This term’s Jewellery Masterclasses have dazzled our students! Hosted online by Survalienne jewellery designer Amalia Lopez (1996, Mexico), new talents and fabulous creativity have sparked in our girls as they mastered the intricacies of crafting bracelets, necklaces, earrings and even rings. Amalia shares her experience with us below:
We’ve had our Jewellery Workshop over the last two weeks, and although this year it was an online course, it was still amazing!
With great expectation and anticipation, I planned the classes; working out a way to adapt the course from normal, presenting online, hoping that I would be able to teach all the techniques and most important of all, inspire and communicate the beauty in design.
Preparation began weeks before, with the great Dagmar and Danica at Surval helping me unpack all the materials, organise them, and then themselves learning the techniques beforehand in a mini-crash course we had together so they could assist the groups in person.
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The day came when I saw all the girls enter the Art Room... ohhh how I wish I could be there with them! I missed seeing their faces like I do every year when they spot all the coloured materials on the table and say: “It’s like we are at a store and we can have anything we like”
This year, I felt their excitement! They loved the materials, were attentive and concentrated, and after each jewellery technique was explained, they were having fun! That was so important for me, that they enjoyed the experience. The girls created bracelets, necklaces, earrings, hoops, all in different designs and colours.
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My biggest surprise was the day when the girls started showing me all the jewellery they had made, including rings! I had not taught them how to make rings; They figured it out themselves. That is the best feedback, the best reward, as a teacher. When creativity flows in such a way that your students can create their own jewels, combining techniques and just experimenting with colours, materials and their imagination, that is just the best design experience. This course also taught us that creativity is stronger and transcends any social distancing.
Swiss Gap student Faith (Botswana) remarked:
“I didn’t realise I would be good at jewellery making.. like making earrings and bracelets! The jewellery workshops awakened my creative skills and my desire to see other ways to make things beautiful!”