Jewellery facilities and campus

We met with Paul Evans, Senior Technical Manager and demonstrator at the School of Jewellery, to discuss the technician’s role within the School. Due to the diverse nature of our courses, we have as wealth of traditional machinery alongside cutting edge contemporary facilities – all run and maintained by the technical team.

As a student here, you’ll benefit from the technicians time and expertise when you’re working on projects. From welcome week to the final-year work, the technical staff will assist you with processes and ensure the projects are suitable for manufacture.

"The role of the technician is to help the student compete their work to how they designed it" Paul explains. "The key difference between the technical and the academic teams is that we do not involve ourselves in the aesthetics of a piece, or the story behind it. We help with how to join, build, construct, manufacture, or form the materials the student presents us with and any other elements we can help with."

When you start in Welcome Week you’ll be given a tour by the academic team that includes the basement and other facilities. The next phase is the basement induction – in small groups, you will come down and work with the technical staff to complete inductions on some of the machinery. It can be quite varied which members of the team work with the students.

Technician's aren't connected to a specific course, but have their own unique skillset, Paul explains:

"If a Horologist comes down and need help with something particular they’ll be directed to the technician who has the skillset they need. It’s about supporting the student to achieve, so the team is very flexible in that effect. We try to have a broad skillset, so students aren’t restricted to one person. We aim to be multi-skilled, but Karen does specialise in plating and Gina with casting. We tend to pass students around the team, depending on what the issue is, to get the best possible outcome."

The support goes through all of your time here, leading to the final year shows:

"When you look at the final year show you can see lots of elements that technicians have had a hand in. We advise, support and maybe even make all sorts of parts and elements of the work. You have to look carefully because of the way work is assembled, as it might not be recognisable from what you helped the student do. It depends on the individual student and their project – we’re here to support everyone in any way."

Paul finished by adding: