KEY POINTS:
THE QUALIFICATION
What: Certificate in Jewellery, level 4; Diploma in Jewellery, level 6
Where: Hungry Creek Art and Craft School, Puhoi
Cost: $4709 (one year certificate level 4); $13,720 (three-year diploma level 6)
Contact: see link below
Phone: 09 422 0752
THE COURSE
The emphasis is on the practical in the jewellery courses offered by the Hungry Creek Art and Craft School in Puhoi, north of Auckland.
Students spend most of their time in the jewellery workshop learning traditional and contemporary jewellery making and design skills. They are encouraged to work with a variety of materials and experiment with designs and concepts.
The NZQA-approved level 4 Certificate in Jewellery is a one year course, which can lead into the level 6 Diploma in Jewellery, involving a total of three years study. An Art and Craft Diploma can also follow as can degree programmes in art or jewellery.
Students can study full and part time, structured study taking 16 hours a week and individual study up to 10 hours a week in the full time course. Part time hours vary depending on the study programme.
Students study jewellery making techniques, computer aided design for jewellery making, designing, drawing, and the correct and safe use of equipment in the jewellery workshop
They also study art and design theory and history, jewellery technology, including the theoretical aspects of materials and processes, and jewellery workshop health and safety.
Class work and projects are assessed internally with external moderation at the completion of each year's study. Students may have work experience placements in their third and fourth years of study.
Places on the course are limited to 15 and the deadline for applications for this year's course is the end of February.
Applicants need to show evidence of artistic ability such as drawings, paintings, jewellery or any other art or craft work and have a commitment to study.
The Certificate in Jewellery costs $4709, year two of the Diploma in Jewellery is $4503, and the third year $4508.
Graduates can expect to earn $18 an hour and be self-employed or work for an established jeweller.
THE STUDENT
LAUREN HAYNES
Contemporary jeweller
Graduated 2006
I travelled internationally for a few years and the paua and bead jewellery I made sold quite well in London and Sydney. I made enough money to keep on travelling. I thought I'd see how to put what I was doing into silver so looked for an intensive course. I was prepared to go anywhere in New Zealand and looked at several courses but Hungry Creek won hands down because it suited my learning style. I was taken by surprise in how much I learnt in the first year so I went back for a second year and then a third. The more I learnt the more I realised how much I didn't know and how much more I wanted to know.
In the three years I was there the course developed so much. Hungry Creek is aware of being open to change and that the course needs to stay on top. For instance, it is introducing rendering or designing on the computer screen. We did rendering but by hand. Rendering is about shaping and toning and drawing in perspective.
For a client, it means you can draw a piece of jewellery as close as possible to what it will be. The course is also 90 per cent hands on in the workshop in comparison to other places that I checked out which are a lot more theory-based.
I'd absolutely recommend the course. It's very self-directed so you need a bit of discipline.
I'm now self-employed and sharing workshop space with three other jewellers in the Satellite Gallery in Auckland. I'm saving to go to Amsterdam in August to do a workshop with Ruudt Peters, an internationally acclaimed jeweller. I want to take a whole body of work with me to target the international market. I'm thinking of taking a range of paua jewellery because it was successful in London. But now I do a lot of work with found objects. I'm challenged by the notion of non-traditional jewellery. I've done work with vinyl records, molten rubber, filament tape, feathers, glass and photography.
