Warren teaches from a Design Perspective. There is a focus on taking classes in a general order. There is a concern with teaching how to make choices about quality and functionality – how you buy and use beads, findings, metals, stringing materials and the like, and what happens to all these pieces over time. Attention is paid, not just to the step-by-step mechanics of each technique, but the architectural basics which allow both movement as well as maintaining shape and integrity.
Warren teaches both in Nashville at Be Dazzled Beads, as well as conducting workshops throughout the United States. The classes listed below are routinely offered in Nashville, and may be adapted, as well as any of his kits, for off-site workshops.
Classes are organized into different Interest Areas. Each Interest Area has its own class logic, sequence, and requirements:
1. Bead Stringing – Making necklaces and bracelets. Begin with Attaching Clasps; Pearl Knotting; Wire Clinic; followed by Color and Beads; Jewelry Design I
2. Bead Weaving – Using needle and thread to make pieces approximating a piece of cloth. Begin with Bead Weaving Basics Introduction and learn Square, Flat Peyote, and Right Angle Weave Stitches. More intensive classes and workshops offered throughout the year.
3. Wire Work Jewelry – Using wire alone, or with beads, to create necklaces and bracelets. Begin with Mix N Match Bracelet, Wire Bracelet with Beads, and Wire Wrap Cabochon Pendant, other electives.
Other areas of interest:
4. Business Skills
Getting Started; Pricing/Selling; Craft Shows; Naming
Most classes are 3-6 hours long. Most are $35.00 instructional fee per student, plus supplies. Supplies typically cost between $20-45 per student per class.
The purpose of this 5 1/2 hours online course is to introduce the student to a common language and understanding of beads, jewelry findings and tools that they will be working with, from The Design Perspective. (REQUIREMENTS: In Nashville, all students required to take a 2 1/2 hour shorter version of this class before beginning any regular course sequence.)
o How to tell the quality of beads before you buy and use them
o How beads are made, and the differences in quality and
craftsmanship, based on where they are made
o What the differences are among druks, fire polish, seed beads, delicas and the like
o How to understand metals and platings, especially their pros and cons, and what happens as they age
o What the various types, sizes, finishes, shapes and styles of beads are
o Where beads come from, and how they have been used historically
o How to make intelligent choices about which stringing materials to use
o What tools you will need, and how to buy them
o What the pros and cons are of various clasps and other jewelry findings
o Different approaches teachers and author's of how-to books take, when teaching beading and jewelry making, and the implications of any one, for telling you what kinds of choices to make
This course introduces the student to the fundamentals of bead stringing and attaching clasps. The student learns two techniques - use of needle/thread/wax and use of flexible cable wire with crimp beads and crimping pliers. The range of types of clasps, and their pros and cons, is discussed. We go over how to use all the other little pieces -- called Jewelry Findings -- such as bead tips, end caps, crimp ends, separator bars, attach rings, connectors, jump rings, eyeglass holder ends, and the like. REQUIREMENTS: This is the first required course in the Bead Stringing Interest Area.
This course is offered both in Nashville and online.
