Approaching Beading and Jewelry Making As Architects

It’s a strongly held belief of mine that Beaders and Jewelry Designers should be taught and learn and practice as if they were Architects.

Beaders and Jewelry Designers and Architects impose shape, light, shadow, aesthetics and function onto an otherwise empty space. The scale might be different, and the purposes might vary, but they all do the same thing, requiring the same kinds of thinking and insights.

The knowledge base and insights required are many. Beaders and Jewelry Designers need to understand the consequences which result from their selection of materials. They need to know what works and doesn’t work when specific techniques and processes of construction are implemented.

They also need to recognize, given any design goal, how these kinds of choices enhance or impede movement, drape, flow, and durability. As well, they need to be aware how these choices affect the creation and retention of shapes and forms. The need to understand the roles of stresses and strains on the continued success of jewelry over time. Last they need to be capable in making choices about aesthetics and function, fully comfortable with the tradeoffs one must make before one completes the finished piece.

I like my students to be fully aware how they physically build a piece of jewelry. Structurally so it holds a shape. Mechanically so it moves, drapes and flows as intended. Functionally so that it withstands the tests of stress, strain, time and place…