BFAJewelry & Metal Arts
Overview
Learn how to make jewelry at a top art college
Studios and 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
Additional shops and studios
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.
Aaron Gach, Co-Chair Jewelry and Metal Arts
Inspired by studies with a private investigator, magician, and ninja, Aaron Gach co-founded the Center for Tactical Magic in 2000, blending art, magic, and creative tactics for social change. His work has been presented by SFMOMA, MASS MoCA, Hayward Gallery, Creative Time, and beyond, and in publications such as The New York Times and Frieze. A longtime CCA faculty member, he is interim co-chair of Interdisciplinary 3D Fine Arts.
Katherine Lam, Co-Chair Jewelry and Metal Arts
Co-Chair Katherine Lam is an independent designer/builder whose practice spans over 20 years engaging with furniture and the handmade object, with a focus on design and production. After graduating from CCA’s Wood/Furniture program in 1998, Lam began their career as a furniture maker, moved into the design world as a creative and administrator, and recently expanded into creative practice with land-based works in the high desert of New Mexico. As a second-generation American of Chinese and Japanese descent, Lam explores the connection between identity, craft, and the handmade object and describes their engagement with furniture and objects as a lifelong reconstruction of familial histories lost in diasporic journeys.
Faculty stories
Crafting sustainability within jewelry and metal arts
The CCA community of jewelers and metalsmiths are at the forefront of pushing their industry forward to a more ethical and responsible future.
CCA faculty lead their fields and earn top honors and fellowships
Recent faculty accolades include Artadia Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices Award, and the CAA’s Distinguished Teaching of Art Award, among many others.
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.
BFAJewelry & Metal Arts
Foundational Curriculum
- Drawing Studio
- 3.0 units
- 2D Studio
- 3.0 units
- 3D Studio
- 3.0 units
- 4D Studio
- 3.0 units
- Introduction to the Arts
- 3.0 units
- Introduction to the Modern Arts
- 3.0 units
- Writing 1
- 3.0 units
- Writing 2
- 3.0 units
- Foundations in Critical Studies
- 3.0 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
- Media History: Jewelry & Metal Arts
- 3.0 units
- Digital Tools: 3D
- 3.0 units
- Contemporary Issues in Craft Theory
- 3.0 units
- Special Techniques
- 6.0 units
- Junior Review
- 0.0 units
- Senior Project
- 6.0 units
- Interdisciplinary Critique
- 3.0 units
- Studio Electives
- 15.0 units
Collegewide Curriculum
- Critical Ethnic Studies Studio
- 3.0 units
- Upper Division Interdisciplinary Studio
- 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 (2000/3000 level)
- 6.0 units
- Humanities and Sciences Electives (3000 level)
- 6.0 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.
Success stories
Galen Boone
Galen Boone
Galen Boone shares how the Individualized Studies curriculum formed her practice, which CCA faculty had the biggest impact, and what life has been like after graduation.
Elena Calabrese
Elena Calabrese
Elena Calabrese (BFA Jewelry & Metal Arts 1995) pivoted creative lanes from accessory design to interior design, and founded her successful studio Elena Calabrese Design & Decor based in Sausalito, CA.
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