College of The Albemarle’s (COA) Professional Crafts: Jewelry program will teach you the jewelry construction, metalsmithing, design and marketing skills needed to develop your own unique style, create one-of-a-kind and production pieces, and build a business from your artistic talent.
Instructor
Kathryn Osgood is an associate professor in the Professional Crafts: Jewelry program. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Maine and her Master of Fine Arts from East Carolina University. Her fabricated and enameled jewelry pieces are inspired by botanical forms and the flora and fauna of her coastal North Carolina environment.
Studio
The Professional Arts building houses a COA’s professional arts gallery and a jewelry studio, which offers:
- Twelve student workbenches, fully equipped with the hand tools required for jewelry fabrication
- A main studio with a rolling mill, bench shear, hydraulic press, and a forming and raising area with a selection of hammers, stakes and anvils
- A second studio with soldering stations, vacuum casting equipment, a digitally controlled burnout kiln and a large enameling kiln with overhead ventilation
- A third studio with finishing and polishing equipment, a beadblaster, band saw, wax injector, anodizer and photo booth
- A computer lab with Rhinoceros 3D modeling software and Flamingo rendering software, allowing you to design and produce rendered images of your jewelry pieces