Fall 2018
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Collaborative Study
A Collaborative Study Project (CSP) allows two students to work collaboratively to complete a faculty supervised project of indepedndent study.
Usually, a CSP is supervised by two faculty members, but with approval it may be supervised by one faculty member. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses, though it is not a substitute for a course if that course is regularly offered.
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Electroforming
This class is an intensive investigation of the processes of electroplating and electroforming copper metal by covering objects of various modeling materials to create new metal objects. All aspects of this technical application are discussed. Students are required to maintain an accurate logbook of their investigation while developing a body of work. Class is limited to five students.
Elective
Permission of Instructor required.
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Grad Jewelry Seminar 1
This course utilizes general and specific topoi to critically analyze the field of contemporary jewelry. Students will develop the ability to write and speak with precision and complexity regarding their own work and that of others. In the process, we will create a communal topography generated by a network of inquiry to aid in locating ourselves and objects. Students have significant latitude to incorporate individual interests in written assignments. Themes addressed include but are not limited to: cultural identity, material history, marginalization, and exhibition strategies.
Graduate major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Graduate Jewelry 1
In this studio, first-year graduates begin to recognize and develop personal areas of interest. Direction is given to bring structure to the exploration of various processes, materials, concepts, and formats. Weekly individual meetings focus on student's progress and response to assignments, as well as independent research.
Graduate major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Graduate Jewelry 3
In this studio course, second-year students identify and pursue personally driven research. Weekly individual meetings and studio visits take place with the instructor, and also with scheduled first-year and second-year group critiques. Students are required to maintain a continuous record of their research and development through drawings, writings, samples, models, etc. Active participation in group discussions and critiques is mandatory.
Graduate major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Graduate Jewelry Seminar 3
This course is devoted to developing one's abilities to write and speak with precision and complexity, about one's own work and the work of others. We will examine trends and movements in contemporary art through the lens of critical theory. We will investigate what contemporary art can tell us about the relationships between history, images, and visual culture, subsequently developing the skills necessary to write about your work, what it articulates and argues, and the ideas and traditions from which it emerges. Each term will identify and address a new set of themes relevant to course content.
Graduate major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Graduate Studio 1
This course is designed to challenge first year graduates to rethink their previous assumptions about their work, prior training, working methodologies and approaches to their practice. Through a series of rigorous and innovative start-up exercises, graduates are encouraged to expand their subjects, abandon their comforts zones, fail, edit, and (re) direct their work. Equal emphasis is placed on critical thinking and critical making. Faculty, meet weekly, individually with each student to provide constructive feedback and necessary structure. In small group discussions and in-class reviews, first years are required to actively participate in discourse and take responsibility for the collective dialogue. The resulting insight and shared knowledge between students, along with their own personal gain, sets the tone and direction for their work at RISD over the next two years.
Graduate major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Graduate Studio 3
Following the completion of the first year, second-year graduates identify their personal areas of interest essential to the development of their thesis research and practice. Students are required to outline and pursue independent work with a self-determined structure, timeline, and intentions. Regardless of outcome, students are expected to evidence their progress weekly during individual meetings with faculty. Central to the second year, graduates are required to demonstrate a high level of self-motivation, vision, and initiative reflected through their concentrated inquiry and the rigorous exploration of their ideas. In conclusion of the term, second year graduates are required to complete a thesis presentation, to a J+M faculty review committee, in approval of their preliminary objectives and strategies in preparation for Graduate J+M Thesis.
Graduate major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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ISP Major
The Independent Study Project (ISP) allows students to supplement the established curriculum by completing a faculty supervised project for credit in a specific area of interest. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses.
Permission of Instructor and GPA of 3.0 or higher is required.
Register by completing the Independent Study Application available on the Registrar's website; the course is not available via web registration.
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Jewelry Introduction
This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of design and metal fabrication techniques for both jewelry and small objects. Working with precious and non-precious metals, students learn traditional jewelry construction including sawing, filing, forming, soldering, and polishing. A series of structured assignments guide students as they transform their ideas into finished pieces. Solutions for projects are open to enable the student to explore his/her own aesthetic, but taught in a way to insure that students master the basic processes. Lectures on historical and contemporary jewelry supplement, inform, and inspire students' work.