Students will learn an easy-to-do, non-traditional method to make and finish off a knotted pearl necklace using silk cord. This non-traditional method does not require the use of tools. Topics covered: pros and cons of traditional vs. nontraditional pearl knotting techniques; how to buy and care for pearls; pearl knotting techniques; how to finish off a pearl knotted necklace using french wire bullion and using bead tips; how to make a continuous pearl knotted necklace (thus, without a clasp); how to add cord to your piece, so that you can make a longer necklace. REQUIREMENTS: Beginnner level course, BEAD STRINGING
In this class, we learn how to use elastic string to make a Mahjong Tile Bracelet, using a mix of 2-hole-drilled bone Mahjong tiles from China and round wood beads from Germany. Elastic string is used to make stretchy bracelets. Stringing with this material involves preparing the elastic string for stringing, how to create a self needle or use a collapsible eye needle, sliding beads onto the string, finishing off the string in a surgeons knot with glue, selecting the appropriate glue, and securing this knot within the hole of a bead. REQUIREMENTS: Beginner level course, BEAD STRINGING
Learn the history and styles of Mala bracelets and necklaces, how to select materials, how to construct them, with or without knotting, and the rules for construction, and how to finish them off. REQUIREMENTS: Beginner level course, BEAD STRINGING
Learn the between-the-lines artistry and design insights you do not get in online videos which merely teach you the mechanics for various bead weaving stitches. In this beginning class, we discuss such things as:
(1) SURVEY OF TYPES OF SEED BEADS, WHAT WORKS WHEN, QUALITY ISSUES
- HOW TO THREAD A NEEDLE
- HOW TO WAX YOUR THREAD
- HOW TO ADD A STOP BEADS
- HOW TO PICK UP BEADS WITH YOUR NEEDLE
- HOW TO HOLD YOUR PIECE WHILE WORKING IT
(2) STRINGING MATERIALS AND MANAGING THREAD TENSION
- COLOR EFFECTS OF THREAD
- FINISHING OFF AND ADDING THREAD
(3) BASICS ABOUT WAXES
(4) BASICS ABOUT NEEDLES
(5) ANTICIPATING ISSUES OF MOVEMENT, DRAPE, FLOW and DURABILITY
(6) THE STITCHES: Peyote, Square, Right Angle Weave
- OTHER IMPORTANT STITCHES AND STITCH VARIATIONS TO LEARN
(7) ATTACHING CLASPS
We practice 3 popular bead weaving techniques - Square, Flat Even-Count Peyote, and Right Angle Weave.
We go over instructions for making bracelets using these three stitches.
REQUIREMENTS: This is the first required course in the Bead Weaving Interest Area. After this class, students take the 2-3 bead weaving workshops we conduct during the year.
Wrap Bracelets are constructed using a technique strongly related to loom weaving, with influence from basket weaving. The technique used to weave Wrap Bracelets is typically referred to as “laddering”. In this class, we learn about materials needed, preparing a work board, measurements, one-needle vs 2-needle approaches, soumak vs. bead weave figure 8 thread pattern, beginning and finishing off our piece, make a 2-around Wrap Bracelet, variation options in patterns, materials and techniques. REQUIREMENTS: Beginner level class, Bead Weaving Interest Area.
MICRO-MACRAME
Learn 6 different knotting techniques, how to design a composition, how to set up your construction on a macrame board, and how to incorporate beads within your piece. REQUIREMENTS: Beginner level course, Bead Stringing Interest Area
- To teach basic business how-to's for getting a jewelry-making business off to a great start
- To provide guidance on federal, state and local license and registration requirements and forms
- To provide a simple approach to creating an accounting general ledger in order to track expenses and revenues
- To discuss record-keeping requirements
- To explain the differences between retail, consignment and wholesale
- To discuss various "business models" that work for the single entreprenuer or small partnership
- To discuss how to understand your market
REQUIREMENTS: Beginner level course, Business Interest Area
Learn how to achieve “fair pricing” using a pricing formula for your art with businessman/ artist, Warren Feld. Understand your role in the world of jewelry commerce and how to make money by doing what you love, through fair pricing of your work. Review the basics of marketing and branding. REQUIREMENTS: Beginner level course, Business Interest Area
Also available as online video tutorial. Click here.
In this class, artist and businessman, Warren Feld, will fill you in on the ins and outs, the dos and the don’ts of selling at craft shows and fairs. Which are best for you, which may be a waste of your time. How to compute the revenue you must earn to justify participating in an event. This is a must see class for anyone thinking of entering the art and craft show world and will maximize your chances of success in these venues. REQUIREMENTS: Beginner level course, Business Interest Area
Also available as online video tutorial. Click here.
You want a business name (or jewelry name) that works for you, that your customers can relate to, and that makes your business (and jewelry line) a success.
