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Design of the Times
Allesee Metals and Jewelry Design program updates an ancient art

Students in the Allesee Metals and Jewelry Design program master a skill-set that encompasses traditional practices and cutting-edge technology.

   In a room that’s a mix of workshop and computer lab, students gather around a large sandbox. With the help of a small furnace just slightly larger than a microwave oven, their professor, Phillip Carrizzi, is turning rejected car parts into molten aluminum, which he will pour into sand molds the students have crafted.
   Carrizzi is the program coordinator of the new Allesee Metals and Jewelry Design program at Ferris State University’s Kendall College of Art and Design. The program is named for Margaret Allesee, a well-known Detroit-area philanthropist, whose generous donation to the college made the new program possible. Kendall started the new program in response to commercial jewelers asking for a program that addressed their needs.
   “I think they were feeling that most of the schools in Michigan that taught jewelry taught it in such a way that the students coming out were not prepared to enter their sphere,” said Carrizzi. “We decided that the Allesee gift and the jewelers’ interest would fit naturally together and that Kendall would use the donation as seed money for the new program.”
   Students find themselves honing a wide range of skills, including drawing, model making and casting, CAD/CAM and sculpture. The aim of the program is to combine the more commercial aspects of jewelry with individual artistic talent.
   “There is a need for the two divisions in the field to be brought together,” says Carrizzi. “I want the program to successfully integrate the practical needs of someone who is trying to make a living with the more eccentric qualities of a one-of-kind jeweler. The commercial and the artistic need to be in balance in order to produce something of quality.”
   The equipment in Carrizzi’s studio includes a laser welder, a video camera mounted to a microscope to show students the finer and more detailed work, and mold-making and engraving machinery. The program has 13 core courses compared with an average of four to six in other metal and jewelry programs. Three of the core design classes deal with the traditional jewelry design and jewelry’s relationship to the body. After the basic classes, the program becomes much more specific about elements in the field. Topics in Commercial Metalwork covers repair and many of the “nuts and bolts” issues people in the field experience.
   “By the time students leave here they will probably be as comfortable designing on the computer as using hand-drawing and carving models—maybe more comfortable,” says Carrizzi, who has himself become familiar with the power of CAD/CAM programs.
   Carrizzi designed the presidential medallion presented to Ferris State President David Eisler at his inauguration using the latest technology.
   “I had been using CAD for awhile, but never actually produced a piece using CAD only,” says Carrizzi. “I thought it would be a great challenge for me to produce the medallion using that technology.”
   According to Carrizzi, once students complete the program there are a number of opportunities available to them. One option is to become a bench jeweler, someone who typically does a lot of jewelry repair and a variety of other customer work as well. There are also coveted design jobs at major fashion houses. Students may also pursue a more academic route by continuing on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree. Or, they could start their own retail business designing their own line, or selling their line wholesale to another retailer.
   Metals and Jewelry Design student Elizabeth Gaines isn’t yet certain what direction she’ll take with her degree, but she’ll have a lot of experience behind her when she does. The sophomore has already had a wider range of experiences than many upperclassmen. She has been on field trips to commercial jewelry manufacturers, traveled to San Francisco for a national goldsmithing conference, and a piece that she made during her first semester in the program was recently accepted in a juried art exhibition.
   “The facility, the instructors and the interaction with other students create an environment that is challenging, supportive and absolutely a blast to be around,” Gaines says. “I still have two more years of studies with many new courses, and I want to experience as much as I can. I’m confident that I will have a world of opportunity ahead of me.”

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