Elective; Open to all majors
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Jr Metal Forming + Casting
This studio course will continue to advance students' metalsmithing techniques. Chasing and repousse, along with lost wax casting, will be introduced and developed throughout the semester. Skills and material knowledge learned in the sophomore year will also be used to fulfill assignments. Overlap between all skills is encouraged in most assignments. Inquiry into the finer points of fabricating and inventing innovative findings for jewelry will be an ongoing consideration. Research, drawing, and sample making are expected to precede each class assignment to facilitate students design process.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Junior Jewelry: Digital 3d Modeling and Rendering
This course provides students with fundamental skills required to use Rhinoceros based 3D modeling CAD software. Rhino 3D facilitates the exploration of materials, and offers opportunities to push traditional fabricating techniques and enhance drawing skills. Research, models and innovative approaches are in direct response to questions of inquiry brought forward through design problems in the class. This class much like other software driven courses tend to be front end heavy with technical information. This information is obtained by completing assignments in an ordered fashion to ensure that the software covered in order for students to have a strong foundation moving into the JUNIOR JEWELRY: FROM CAD TO CAM course.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Junior Seminar
In this seminar we will investigate and promote the role of writing in an artistic practice via reading, discussion, exercises, and written assignments. A directed effort to source text from both within and outside the field will be implemented as we move beyond curiosity and take residence in the realm of responsible thinking. Paramount in our objective is the engendering of personal expressions of criticality while fostering the confidence to implement them in writing, conversation, and presentation.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Professional Internship
The professional Internship provides valuable exposure to a professional setting, enabling students to better establish a career path and define practical aspirations. Internship proposals are carefully vetted to determine legitimacy and must meet the contact hour requirements listed in the RISD Course Announcement.
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Professional Practices
This course is an interactive lecture class. A series of distinctly varied individuals active in the field of jewelry will be invited to make presentation about their professional development. These diverging presentations are intended to offer a catalyst to stimulate questions, and encourage group discussion. Among the subjects to be presented are: individual studio practice, designing for industry, gallery connections, non-profit opportunities, partnerships, global opportunities, curatorial and journalistic prospects, wide world of the web, post graduation educational options, support systems for RISD alumni, residency prospects, and technology as resource for design and production. Students will be asked to keep an active journal of weekly observations and fulfill 3 class assignments connected with their ambitions and career interests.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
Open to non-majors by permission of department.
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Senior Jewelry
An advanced studio course, students propose and develop individual research surrounding their interests in jewelry and metalsmithing. In support of the Degree Project Year, conceptual development and critical thinking are highly emphasized, and students are encouraged to explore materials and processes that best serve their ideas. As the structure of this term allows for more individual freedom, it is necessary that students maintain a high level of self-initiative, curiosity, work ethic, and time management to be successful in their independent degree project.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration. This class is open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of the department.
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Senior Studio
An advanced studio course, students propose and develop individual research projects surrounding their interests in jewelry and metalsmithing. In preparation for the Degree Project, conceptual development and critical thinking are highly emphasized, and students are encouraged to explore materials and processes that best serve their ideas. Digital process documentation, display/presentation and participation in-group critiques/discussions are required and highly evaluated.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Sophomore History Of Adornment
This history seminar provides an overview of personal adornment in both western and non-western cultures. The goal is for the student to gain a deeper understanding of the history of jewelry and the context in which the objects are placed. The course is structured around weekly, thematic slide presentations that are supported by visits to RISD Museum collections, local research facilities and fieldtrips. Readings and class discussions examine topics such as placement of value (spiritual, material, social, sentimental) and how these are reflected in the contemporary field. Class projects focus on strengthening research and presentation skills.
Major requirement, J+M majors.
Open to sophomore and above.
Open to non-majors by permission of Instructor.
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Sophomore Jewelry 1
Sophomore Jewelry I is the first of two introductory studio classes which will familiarize students with the creative jewelry studio environment. Fundamental tools and techniques integral to working with metal are introduced during class demonstrations over the semester. Class projects are structured to blend the use of tools with techniques and are introduced in order of complexity. The course begins with designing and constructing structurally sound 3D objects from 2D metal sheet stock. By the conclusion of the semester students are equipped with technical skills to make jewelry informed with an awareness of the body as site. This is the first of a two-semester course.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Sophomore Metalsmithing
This introductory metalsmithing course blends technical instruction with an investigation of design and concept as it relates to ornament and function. Students develop confidence and proficiency with the basic skills of forming non-ferrous metal. Specific techniques that will be covered are raising, forging, finishing non-ferrous metals, sawing, filing, drilling, sanding, polishing, annealing, surface embellishment, planishing and patination. We will also cover safety in the studio, proper hand-tool care, and the physical properties of metal. It is the goal of this course for students to gain an understanding of metal as a material and a broad understanding of the field of Jewelry and Metalsmithing. Assignments will build on each other and become more challenging throughout the semester. Each project given will rely on technical, formal and conceptual development. Classroom discussions, demonstrations and visual presentations will focus attention on traditional technical skills, design considerations, and the breadth of this exciting field.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Stones & Gold
This J+M elective offering is an intensive technical course that focuses on the subject and material investigation of Stones + Gold. The course will be divided into two segments: the first half focuses on the working with gold as material and the second on intermediate and advanced stone setting. Technical demonstrations will discuss and outline material properties, preparation and proper handling, alloying, soldering/fabrication, finishing, etc. Lectures and discussion will address the history of the materials, their mining and sourcing, environmental impacts and concerns, and methods for establishing an ethical practice. The course aims to address and prepare students with the practical knowledge, experience, and the necessary specialized skills to launch professionally into industry, produce independent commission work, and/or advance their personal creative practices.
