are included in the course fee, but you will need to bring lunch with you to eat in the refreshments room. There are also plenty of other local venues to purchase food.

Access

If you have any specific access needs, we will need to know about your access requirements in advance. Please tell us about your needs in confidence by emailing: [email protected] This venue has steps to the front reception, with limited access via a side gate to the ground floor. There is a small lift to higher floors or stairs.

Safety

Short course students are required to sign a safety compliance form as part of West Dean Health and Safety regulations.

Refunds and cancellations

Please refer to our terms & conditions below.

Disclaimer

The information given is accurate at the time of publication. However, West Dean College reserves the right to cancel or amend courses if circumstances require.

Terms & Conditions