Image 1 of 1
5-week Workshop | 1 day a week
Fridays, 10am- 4pm
24 Apr – 22 May
About the course
On this course you will learn new techniques, practice your skills, refine your designs and solve technical problems whilst working on projects of your choice.
This flexible course is designed to support your creative development as an intermediate or advanced maker. Small class size of max 8 students allow for individual approach to each student. You might choose to work on just one substantial piece or a collection across the ten sessions, or you might want to extensively explore and experiment rather than aim to end up with a set of finished pieces. During the course your tutor will provide you with the individual support that you need to develop your practice and progress in your career. Past students of this workshop have gone on to exhibit at prestigious events such as Goldsmiths' Fair, Shine, Spotlighting Getting Started and Cluster London Fairs.
Each term at K2 Academy focuses on a different technical project and an overarching conceptual theme to base your research on. The theme can inform the making of a specialised piece, which will require learning relevant techniques such as casting, making findings and brooch backs. The given theme and the techniques are just a suggestion and students are welcome to bring in their own projects, ideas and designs.
Examples of intermediate techniques that you may choose to learn*:
Sand casting
Press forming
Wax carving
Stone setting; bezel, flush, tube and claw setting – for cabochons, round and other shaped stones as well as setting found objects and other materials in metal
Riveting with wire and tube as a way of securing materials
Achieving various surface finishes, such as reticulation, keum boo, granulation
Chain making
Scoring and folding
Making clasps and hinges
Metal inlay, married metals
* Learning more time-consuming intermediate jewellery techniques can be considered if multiple students express interest in the same technique. While we strive to accommodate individual preferences, please note that due to time constraints, we cannot guarantee that all techniques can be taught within the course. If you have any questions regarding this, we encourage you to reach out via email before booking the course.\
Who is the course for?
This jewellery course is ideal for intermediate and advanced jewellery makers who want to broaden their jewellery knowledge and progress in their
Who will teach the course?
The sessions will be taught by Kelvin Birk.
Kelvin J. Birk studied jewellery making in Germany and holds a Masters degree with distinction in Silversmithing, Jewellery and Allied Arts from the Sir John Cass Faculty of Art. He has exhibited at major exhibitions both in the UK and abroad.
He creates one-off bespoke pieces in silver, gold and crushed gemstones. Within his work, he consciously disregards what is traditionally considered precious, revelling in the lack of control, allowing chaos to take over and the nature of the precious materials to dictate the outcome of the pieces.
Kelvin has taught extensively, running jewellery master classes and workshops internationally. He has tutored at Kensington & Chelsea College, London. He has also worked as a visiting lecturer on the Fashion Masters course at the University of Westminster London as well as at Kunstschule in Liechtenstein. He is currently a part-time lecturer on the BA Jewellery & Silversmithing course at Metropolitan University London.