The Family Jewels: A Metals Retreat with Julie Sanford!

At the heart of Julie’s bench practice is redesigning heirloom and orphaned pieces, taking precious mementos and reimagining them. Work like this is usually something you commission - you agree on the design, hand the pieces over, and they come back finished. This week you’ll do the transforming yourself, and you’ll leave knowing how to do it again for whatever else is in that box.

We’ll begin at the gathering table, show what we’ve brought, and share where it came from. Then Julie will work with each of us to develop a design and make a plan of action, worked out against what your own pieces will actually yield.

From there, you’ll melt them down, pour fresh ingots, and roll or draw them into new sheet and wire. That new stock becomes the foundation for the pieces you fabricate, and you’ll set the stones from the original pieces back into them. Julie will work with each of us on the settings that are right for your design, including bezels, elevated prongs, and even pre-made settings if that’s the best option. And there will be plenty of time for the fabrication, stone setting, and finishing during the second half of the week.

As we work through our designs, Julie will cover a bench’s worth of technical skills, from which burs to reach for, to how to set up and use microscopes for stone setting (we’ll have two!), to using the Swiss torch for soldering and metal recycling, and much more. She’ll also share insights from her 30 years’ experience as a working artist and studio owner, the ins and outs of building a bench practice, and how to think about design and creativity so you make more work that speaks to you… and for you.

We’ll photograph every piece before anything is taken apart, so there’s a record of how it came to you, and we’ll document the work as it goes. Telling that story - what a piece was, what it became - is a real part of how Julie markets her own work, and she’ll share how she does it, including how she prepares her reels. On the last day the finished pieces go out beside those first photographs. After, and before.

What we provide

Use of all the tools and equipment in the studio, and all studio consumables - there’s no separate materials fee. We’ll host daily happy hours and light breakfasts each morning, plus a welcome breakfast on Wednesday and a farewell brunch on the last day. Bring a pen and notebook, and your eye magnification if you use it.

What to bring

An assortment of old pieces: rings, chains, brooches, odd earrings. Not everything can be reclaimed - plated, gold-filled, and vermeil pieces aren’t solid metal - so bring more than you think you’ll need. You can also bring any stones you’re interested in using, set or loose - they don’t necessarily need to be part of the heirloom pieces you’re redesigning. If you have photographs of the people the pieces came from, bring those too. They will help you tell the story of the pieces you create!

This retreat works differently. You’re building from metal you already own, so most of your material arrives in your own pocket. There is no separate materials fee - studio consumables (gas, flux, pickle, abrasives, polishing compound) and the use of every tool, torch, and piece of equipment in the studio are included.

• Anything else you want to work with - a particular gauge, a finding, a stone. We will place two supply orders during the retreat, Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, each delivered overnight, and bill each person at cost for anything extra you need to order.
• Solder. If you’re working in gold, bring a small amount of gold solder - or we can include it in one of our supply orders.
• Casting grain. It’s entirely possible you won’t need it; in most cases, redesigning heirloom jewelry can be done without any additional material, but if you already have some, bring it with you just in case. (And we can always add a small amount to our supply order if it turns out you need it!)
• Lunch. We order in together most days, and you’re welcome to bring your own or do something different. If we order in for you, we’ll add the actual cost to your tab.

We’ll keep a running total for you through the week and settle up over coffee on Sunday morning.