We discuss the critical stesp and choices jewelry businesses need to make when naming their business (or their jewelry).REQUIREMENTS: Beginner level course, Business Interest Area
Also available as online video tutorial. Click here.
This class helps the student answer the question:
How can we pick and use certain colors, color combinations and color effects that are pleasing, and avoid others which are not?
Beads are not the same as using paints. We can’t blend beads. There are significant boundary issues as the eye moves from bead to bead. There are issues associated with shapes, faceting, edges, crevices. There are limits in the range of colors you can pick from. There are issues associated with the fact that jewelry as worn, takes many shapes/positions, as the person moves, and the jewelry still has to maintain its “power and appeal”. When the eye jumps from bead to bead, the viewer's mind has to fill in where there are gaps of color.
In this class, unlike the typical Art class on Color, we focus on how the Bead asserts its need for Color.REQUIREMENTS: First class in Jewelry Design Interest Area. Prefer student has previously taken 3 other classes in some aspect of beading or jewelry making
Also available as online video tutorial. Click here.
In this class, we focus primarily on Principles of Composition. The jewelry artist applies these Principles of Composition by manipulating the elements of the piece. These Principles include,
a. Rhythm
b. Pointers
c. Planar Relationships
d. Interest
e. Statistical Distribution
f. Balance
g. Dimensionality
h. Temporal Extension
i. Physical Extension/Finishing
j. Parsimony
REQUIREMENTS: This is the 2nd class in Jewelry Design Interest Area. Prerequisite: Beads and Color.
JEWELRY DESIGN II: FORM AND STRUCTURE
Jewelry must withstand the forces that usage places on the piece. Design strategies must anticipate whether the piece would be worn daily or occasionally; was expected to last a year, more than a year, a lifetime; was to be worn in situations where there was little movement/activity by the wearer or a lot of movement/activity.
The designer does not want the piece to pose any kind of problem of manipulation. The Design and Construction should be conditioned by anatomy and situation.
PHYSICAL FUNCTION is understood in terms of MOVEMENT, Flow, Drapery, Flexibility, Rigidity, Volume, Weight, and Torque.
PSYCHO-SOCIAL FUNCTION: Jewelry has many uses, including meeting the individual's needs for self-esteem, self-actualization, sex and sexuality, a sense of oneness and uniqueness, a sense of being a part of a larger group or community, a sense of survival and protection, a re-affirmation of values and perspectives, a connection to a higher power or spirituality, fantasy, personal use-goals.
FORMS: It is important for the jewelry designer to think in terms of "parts", "forms", and the "piece as a whole". Forms are inter-related objects. For example, they might be sections of beads that seem to be thematically inter-related.Design-control over forms enables the designer to create a "whole" that is more than the sum of its "parts".
JEWELRY SUPPORT SYSTEMS: In the marriage of thought to process, the jewelry designer needs to focus on how the piece is constructed, and to understand how to construct the piece in anticipation of how it is to be worn.
REQUIREMENTS: This is the 3rd class in Jewelry Design Interest Area. Prerequisite: Jewelry Design I.
The Jewelry Design Discussion Seminars are monthly discussions of important topics related to the idea of "Good Jewelry Design". What is it? How does it come into play? How do we empower good jewelry designers? How does good jewelry design influence what materials we select or what techniques we select? What do we look for? How do we know something is well-designed, or not well-designed? What is good "contemporary" design and how does it differ from good "traditional" design? REQUIREMENTS: Anyone with an interest in designing jewelry may join our monthly discussions.
Learn to use hard wire to make jewelry and jewelry components. In this class, you make a bracelet using several wire wrapping techniques, such as
- Spiral Dangle
- Caged Bead
- Making Eye Pin
- Spiral Bead Caps
- Coiled Coil
- Coiled head pin
- Wrapped Loop
- Fancy spiral-ending head-pin
- Assembling components
- Using jump rings
- Black oxidizing wire components
REQUIREMENTS: This is the first required class in the Wire Work Interest Area.
