Jobs for future jewelers

By Monica Kreber
kreberm@mytjnow.com

"Kujo" is a hair comb Megan Gainer made has made at Winthrop - Photo courtesy of Megan GainerOne of the biggest praises Adrian Amabile says he gets is when his wife tells him someone complimented her on a piece of jewelry she wears.

The reason Amabile, a senior art major, appreciates the notion is because his focus is jewelry and metals, and he specializes in creating wearable pieces in his classes.

With the jewelry and metals curriculum at Winthrop, Amabile said students can do a variety of things when they graduate –they can design, repair and sell jewelry, among other career paths.

“It’s got a lot of different avenues,” he said. “Some design companies can have you design things in a computer program for them, other places you can put together and design jewelry by hand… there’s different ways you can go.”

He says there are up to six jewelry and metals classes offered at Winthrop. Students are required to take five of those classes, and every semester different topics are covered.

“This semester it’s hollowware, where you make bowls and pots and things like that,” he said. “Last semester it was a lab class, where you designed jewelry in the computer.”

The classes at Winthrop allow students to make wearable (jewelry) pieces in addition to non-wearable pieces such as metal sculptures.

The major is lesser-known; Amabile said there are five students in one of his upper-level classes –in addition to some students who are in the beginner classes. Jewelry classes 4-6 are all the same class, Amabile said, and the professor just gives assignments separately.

“I think once [students] get into it, in Jewelry 1 and Jewelry 2, they stick with it,” he said.

Amabile entered the major with no prior experience, but said most students do not know what they are doing prior to enrolling.

“It’s kinda intimidating once you’re in there with the upperclassmen who know what they’re doing,” he said. “But you shouldn’t be; we try to be helpful. You’re not expected to know something once you enter it.”

Amabile particularly enjoys making rings. He also said he likes making cast jewelry (process of making mold for metal).

Rings are hard to sell, Amabile said, but he chooses to keep most of the things he makes.

“I had a few things in the Valentine’s Day Jewelry Sale last year,” he said. “We also had a booth set up at MUSE Fest and sold some things.”

Right now Amabile works at a jewelry store repairing jewelry but has been offered an opportunity to help start designing things in a computer program this upcoming summer.

Amabile says he feels he learns a lot from his job and having a more hands-on experience, but both his work and Winthrop offer different aspects.

“[Work] is more technical stuff, and here it is more design-based,” he said.

Amabile will also be taking an internship to explore other options.

“There are a lot of different jobs out there,” he said.

Amabile has also made non-wearable pieces just for the experience.

“Some people would wear them,” he said. “Look at Lady Gaga –someone had to make that stuff…She didn’t make it.”

More students should try the class, he said.

“There’s a lot more jobs than you think,” he said. “I’m thinking right now I’d like to design pieces for a certain company.”

Senior art major Megan Ganier also excels in jewelry and metals and plans to go to graduate school to get her MFA (Master of Fine Arts) so that she can teach college-level jewelry and metals classes.

Gainer said she has applied to four places but really wants to go to Carnegie Melon.

“They only pick about six students a year, so it’s a little competitive,” she said.

Gainer said if she were to attend Carnegie Melon she would participate in a program in which she took art classes at surrounding schools but it would still count as Carnegie credit. She could also take an internship with local artisans.

“One of my other plans is to start opening my business designing and marketing my own jewelry during the summer while teaching during the school year,” she said.

At Winthrop Gainer enjoys making what she calls “functioning” jewelry  -things that can open/close, like lockets, and items that can be worn every day.

“I’m very much a functional person so I like functional jewelry,” she said. “I do pretty well -- a lot of what I sell I end up making over breaks and summers.”

Like Amabile, Gainer has taken the computer class in which students designed pieces in a program. She said that was probably her favorite class and that Winthrop tries to offer it at least once a year to get students exposed to the experience.

“Jewelry is one of the more detailed arts,” she said. “It’s intricate and technical.”

Gainer said she will have items in the upcoming Valentine’s Day Jewelry Sale (Feb. 3) and is currently preparing her section of items.

“It’s like any major: it’s a lot of work, there’s assignments you don’t want to do, but I can get through it,” she said. “They (those assignments) sometimes turn out better than I expected.”