Open to J+M majors only; junior and above.
Permission of Instructor required.
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Wkshp: Introduction To Woodworking
This class provides new and current Ceramics, Glass, Jewelry & Metalsmithing students with a comprehensive safety orientation for future use of the wood facility in the Fine Arts Division. Instructor will orient students in the safe operation of stationary machines in the wood facility, including the miter saw, band saw, table saw, disc sander, drum sander, drill press, and panel saw. Instruction will also be provided for different ways of building and joining with wood through the use of hand tools and stationary machines. Passing this course is required in order to use all machines in the Fine Arts wood facility.
Registration is limited to first semester sophomores and first semester graduate students in Ceramics, Glass and Jewelry + Metalsmithing.
Wintersession 2019
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Collaborative Study
A Collaborative Study Project (CSP) allows two students to work collaboratively to complete a faculty supervised project of indepedndent study.
Usually, a CSP is supervised by two faculty members, but with approval it may be supervised by one faculty member. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses, though it is not a substitute for a course if that course is regularly offered.
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ISP Major
The Independent Study Project (ISP) allows students to supplement the established curriculum by completing a faculty supervised project for credit in a specific area of interest. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses.
Permission of Instructor and GPA of 3.0 or higher is required.
Register by completing the Independent Study Application available on the Registrar's website; the course is not available via web registration.
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Jewelry Introduction
This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of design and metal fabrication techniques for jewelry. Working with precious and non-precious metals, students learn traditional jewelry construction including sawing, filing, forming, soldering, and polishing. A series of structured assignments guide students as they transform their ideas into finished pieces. Solutions for projects are open to enable the student to explore his/her own aesthetic, but taught in a way to insure that students master the basic processes.
Open to undergraduate and graduate students
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Pattern Making Patterns
Patterns have an active role in our studio practice; this course will be an investigation into multiple meanings of this word. Drawing references from the natural or artificial world, we'll begin by focusing on pattern as designs and motifs. In doing so, students will learn about layout, piercing, and various ways of mark-making on metal. We'll then experiment with patterns as templates or prototypes that act as guides for creating dimension. Paper models and basic soldering, scoring, and forming techniques will be employed. Lastly, patterns in our habits and behavior are integral to a sustainable creative practice. What catches your eye? The use of mixed materials such as plastics, stones, beads, fabric or found objects will be encouraged in conjunction with metal as a way to denote content and language personal to you. Our goals will be to explore `pattern' as a way to understand the design process and gain insight into our personal artistic vocabulary all the while gaining a solid introduction to nonferrous metal fabrication skills.
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Professional Internship
The professional Internship provides valuable exposure to a professional setting, enabling students to better establish a career path and define practical aspirations. Internship proposals are carefully vetted to determine legitimacy and must meet the contact hour requirements listed in the RISD Course Announcement.
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Repair: Making Connections
To repair with the hands is a nurturing and healing act; it is to resist a disposable culture. Restoring what has been broken, fractured, or torn, is to give it purpose again. In conjunction with RISD Museum's exhibition, Repair and Design Futures, this workshop will investigate the processes of repair and connections through jewelry and metal techniques. In traditional jewelry-making, precision and accuracy is standard. We will begin with these standards then break the rules by embracing excess solder and scratched surfaces. Students will learn basic fine metals techniques in order to make connections between metal and found objects such as riveting and soldering, along with nontraditional connections such as sewing and wrapping. You will be encouraged to enhance cracks and tears in found or made objects through acts of repair, rather than concealing irregularities. We will study the idea of wabi-sabi, a Japanese concept centered on the transience and acceptance of imperfection. Together we will explore materiality through the ritual act of repair by making wearable adornment.
Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00
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Subtractive Jewels
The creation of jewelry is typically thought of as an additive process; soldering, setting, forming to build upon existing shapes and designs. Often overlooked though are methods of making within jewelry that embody subtraction. The first pieces of jewelry were created using subtractive processes. This course introduces students to various subtractive processes that will challenge and develop their current hand fabrication skills in making; developing carving and engraving techniques in the context of jewelry. By engaging in these processes students can learn how removing material can inform design and concept. Lectures and research prompts will help students gain an understanding of how current contemporary artists use these methods and how they can apply this idea in their own work. Subtraction in jewelry requires complete attention and awareness of working with material. This course allows students to work in a more intimate and direct way, challenging individuals to engage in the simplification of design.
Spring 2019
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Graduate J+m Thesis
Graduate J+M Thesis is a 9-credit course that meets twice a week with two different instructors. Each instructor evaluates students focusing on both studio thesis work and the theoretical concerns of the Graduate Jewelry 2 seminar. Graduate students select two advisors, for their thesis committee with J+M faculty to provide additional insight and support into their thesis work, as well as to foster other professional contacts. The final thesis requirements are a written thesis document, curriculum vitae, artist statement, artist book and professional portfolio. The resulting body of thesis work is featured in the Graduate Thesis Exhibition at the Convention Center in May. It is expected the Graduate J+M Thesis investigates unexplored territoy, reveals personal idiosyncrasis and demonstrates a high level of artistic authorship and sophistication.
Graduate major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Graduate Jewelry 2
In Graduate Jewelry 2, first-year graduates hone in on recognized personal areas of interest specific to jewelry from the Fall semester. Students are encouraged to embrace new studio habits in order for individualized working methodologies to become apparent. Faculty, work with students, to foster the strengths of their natural proclivities and problem-solve areas of personal sabotage. Critical to the success of this course, it is essential that first year students demonstrate a high level of self-direction, curiosity, and drive reflected through their bench work and independent research. Course content continues to focus around jewelry's power and potential as a platform and catalyst for dialogue.
Graduate major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Graduate Jewelry Seminar 2
Spring seminar focuses on research, writing, and presentation as essential skills for both studio and professional practices. Emphasis is placed on the students' ability to locate, examine, and discuss their work within contemporary and historical contexts. Jewelry, along with objects of our discipline, will be considered through a variety of theoretical frameworks and cross-cultural and historical perspectives. Research, and the language that evidences it, is the foundation of this seminar. Various modes of writing are employed to mine, develop, and articulate ideas, and to further refine this information into artist statements, grant proposals, and presentations. Reflective writing will be practiced throughout the term in order to make sense of past work, clarify current work, and to formulate questions and ideas for work in the future. The term builds towards and culminates with a formal artist presentation. This is an opportunity to carefully consider and craft the language and the photographic representation that supports your work. The goal is to bring all of these things into alignment and to explore the symbiotic and poetic relationships between them.
Graduate major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Graduate Jewelry Seminar 4
The fall seminar concentrates on critical reading as an opportunity to locate, examine, and discuss your work within a broader field of inquiry. The additional objectives are to increase critical thinking, hone reading and writing skills, expand vocabulary, and build presentation skills. Woven into all of this is the understanding that research can be a valuable, if not essential, component of making - each informing and enriching the other. The focus of the spring seminar shifts to writing and presentation as an integral part of both studio and professional practice. Each spring brings a new team of guest instructors who introduce various modes of writing as a means to mine, develop and articulate ideas in a concise and authentic manner, and, to further hone that information into artist statements, written theses, and public presentations. Throughout the term writing will be the vehicle in which to move between private and public realms. This journey will begin with 'automatic writings' and culminate with your public artist presentations.
Graduate major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Graduate Studio 2
In the second sequence of Graduate Studio, first-year graduates continue to take risks and think independently; identify and gain insight into their creative influences; and successfully direct and shape their ideas. Class exercises are given with clear, open-ended themes. Course content focuses on clarity of intention, artistic authorship, the presentation and framing of ones work, and an awareness of the contemporary context. Faculty and students consider individual approaches for the execution of work, from the initial concept to the finished piece. In an effort to arrive at original, personally authentic work, it is essential that students are open to discussion and willing to investigate (and question) the motivating forces of their work.
Graduate major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Jewelry Introduction
This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of design and metal fabrication techniques for both jewelry and small objects. Working with precious and non-precious metals, students learn traditional jewelry construction including sawing, filing, forming, soldering, and polishing. A series of structured assignments guide students as they transform their ideas into finished pieces. Solutions for projects are open to enable the student to explore his/her own aesthetic, but taught in a way to insure that students master the basic processes. Lectures on historical and contemporary jewelry supplement, inform, and inspire students' work.