Wire weaving is a set of techniques, similar to basket weaving, where you wrap thin weave wires around thicker base wires to create patterns and textures. You can then use these wire-woven strips to make all kinds of things, such as the framework to turn a cabochon or bead into a pendant, earring dangles, bracelets, bails, and the like.
In this class, we learn about materials needed, using tools including chain nose, flat nose, and round nose pliers, flush cutters, wire straightener, ring clamp, preparing the wire before weaving, 5 different weaving patterns with some variation, finishing off our wire-woven strip, making a bangle bracelet using our wire weaving patterns, we review oxidizing techniques. REQUIREMENTS: Beginner level class, Wire Work Interest Area
his wire weaving class continues the work from Wire Weave Basics I. We learn to use 3 or more base wires around which to wire weave more complex patterns. We learn some strategies for finishing off the wire weaving, such as finishing off old and adding in new wires, adjusting the coiling to improve aesthetics, and adjusting the base wires to improve wire tension. We learn about shaping our wire woven segments.
In this class, we learn about materials needed, using tools including chain nose, flat nose, and round nose pliers, flush cutters, wire straightener, ring clamp, preparing the wire before weaving, 5 different weaving patterns with some variation, finishing off our wire-woven strip, shaping our wire woven strips, making a bracelet using a wire woven pattern for the centerpiece, and wire weaving patterns extended on either side of this centerpiece, we review oxidizing techniques. REQUIREMENTS: Intermediate level class, prerequisite Wire Weave Basics 1, Wire Work Interest Area
Silversmithing involves using metal wire and metal sheet to create objects held together in full or in part with the use of solder and a torch.
Students are taught:
1) about silversmithing equipment, tools and techniques
2) how to solder using a torch
3) how to make 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional pieces, including ring, pendant, and bracelet
4) how to create a bezel setting for a stone, and how to set a stone
REQUIREMENTS: Beginner level class, Silversmithing Interest Area
BASIC SOLDERING USING HAND-HELD TORCH
Learn about metals, physical properties, and soldering sterling silver using a hand-held torch. REQUIREMENTS: Beginner level class, Silversmithing Interest Area
If jewelry is "art", is the entire piece the art, or only the center piece, or central focal part the art? Classical art theory holds that the fringe, strap, edging, bail, and other similar parts should supplement or support the center piece or focal center. This theory holds that these jewelry structures are not art. They should function like a frame to a painting, or a pedestal to a sculpture.
It is, however, often difficult to separate the jewelry's anatomy like this, with one part important and the other parts supplemental. This BezelWorks Pendant project is, in part, designed to foster ideas, discussion and debate about the roles of fringe, edge, strap, bail and surface embellishment. Each of these is critical to the finished piece.
For each of these anatomical parts or extensions to our piece of jewelry, we need to understand it in terms of:
- What it is, its purpose, its role
- What value it has to the piece
- How it makes the piece more or less satisfying
- What principles should regulate it
- Whether it is part of the art or not
REQUIREMENTS: Intermediate/Advanced level class, Jewelry Design and Bead Weaving Interest Areas
Bead weaving is a collection of hundreds of different stitching techniques and strategies for creating pieces that approximate a piece of cloth. The Ndebele stitch, sometimes called Herringbone Stitch, is a loose-knit stitch that lends itself to many creative variations. It results in a herringbone pattern, or zig-zag effect. This Etruscan Collar Necklace consists of two overlapping strips of Ndebele Stitch, a chain embellishment, and an attached choker clasp. The strips are overlapped so that they curve slightly along the inner edge. The challenge, here for me, was to create a sophisticated, wearable, and attractive piece that exemplified concepts about contemporizing traditional jewelry. At about the same time I was trying to conceptualize this piece, I had been asked to lead an 8-day workshop on Jewelry Design in Cortona, Italy. I pretty quickly married my design work to this teaching opportunity, and created a workshop called "Contemporizing Etruscan Jewelry".REQUIREMENTS: Intermediate/Advanced level class, Jewelry Design and Bead Weaving Interest Areas
The Japanese Garden Bracelet is a fun project that students love. It is for students who have some familiarity with bead weaving.
