Beginning Southwest Silversmithing/Mementos with Jamie Halpern & Katrina Jameson – G24030501
For as long as humans have been honoring their loved ones and significant life events, they have been making and wearing jewelry to honor and remember. Jewelry can take the form of a simple ring, bracelet or pendant with a person’s name and date of birth or death, or it can be more elaborate with precious or semi-precious stones, perhaps incorporating personal elements, items from other jewelry, or repurposed objects of significance.
This class will teach basic and advanced silversmithing skills and their application in the making of mementos to honor significant people and life events. Participants will experience hands-on work in jewelry fabrication (sawing, soldering, cold-connections), stone setting, and lapidary in the construction of wearable and/or decorative pieces of art that have personal significance. Materials will include sterling silver (available for purchase in class) and semi-precious stones, and personal objects brought by class participants. Class participants will leave with finished pieces of jewelry art to wear or give to loved ones to help remember and celebrate important life events.
Ghost Ranch is a place of beauty and serenity that nurtures the creative spirit and promotes reflection. The fully-equipped Ghost Ranch jewelry studio provides an opportunity to learn the skills and techniques of silver jewelry-making in an awe-inspiring location with a long history in the creative arts.
The studio is equipped with all the needed tools, supplies and equipment. Students may bring their own hand-tools, stones and silver supplies if wished. Students are encouraged to bring personal items that they may wish to incorporate or repurpose into new jewelry pieces. Silver used in class projects may be purchased from the Ghost Ranch silversmith studio at market prices. Please note that the cost of silver used in class projects is NOT included in the class fee and will likely cost between $75 – $300 for the week. All other supplies and materials are included as part of class fees.
Interested persons are encouraged to contact Ghost Ranch and the class instructor for more information.
Instructors
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Jamie Halpern
Jamie Halpern is an accomplished silversmith, lapidary artist and metalsmith instructor. His work reflects southwestern art and jewelry-making styles and is influenced by travels throughout the United States, the South Pacific and Europe. Working with silver and colorful semi-precious stones through metal fabrication and inlay, and through his teachings with beginning and advanced jewelry students and artists, Jamie celebrates creativity and personal exploration and nurtures artistic expression. His jewelry is sold through private commissions. He has taught silversmithing and lapidary art at Ghost Ranch for a number of years to rave reviews and testaments to how professional pieces can be crafted with focused time. Examples of Jamie’s work can be found at: Jehalpernjewelry.com.
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Katrina Jameson
Katrina has always loved art. As a child, she learned to draw and paint from her parents and grandparents. In college she studied pottery and airbrush painting. She worked for six summers as a camp counselor at a Girl Scout Camp in New Mexico where she taught tie dye, batik, screen printing, pottery and jewelry making.
Looking for a new creative outlet, Katrina attended the Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico class “Fused Glass is Hot!” with Olive Smith in 2009, 2010 and part of Family Camp in 2011 and 2012. She fell in love with glass as an art medium and set up her ceramic kiln to fuse glass. She creates one of a kind jewelry with fusible art glass, recycled window glass and dichroic glass with unique inclusions. She has taken advanced fused glass classes from internationally known instructors such as Tanja Veit, David Alcala, Gil Reynolds, Peggy Pettigrew Stewart, Dennis Brady and Kent Lauer. Her hobby turned into Mariposa Treasures, LLC in September 2011. She continues to grow her jewelry making technique with silversmithing classes at Ghost Ranch, Four Corners Gem and Mineral Club, and Durango Art Center’s TOP Jewels classes with Tim McCreight and Deb Karash.