BFAJewelry & Metal Arts
Create original jewelry, functional objects, and sculpture that bring your personal views and interests to life.
Overview
Learn how to make jewelry at a top art college
The Jewelry and Metal Arts program, founded in 1912, is one of the oldest and most recognized in the field. You’ll explore a variety of processes for jewelry making and design through courses taught by nationally and internationally renowned faculty. Our location in the Bay Area gives us instant access to world-class museums and galleries, a large metalsmithing community, and materials suppliers.
Blend the traditional and cutting-edge
With faculty guidance, you’ll use rapid prototyping equipment, including 3D printers, jewelry welders, and laser cutters to create innovative designs. Blending craft-based processes with cutting-edge technology helps you develop a unique aesthetic approach that’s compelling and original. You’ll also expand your ways of thinking and making during internships with professional Bay Area metal artists.
Studios & Shops
Make jewelry, holloware, and sculpture
The main Jewelry and Metal Arts studio has three main work areas that include professional jeweler’s benches and a breadth of jewelry tools. We cover the full range of techniques to help you master metalsmithing, contemporary jewelry design, sculpture, and installations:
- Soldering
- Cold connections
- Forging
- Casting
- Enameling
- Stone-setting
- Hinges and mechanisms
- Production methods
- Holloware
- Patination
Examining metal as a creative medium
You’ll examine metal through basic metalworking techniques, including filing, sawing and piercing, soldering, and forming. Then you’ll build upon these skills while studying the history of the metalsmithing field and other fine arts practices. Your goal is to lay the groundwork for your own original concepts.
Our curriculum challenges you to develop your techniques even further by emphasizing fabrication, concepts, and narrative. You’ll begin to create personally expressive work that engages with contemporary discourse. Opportunities to use traditional and contemporary techniques help you visualize and experiment with interesting dichotomies.
Project-based work and special techniques
As you develop a cohesive body of work for your senior solo show, you’ll take project-based courses that challenge you to conceptualize and create quickly. Themes, such as specific art history movements and personal narratives, help you find new sources of inspiration. You’ll have the opportunity to take four special technique courses in casting, enameling, production, and holloware to explore these skills in-depth.
Learn the tools of the trade
- Rolling mill
- Anvils, stakes, and hammers
- Centrifugal and vacuum casting equipment
- Sandblaster
- Bandsaw
- Annealing torch
- Polishing, grinding, and etching tools
- Enameling kilns
- Shears and other hand tools
- Hydraulic press
- Pulse arc welder
- Resin 3D printer
Faculty
Study with acclaimed professional artists
Our faculty are nationally and internationally recognized artists in jewelry, sculpture, metal arts, architectural detailing, large-scale public art, and installations. They work one-on-one with students to build their conceptual and technical skills while helping them bridge the gap between the program and other fine arts and design disciplines at CCA.
Curtis Arima, Chair of Jewelry and Metal Arts
Curtis Hidemasa Nickerson Arima is a metalsmith, jeweler, and fine artist who is drawn to the transformative nature of materials and the memory, emotion, and history that objects can hold. He earned a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy. His jewelry and sculpture has been exhibited and published nationally and internationally. He has lectured and taught workshops in the U.S., Japan, and China.
He is also on the Board of Directors of the Ethical Metalsmiths and part of their Education Committee. As a professor and chair of the Jewelry & Metal Arts, Ceramics, Sculpture, Textiles, and Individualized Studies programs at California College of the Arts, he enjoys mentoring students to find their artistic identity and connection to more sustainable practices.
His publications include Metalsmith Magazine, Sculpture Magazine, Lapidary Journal, the Lark’s 500 series books, and New Brooches. His museum exhibitions include: Fuller Craft Museum (Brockton, MA), Metal Museum (Nashville, TN), Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (Houston, TX), Ohio Craft Museum, (Columbus, OH), and New York City Jewelry Week.
Curriculum
We think with our hands
Push materials in new directions
Jewelry & Metal Arts at CCA has offered metal arts courses for more than a century, emphasizing skilled craftsmanship, metal arts history, conceptual rigor, and craft theory. Courses explore fabrication techniques to create a range of refined metal works, including wearable art and experimental sculpture, and build a strong foundation of metalsmithing techniques through the study of traditional and contemporary approaches. View sample courses.
Investigate ideas through every dimension
Before diving into their chosen major, every undergraduate participates in the First Year Experience. Students explore a wide range of materials and tools over the course of two semesters. Faculty from different disciplines guide studio projects, group critiques, and theoretical discussions, setting students up for success throughout their major coursework.
BFA Jewelry & Metal Arts
Core Studio
- Drawing 1
- 3.0 units
- 2D, 3D, and 4D
- 9.0 units
Jewelry & Metal Arts Major Requirements
- Jewelry and Metal Arts 1
- 3.0 units
- Jewelry and Metal Arts 2A
- 3.0 units
- Jewelry and Metal Arts 2B
- 3.0 units
- Jewelry and Metal Arts 3A
- 3.0 units
- Jewelry and Metal Arts 3B
- 3.0 units
- Craft Workshop
- 3.0 units
- Digital Tools: 3D
- 3.0 units
- Contemporary Issues in Craft Theory
- 3.0 units
- Special Techniques
- 6.0 units
- Senior Project
- 6.0 units
Additional Studio Requirements
- Interdisciplinary Critique
- 3.0 units
- Upper Division Interdisciplinary Studio
- 3.0 units
- Critical Ethnic Studies Studio
- 3.0 units
- Studio Electives
- 15.0 units
Humanities & Sciences Requirements
- Writing 1
- 3.0 units
- Writing 2
- 3.0 units
- Introduction to the Arts
- 3.0 units
- Introduction to the Modern Arts
- 3.0 units
- Foundation in Critical Studies
- 3.0 units
- Media History
- 3.0 units
- Critical Ethnic Studies Seminar (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Literary and Performing Arts Studies (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Philosophy and Critical Theory (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Social Science/History (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Science/Math (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- History of Art and Visual Culture (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Humanities and Sciences Electives (2000 or 3000 level, at least 6 units must be 3000 level)
- 12.0 units
Total 120.0 units
Careers
Forge your future in metal arts
Our alumni start their own businesses, teach at fine arts colleges, exhibit their work in museums and galleries, are accepted into artist residencies, and attend leading graduate programs, where they continue to collaborate with other metalsmiths and artists.
Their interdisciplinary approach to form makes them extremely competitive for national awards. Recently, four of our alumni received prestigious Windgate Fellowships for exemplary skill in craft. Another recent alum won the SECA award and a solo show at SFMOMA. Wherever they are in their careers, our students continue to create ambitious work that pushes the boundaries of metal arts.
Potential career paths
- Educator
- Fine artist working with galleries and museums
- Production studio artist working with wholesale shows and shops
- Designer for wholesale manufacturing
- Sales expert in a jewelry shop or art gallery
- Fine artist in custom jewelry and objects
- Arts writer/critic
- Gallery owner
News & Events
What’s happening in our community?
How to Apply
Create a range of metal works
Our applicants are often just as excited about research as they are about making objects. Some want to make wearable objects and fine jewelry, while others want to blur the lines between design, craft, and fine art. We look for promising artists who want to dedicate time and space to rewarding craftsmanship.
Find your creative community at CCA