I had been experimenting with various strategies for bead weaving an "arch" shape (parabolic arch) which can keep its physical shape while the bracelet is worn. Not an easy task. It has required hours and hours of trial and error. The final choices here were influenced by the architecture of Antonio Gaudi, building a column in segments, and then forcing it into a tight arch configuration. This project is also a good example of how you can use a natural setting for inspiration. This setting influences color choice, color positioning, as well as shape and its placement. REQUIREMENTS: Intermediate level class, Jewelry Design and Bead Weaving Interest Areas
Wrap Bracelets are constructed using a technique strongly related to loom weaving, with influence from basket weaving. The technique used to weave Wrap Bracelets is typically referred to as “laddering”. In this Aztec Wrap Bracelet, we use 1- and 2-hold beads, creating an Aztec influenced mosaic pattern between are warp legs. In this class, we learn about materials needed, preparing a work board, measurements, one-needle vs 2-needle approaches, soumak vs. bead weave figure 8 thread pattern, beginning and finishing off our piece, make a 2-around Wrap Bracelet, variation options in patterns, materials and techniques. REQUIREMENTS: Advanced Beginner/Intermediate level class, Bead Weaving Interest Area.
These are 30 minute sessions where we introduce and explain a technique, go over the main choices you will need to make when implementing that technique, and then you get to practice it. We provide brief instruction, a handout, the materials and tools. Most require a materials fee between $3.00 and $5.00.
Topics include: simple and coiled wire loops, how to crimp, how to use elastic string, how to string with Fireline, even count flat peyote, brick stitch, ndebele stitch, right angle weave stitch, attached end caps to ropes and thick cords, making simple and fancy adjustable slip knots, applying a pricing formula for your jewelryREQUIREMENTS: Beginner level classes, typically 30 minutes in length
Jewelry Making Clinics are usually 1 hour in length, in depth exploration of a technique and one or two variations on that technique. Topics include: How To Crimp, Simple and Coiled Wire Loops and Wire Wrap Chain, Variations on Using Elastic String, Tubular Peyote Bezel Setting, Kumihimo Basics, Pricing and Selling Your Jewelry, Let's Make Earrings On Head Pins, Let's Make Earrings Off Of Chain. REQUIREMENTS: Beginner level class, various topics
The Jewelry Design Discussion Seminars are monthly discussions of important topics related to the idea of "Good Jewelry Design". What is it? How does it come into play? How do we empower good jewelry designers? How does good jewelry design influence what materials we select or what techniques we select? What do we look for? How do we know something is well-designed, or not well-designed? What is good "contemporary" design and how does it differ from good "traditional" design?
TOPICS:
Good Design; Contemporary Design; Composition; Manipulation; Resonance; Beads and Color; Point, Lines, Planes, Shapes, Forms, Themes; Architectural Basics; Contemporizing Traditional Jewelry; Mixed Media/Mixed Methods; Designing an Ugly Necklace; What is Jewelry, Really?; Is Jewelry Making Teachable?; Can I Survive as a Jewelry Artist?; Creativity Isn't Found, It Is Developed; Jewelry Design Management - a Process; Evoking Emotional Responses and Resonance; Professional Responsibilities; Your Work Space; Design Theater; Fashion, Style, Taste or Art?; Overcoming Designer's Block; Threading The Business Needle. REQUIREMENTS: Anyone with an interest in designing jewelry may join our monthly discussions.
COZUMEL NECKLACE
This is a beginning class on micro-macrame incorporating beads. We use simple overhand knots to create a button/loop clasp assembly, a chevron pattern component, and a multi-strand necklace with sea glass beads, metal clackers and charms, and shell heishi on hemp. REQUIREMENTS: beginner level class, Bead Stringing interest area.
