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Are you a creative person that loves the craft of jewellery design? If so, you may be considering launching your career as a jeweller. Jewellery designers use their creativity and their material expertise to design and oversee the implementation process of manufactured jewellery products. They also offer custom designs that are based on clients' needs and visions.
As a jewellery designer, you will:
To become a qualified jeweller in Australia, you are required to go under someone's wing as an apprentice. This apprenticeship is a mixture of old-fashioned "on-the-job" training, and classroom training and assignments.
As an apprentice, the timeframe of your term will depend on the state you are undertaking your apprenticeship in but generally lasts between 4 -5 years. The classroom portion of your training will be undertaken by one of the various training organisations around Australia, but the most common ones are TAFE institutes.
There are a variety of ways to go about getting an apprenticeship as a jewellery designer:
As with most things in life, picking specific niches or styles you enjoy more than others and then mastering them, will always be better as an artisan than the "jack of all trades" approach. Sure, you'll want to be able to be well-rounded and capable of making different types of jewellery, but you need to identify your style.
Maybe you fancy stud earrings, or maybe you're really passionate about working with rose old and rings with gemstones. Maybe you have a particular talent for crafting exquisite bangle bracelets, or pendant necklaces. The point is, find a few of the styles you love, and stick with them. As you go along, you'll eventually develop signature characteristics that are yours, and yours alone.
It's absolutely essential for every jewellery designer to have the proper tools at their disposal for jewellery-making. You can pick up the tools separately, or buy them in a pre-packaged kit online, but the general makeup of every toolkit looks like this:
This is where it gets fun. You may be creating your own intricate piece of art, or you may be bringing your client's vision to life. In any case, the process remains largely the same. You'll start off with an initial concept, such as the characteristics of an engagement ring, for example. You then move on to the sketching process.
After you've got a rough sketch of your jewellery design and it is settled upon, many jewellers now use what's known as CAD software so they can view the concept jewellery in the form of a computer-generated image. Some also create a wax model. After the model has been approved, your custom piece is hand-built and hand-finished.
You'll want to pay attention to what's trending in the jewellery market at all times and make sure you focus your designs accordingly. For example, In Australia, charms and beaded bracelets are very popular in 2021-2022, as well as jewellery with bright enamel. This can change depending on the month, week, location, etc. Make sure you pay close attention.
Being a jewellery designer is an incredibly rewarding profession. You get to indulge your artistic muse, as well as provide people with exquisite and unique jewellery that they'll cherish for the rest of their lives.
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