Jewelry Making & Repair Curriculum

Jewelry fabrication and stone setting requires exceptional hand skills, focus, and a thorough understanding of materials. Throughout your studies, you’ll continuously challenge yourself and fine-tune your skills. You’ll create and repair jewelry of lasting value using traditional techniques and modern technology.

You’ll work on increasingly complex projects to develop proficiency in:

  • Using a full range of jeweler’s hand-tools
  • Identification of metals and stones
  • Metal forming techniques
  • Polishing, soldering, and engraving
  • Laser welding
  • Silver, gold, and platinum fabrication
  • Wax model making
  • Jewelry repair
  • Advanced jewelry construction
  • Stone setting

The program prepares graduates for work in a retail store or trade shop. Graduates of the program are trained to construct jewelry from gold, platinum, and silver, set stones, and finish to a professional standard.

They are prepared to undertake the repair of jewelry and to restore pieces to their original appearance. Once in the field, graduates continue to develop expertise and gain experience in the more refined aspects of the trade.

In addition to the Career Training program, we offer a number of jewelry making courses through our Community Education Department. View all courses.

Using hand tools, students perform all basic metal forming and soldering techniques to make and finish several pieces of jewelry in copper, silver and gold to a professional standard.

  • Design: layout, tracing and design transfer
  • Measuring: ruler, millimeter gauge, B+S gauge, calipers
  • Sawing: blade sizes, proper technique
  • Piercing: use of drill press
  • Filing: types of files, proper technique
  • Shaping: use of pliers, bending, forming, forging, chasing, dapping, draw plates, rolling mill
  • Torch fundamentals
    • Annealing – silver and gold
    • Solders and soldering
  • Engraving: types of gravers and their uses; use of grinding machine. Preparation and sharpening of gravers
  • Finishing
    • Use of emery and other abrasive papers;
    • Abrasives for flexible shaft tool;
    • Compounds and buffs for buffing machines
    • Use of ultrasonic and steamer
  • Characteristics of Precious Metals
    • Melting and pouring ingots for rolling sheet metal and drawing wire

Using common techniques and design features, students fabricate custom-made jewelry from sheet and wire to a professional standard.

On customer jewelry or projects provided, students use appropriate tools and techniques to perform repair tasks encountered in the jewelry trade.

Using available manufactured heads or constructing an appropriate setting, students set various shaped gemstones in precious metals to a professional standard.

  1. Stone identification
  2. Properties and handling of stones
  3. Prong and bezel setting of round and fancy shaped stones, flush and bead setting
  4. Re-tipping and re-pronging
  5. Construction methods for heads
  6. Assembling heads and shanks

Students fabricate jewelry from platinum.

Using simple designs, students make two wax models suitable for casting and finish to a professional standard.

Semester 1

  • Tool making and modifying
  • Sawing and filing exercises
  • Stone setting tools
  • Soldering exercises
  • Flat and half round bands
  • Link chain
  • Twisted wire ring with flat sides
  • Split shank cabochon ring

Semester 2

  • Engraving exercises
  • Domed cabochon earrings
  • Forged cuff and bangle bracelets
  • CAD
  • Repair

Semester 3

  • Hinged bracelet
  • Pattern ring
  • Stone setting: basic rounds, continued
  • Stone setting: advanced rounds
  • Stone setting: ovals
  • Stone setting: pears
  • Repair
  • Wax carving

Semester 4

  • CAD
  • Cylinder clasp
  • Fine silver chain
  • Precious metals unit: gold, platinum, and palladium
  • Stone setting: marquise
  • Stone setting: trillion, emerald, baguette, and princess
  • Repair
  • These project/advanced topics

The curriculum each year includes guest speakers who provide hands-on lectures and demonstrations. Past speakers have included:

  • CAD with Ilah Cibis JM ’05
  • Machining and XRF technology with Chris Ploof
  • Damascus special projects with Marei Dose JM ’18
  • Wax carving with various guests
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Questions?

Contact Rob O’Dwyer, Director of Admissions, at 617-227-0155 x111 or admissions@nbss.edu.