Introduces hands-on techniques and conceptual topics associated
with the creation of jewelry and objects. Emphasizes the
connection to traditional and contemporary craft and art
practices/movements and frames these within the arena of current
and historical material culture.
Athena Title
Intro Jewelry and Metals
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will understand the connection to traditional and contemporary craft and art practices/movements and will be able to frame these within the arena of current and historical material culture.
Assignments, lectures, and demonstrations will enable students to take responsibility not only for what they learn, but also how they learn while also stimulating interest and encouraging curiosity.
Students will learn hands-on techniques and conceptual topics associated with the creation of jewelry and objects.
Students will understand the historical, technical, and contemporary aspects of the art of jewelry, metalwork, and related material concepts.
Students will develop skills to critically evaluate works created in metal.
Students will engage other students' work with dialogue that is stylistically appropriate and mature.
During critiques, students will learn to communicate for academic and professional contexts, supporting a consistent purpose and point of view while considering and engaging opposing points of view.
Students will learn to analytically translate inferences within each work being discussed, developing subtleties of symbolic and indirect discourse.
Students will actively engage 2D- and 3D-design skills, processes, appreciation for jewelry, metalwork and related material topics, and the ability to use the body as a means of self-expression with the potential to explore rhetorical, ethical, and systematic methods of inquiry.
Topical Outline
This course will address contemporary/historical material culture, emphasizing concepts and ideas within the arena of jewelry and objects with relation to art/craft-based practices.
Lectures and in-class discussions will engage critical discourse revolving around topics such as material culture, the body, and objecthood.
This course will introduce a wide range of practitioners and modes of visual dialogue spanning from the fine arts, crafts, design, and new media.
In class exercises include those which introduce jewelry and metalwork hand tools, equipment, and safety while also employing the use of 2D- and 3D-design layout, material manipulation, translation, and meaning.
Students are provided with all tools/equipment necessary for this course and are encouraged to blend the experiential course content with digital applications such as Adobe Suite and CAD/CAM software.
General Education Core
CORE IV: Humanities and the Arts
Institutional Competencies
Creativity & Innovation
The capacity to combine or synthesize existing ideas, images, or expertise in original ways and the experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative way characterized by innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
