This three-session workshop takes jewelry from antiquity as inspiration for participants to create their own design. These sessions focus on materials, techniques, and historical background.

February 27
Session I: Metals in Motion
Jeanette K. Caines, director of Jewelry Arts Inc., highlights significant examples of ancient gold and wire making. Participants examine the construction processes and tools needed to bring jewelry to life.

March 5
Session II: Purpose and Pattern (at Bard Graduate Center and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Avenue, New York, NY)
Meredith Nelson, PhD candidate, Bard Graduate Center, leads an insider tour of the extensive collection of ancient jewelry at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

March 12
Session III: Design and Make (11am–2pm at Jewelry Arts Inc., 22 E 49th St, New York, NY)
Work in the active studios of Jewelry Arts Inc. to learn the essential skills of metalsmithing. Jeanette K. Caines helps participants forge their own unique bangle or cuff.

Read about Jewelry Arts Inc.: Learning Patience and the Art of Ancient Jewelers – New York Times article

Jeanette K. Caines has been making and studying ancient jewelry goldsmithing techniques for over twenty-five years. She is the director of Jewelry Arts Inc., the leading jewelry school in New York City, and her pieces can be found in numerous private collections. She is the author of Soldering Demystified, published in 2015.

Meredith Nelson is a doctoral candidate from Rye, New York. She received her BA in art history from Barnard College in 2007, and her MA in art history and archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU in 2009. She specializes in art, archaeology, and material culture from the Roman period to the early Middle Ages, with a particular interest in jewelry and its relation to broader issues of gender, status, and ethnicity. Her dissertation focuses specifically on Roman jewelry and the social and religious contexts in which certain jewelry types were worn. She has held several internships and research positions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, including in the departments of Medieval Art, European Paintings, and Greek and Roman Art.