Overview

The Jewellery Student

This blog is a unit outline for high school students attempting their first Jewellery and Silversmithing project.  The unit lasts one school term and is assessed against the Australian Curriculum for Design Technology at levels 8,9 and 10. 

The Design Brief

The Design Process

Timeline

Contemporary Australian Jewellers

10 Step Checklist

Production Plan

Evaluation

Photo Submissions

Assessment

The Design Brief

Each design brief set in Design Technology has a set of rules outlined by the client. 

For this unit the guide is thus:

You are a jewellery designer who specialises in metal, and you have a new client. Your client is celebrating a special moment in their lives and wants to commemorate it with a unique hand made piece of jewellery that represents something personal to them. The client has requested that the piece of jewellery be carefully designed and made by hand.

As you can see, the guidelines are very specific with some concerns, but very open ended with others. As a designer, it is important to first deconstruct the above statement to ensure that your design options are what the client needs.

To do this,

Please write the Design Brief into your Design Folios and highlight the instructions you MUST follow, then underline the requests that you can make your own design decisions for.

Once you have established what decision you are able to make, you must analyse the limitations and parameters of the client's request to ensure that your design decisions are in line with what the client needs. To do this you must establish the design parameters and limitations.

A parameter is the theoretical outline that the design must follow- (think about what's culturally appropriate for your client)

A limitation if the physical limit of the design- (think about the weight and expense of your design)

Please answer the following questions in sentence form in your design folio:

What are the parameters?

What are the limitations?

What rules must be followed?

What has been left up to the choice of the designer?

You may want to check your answers against the criteria sheet:
Assessment

The Design Process

Investigating and defining 

You will need to write an extended paragraph including the answers to the following questions:

Who is your client? 
(give some background)

What context are they going to wear your product? 
(be as specific as possible)

How does the context affect your design?

What are the limitations of your design?
(think size, weight, cost etc)

What isn’t appropriate for the client for personal reasons? 
(think political, religious or cultural reasons)

How are the limitations of the materials going to affect your design?

Now you have thought of all the answers to these questions- complete a range of design options that are appropriate for the client.

Timeline

Here is your timeline:

You have 12 weeks in a term in order to complete this project start to finish.

Red coloured items are assessed 

Blue coloured items are homework requirements

Week 1

• Introduction to the workshop
• Introduction to the safety rules 
• Introduction to some basic jewellery processes including: soldering, sawing and drilling

• Introduction to assessment requirements 
• Introduction to the design process
• Study for your safety test

Week 2

• Safety test 
• Learn use and rules of guillotine, practice sawing, filing and soldering
• Learn how to work out your ring size
• Create your own ring

• Begin decoding the client's requirements
• Begin brainstorming design options
• Finish 10 design options for your client

Week 3

• Learn finishing processes- filing, sanding, polishing
• Finish ring for submission

• Choose 3 design options and refine them using problem solving skills 
• Research other contemporary artist jewellers (using the research link in this blog) 

Week 4

• Begin experimentation on processes for your design
• Learn other relevant jewellery processes- enameling, riveting, jump ring making
• Finish Production Plan
• Document all experimentations in your Design Folio
• Submit Production Plan

Week 5

• Create a mock-up of your design in a non-precious metal
• Submit your research task on a contemporary jeweller

Week 6-10

• Work independently on your design according to your production plan
• Regularly ask questions of your teacher to ensure you are on track
• Remember to always follow safety rules!
• You may submit your design folio for feedback as often as you wish 
• You are continually assessed on your attention to safety in the workshop

Week 11

• File, sand, polish! 
• Finish your Design folio 
• Submit your product

Week 12

• Write your Evaluation
• Submit your Evaluation
• Submit your Design Folio

Contemporary Australian Jewellers

For this project, you are taking on the role of the contemporary Australian jewellery designer/maker.

Because of this, it is important to see what other contemporary makers in Australia are doing, so that you can be sure your designs are both up to a good standard, and reflecting a contemporary market.

Your designs will be positively influenced by researching other designers

What I don't want to see is influences from commercial, mass produced pieces (such as tiffany or pandora).

Here are some links to a range of contemporary Australian Jewellers 

These websites are jewellers who specialise in hand made jewellery. Each website has a number of jewellers. If you find a jeweller you particularly like, please Google their name to then find their own website and their other work. (Good research practices).

http://www.incube8r.com.au/

http://www.artisan.org.au/shop/catalog/jewellery

http://egetal.com.au/

http://www.studioingot.com.au/

http://kitandcaboodle.com.au/

http://kitandcaboodle.ning.com/

ALWAYS make sure you reference your images and ideas-write down the website and the name of the artist next to the images you use.

Requirements for your Design Folio

Here are the 10 steps to making a successful product in Jewellery
Each of these steps need to be documented in your Design Folio

Please label each of the steps in your design folio as they contribute to your assessment.

Step 1: Learn and record all of the safety requirements to make your product.

Step 2: Master the metal techniques required by creating a number of test pieces that includes all of the following processes:

sawing, drilling, piercing, roll printing, soldering or riveting, filing, sanding and polishing

(Record each of these in your Design Folio with annotations).

Step 3: Investigate the client.

you will need to:

•      Identify the client’s needs
•      Identify the context that the product will be worn
•      Identify the limitations of the materials AND the limitations of the design

Step 4: Create a range of preliminary designs. A minimum of 10 small designs are required for a pass grade (with more designs, and creative or intricate designs awarded extra marks).

Step 5: Evaluate your designs to make decisions on which elements best suit the client, and which are achievable in the allowed time period. You will need to write a paragraph defending your decision.

Step 6: Create a 1:1 Scale Drawing of your product. It must be accurately drawn (I would recommend using rulers and compasses).

Step 7: Create a Production Plan that identifies all the processes you will use and the order you will use them in.

Step 8: Make your design out of metal following your Production Plan.

(Ensure that all correct safety practices are being followed).

Step 9: Evaluate your work using a Written Evaluation.

Step 10: Finish your design to a high standard (including sanding and polishing) and submit it to the client for approval.