School of Jewellery

[00:00:26] Speaker 1 I chose BCU because it's got the best facilities. My confidence has grown massively, I have learnt so much about different areas, it's not just jewellery that you learn here, you also learn about business and interpersonal skills.

[00:00:38] Speaker 2 I came knowing almost nothing about jewellery, and now I'm starting to make my own pieces in precious metals and getting to that stage of selling.

[00:00:46] Speaker 3 Definitely a lot of opportunity. I'm about to start my Master's degree.

[00:00:57] Unidentified You have got

[00:00:59] Speaker 2 freedom to try anything.

[00:01:01] Speaker 1 The tutors are super helpful, the technicians as well.

[00:01:06] Speaker 4 They all know different techniques. They are always really friendly and will come to help you.

[00:01:18] Speaker 3 School of Jewellery is as a community of jewellers and hydrologists and gemmologists, we offer courses that start at foundation level and progress through to Postgraduate study.

[00:01:32] Speaker 4 So I'm creating my collection on computer aided design, where we can actually build the pieces. You can then take the file that you've built and create different textures. Then we have 3D printing where you can kind of create prototypes, see if it works, see what you like, what you don't like, and then go from there. It's more time efficient and cost efficient because you can create all these prototypes, whereas when you're hand making stuff, if something goes wrong or you don't like it, you're creating excess waste materials.

[00:02:12] Speaker 5 We teach gemmology in custom built facilities within the assay office, it's the only course of its type in the world.

[00:02:19] Speaker 6 I think that so many students, even in our class, already work at jewellery stores, some of us even own jeweller stores. Some people are working for auction houses because there's a lot of paths I think I didn't even realise existed until I started this course, so it's very exciting, there's a lot of doors just opened.

[00:02:40] Speaker 7 It is one of the very few places that you can study horology as a degree and I don't think anywhere has quite the same amount of facilities that BCU does. Thanks to being a BCU student, I was able to reach out to a couple of places to go do work experience and they were happy to have me because they had BCU students before they have hired BCU students and they know the sort of quality that BCU produces.

[00:03:13] Speaker 4 I definitely think I'm industry ready. I feel like this collection is going to be the launch of my business, really show that I can be a designer and a maker.

[00:03:25] Speaker 3 We're renowned for world class facilities and we've been around for over 130 years. And we support students in their creative and their technical developments through traditional jewellery processes as well as the latest digital technical innovations. It's the first stepping stone into their professional career.

Jeremy Hobbins: It's such a blend of different types of jewellery here. Jewellery can be so much more than just a glittering bauble that you wear. So the inspired festival for the School of Jewellery is a fantastic opportunity for our graduates or would be graduates to showcase their work.

William Appleby: There was the opportunity to have pictures of my work put up on billboards around the city. So above New Street station and sort of on sides of vans and things.

Ellie Painter: To be able to go and get information from the industry and not just tutors here. Everything's on your doorstep and people are always so happy to help because they see the DFI course as new faces going into the Jewellery Quarter now.

Jeremy Hobbins: It is really great practice for them in terms of showcasing their work, preparing it, displaying and all of the accompanying promotional material as well.

William Appleby: This is now the second piece of work that I've exhibited. And again, it's that confidence to take my finished work, you know, work. I've spent a long time working on them, invested a lot of a lot of time and emotional. It's a very personal thing, you know, But it put it out in public and people come and view it. It's it's it's nerve wracking, but it's really good. It's it's been thoroughly enjoyable.

Ellie Painter: I came to BCU with no jewellery background or knowledge, and the amount I've gathered to leave with is just amazing.

Jeremy Hobbins: And then suddenly this great sort of explosion, this fantastic product, really enables all of us to enjoy the outcomes of our students.