For jewelers who want to refine high-quality bead setting skills and develop decorative stone setting techniques using modern tools.
Students each have their own bench with a microscope and pneumatic engraving tools to dive right into new techniques
Students make bench adjustments and get acquainted with the Precision Bench workbench, Leica A60 Microscope, EnSet engraving tools, and other tools they will be using.
Joel introduces students to his unique method for teaching bead setting, reviewing theory and some demonstration for how to set stones.
Tira teaches students how to shape and sharpen gravers as they begin to set stones
Students progress through Joel's Bead Setting technique
Joel reviews Bead Setting Tools from prior lessons and shows how they apply to fishtail technique
Students work through the Silver Fishtail Study Ring learning how to create a fishtail setting with anything from a blank ring casting through CAD designed castings
Tira started engraving in 1994 working on Motorcycles in Fairfield, California. Inspired by Master Engravers through the Firearm Engravers Guild of America, Tira expanded her work to firearms, musical instruments, knives, jewelry and a host of unique projects. She has lived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania since 1999. In 2008, Tira began teaching others to hand...
Joel McFadden is a third-generation jeweler, born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. He learned to be a bench jeweler under the tutelage of his grandfather and the other old-time jewelers in Charleston, and from there began working as a journeyman throughout the South. Since then he has operated his own trade shop, a large-scale...
Registration and Bench Fees
We provide all of the tools you need for the class. However, we encourage students to bring personal items like tweezers, their own gravers, and other highly personalized items. They can either use them during the class or compare them to the ones instructors use.
Joel specially designed the rings that will be used in the class. They are cast from silver so you will be working with a metal very close to what you would use in real life. We also provide the CZs. Joel's special design for the rings is integrated with his teaching technique to get you up and running as fast as possible.
You keep all of the samples you work on and the gravers you sharpen. You also take things like burs you use for reference when you return home.
All other tools that you use are available through Engraver.com, and special pricing is available to students after each class.