Jewelry + Metalsmithing
Spanning from traditional goldsmithing to experimental processes and materials, Jewelry + Metalsmithing offers a tight-knit community fully engaged with the discipline. Critical analysis and an open exchange of ideas support individual exploration of how jewelry relates to the body.
Degree programs
With a focus on both traditional gold- and silversmithing and contemporary methods of making, the Jewelry + Metalsmithing BFA provides the means to develop your own aesthetic and interpretation of the art form.
In Jewelry + Metalsmithing’s MFA program, you research, experiment and iterate to produce adornments and sculptural metalworks that reflect a personal vision grounded in social and environmental responsibility.
This one-year tutorial meets you at your experience and skill level to provide individualized instruction on the historical, technical and material foundations of jewelry making and metalsmithing.
In the studio
Undergraduate and graduate students bounce ideas off each other and work as a close-knit group, honing technical skills and working adeptly with a wide range of metals and other materials.
Student work
Featuring select senior degree project pieces from Jewelry + Metalsmithing’s graduating BFA class the, J+M ShowShop virtual pop-up offers limited-edition work for sale. It highlights the concepts, processes, materials and finished forms that J+M students bring together in completing their degree program.
Balancing a studio practice with her position as senior jewelry designer at FGX International, Tzu-Ju Chen creates work that incorporates artistic traditions from around the world. At FGX she designs products for various labels while working closely with art directors, clients and overseas vendors. Chen draws inspiration from various cultures encountered during her travels, including her year in Rome as part of RISD's European Honors Program and a Fulbright Fellowship in China after graduation.
In her Increasing Value series, Lauren Tickle makes materialism explicit by using American dollars to create brooches, cufflinks, necklaces and more. After being selected one of eight winners of the international Preziosa Young 2013 Design Competition, Tickle took part in an exhibition that traveled throughout Europe and took home the Inhorgenta Munich 2014 prize. In her practice she creates work sold at the MoMA Design Store in NYC, among other venues.
Featured stories
The first cohort of apprentices-in-training are nearly halfway through the two-year, 4,000-hour pilot program.
Students in a spring studio called Creating in Platinum are investigating the characteristics and corresponding design constraints of the unique precious metal.
RISD’s Jewelry + Metalsmithing department collaborates with Project Open Door to offer young artists the first on-campus studio of its kind.