Elective; Open to all majors
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Junior Jewelry 1
This course emphasizes the refinement of technical and design skills acquired in sophomore level. A variety of new techniques are introduced. The nature of the assignments encourages the development of a personal aesthetic and asks for greater independence in the design process. The structure of the assignments is designed to present formal and conceptual challenges, promote innovative problem solving and individual exploration. Research and ongoing discussions are part of this course.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Junior Jewelry: From CAD To Cam
With a focus on digital technologies, this class will explore new material processes related to digital fabrication methodologies. The goal is to form a set of skills which build a designer's creative potential through 3D modeling, 3D printing, 3D scanning, laser cutting and possibly CNC cutting. This course actively applies programing learned in prerequisite CAD class `Digital 3D Modeling and Rendering' class, to explore various manufacturing process specifically applicable to jewelry. Research, models and innovative approaches are in direct response to questions of inquiry brought forward through design problems in the class. Students are encouraged to utilize CAD and CAD/CAM to explore designs in other classes.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Junior: Color As Content
This course is an in-depth exploration of color as surface and substance in the realm of jewelry design. Students will learn traditional, modern, and experimental techniques while engaged in a dialog centered on the conceptual impact of color in cultural contexts. Our investigations will utilize surface in support and opposition to the materiality of the objects. Works created in response to assignments are expected to meet technical guidelines while representing students' personal interest and demonstrating an experimental mindset.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Senior J+m Degree Project
In the Senior J+M Degree Project students focus on a clearly defined, individually chosen, subject of inquiry for 12 weeks. Seniors are required to take full responsibility for the evolution and articulation of their creative practice. Two faculty serve as DP advisors, meeting weekly with students, to discuss and facilitate the progress of their work. Although seniors are required to be self-reflective in identifying the individual impulses and motivations in their work, emphasis in review and discussion begins to shift from the voice of the personal to that of the greater collective, context, and role of the audience. The DP culminates in an exhibition at Woods-Gerry Gallery on the RISD campus. Graduation requirements include: CV, professionally documented digital portfolio, artist postcard, and artist/degree project statement.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department; course not available via web registration.
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Senior Seminar
J+M Senior Seminar serves as a continuum to J+M Junior Seminar. This course focuses on ideas and theories that relate to a professional studio practice in a craft based media or methodology. The information presented in the course will reflect the historical and contemporary development specific to Jewelry + Metalsmithing and its relationship to the field of crafts at large as well as contemporary visual culture. Readings and class discussion will explore critical issues such as the role and responsibility of the artist in today's society, artistic authorship, context and representation, the relationship between the wearer and the audience experience, the body as content and site, etc.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Sophomore Jewelry 2
The emphasis of this course is on the intricacy and sophistication of metal construction. An introduction to stone settings, gem stones, and an awareness of gemology will be included. Technical information is presented in a clear, logical manner facilitating mastery of these essential skills. The class requires effort, patience, accuracy and sensitivity to the material. Each project pairs a technical skill with a search of creative design solutions that are based on individual sources of interests. This increases the challenge of the projects, and encourages growth in students' design awareness and ability, along with furthering technical capabilities. Drawings and models precede all projects. Students are required to maintain an active sketchbook, as well as a notebook with class handouts.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Sophomore Jewelry Design: Technology and Making
Whether you work with pencil and paper or create drawings on the computer, the tools of a designer are all means by which you can define an idea, create a model, and make a finished piece of jewelry. This course begins with a series of design study assignments, in-class lectures, and technical instruction in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Using these tools, students learn the fundamentals of image manipulation, illustration, laser cutting, vector graphics, layering, and graphic editing on the computer. Play and experimentation with materials will be expected and by the end of the course, students will have an understanding of how the use of computers combined with handwork can create exceptional pieces of jewelry.This course will bring technology to the bench.
Major requirement, J+M majors only
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.
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Sophomore Smithing + Jewelry
While continuing to perfect and refine skills introduced in J&M-4424 Sophomore Metalsmithing, students will be directed toward identifying innovative and meaningful solutions for the creation of jewelry and small 3-dimensional objects that take advantage of the malleability of metal as an expressive and effective means to render articulate line quality and form. As new forming techniques are introduced they are paired with specific design challenges meant to encourage the development of their individual artistic interests. In a collaborative project paired with a writing workshop students will investigate scale, function and jewelry's inherent relationship to the body. Cultivating meaningful class discussion and critique of both research and design result is an important part of this course.
Major requirement, J+M majors only.
Registration by J+M Department, course not available via web registration.