Students in ARTS 2341 and 2342, Art Metals 1 and 2: Jewelry Design, keep busy cutting, filing, soldering and baking in the basement of Koehler Cultural Center.
Despite the subterranean digs, the workshop's walls are painted green like fresh grass, and gnomes socialize in a mural across the wall.
Originally a jewelry repair program, the art metals classes have grown to encompass not only jewelry-making but three-dimensional, casting and wax projects.
Currently, the students are working on a piercing project in which they cut out a design on one piece of metal and solder it to another, Lecturer Mark Hansen said.
Students can fill in the relieved area with epoxy or powdered enamel with their choice of color.
To melt the enamel, the piece will go into a kiln to bake for a few seconds. Once cooled, the product is finished.
During a recent class, most students were working on jewelry pieces, but fine arts sophomore Kristen Barchus was working on an incense burner for her mother as a gift.
Barchus said her family owns a local stained glass business, Caitshee Fine Art, and she is taking the class to broaden her artistic horizons for their business.
Her mother, Catherine Touch, received an associate degree in visual arts from this college and is attending the University of Texas at San Antonio to obtain a bachelor's degree in fine arts.
Touch also teaches stained glass, fused glass, metal arts and pottery to home-schooled students.
The art metals class attracts students from all majors - visual arts to business.
Business sophomore Abi Aranda is on her second round of art metals classes because she enjoyed them so much the first time.
Aranda was pouring colored enamel into her jewelry design. The black-and-white enamel was woven into a zebra pattern for the front, while the back side remained copper.
"Maybe someday I can market my artwork," Aranda said. "This will definitely be a lifelong hobby. I enjoy it very much."
Aranda plans to take Art Metals 2 next semester.
The classes meet twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday for three hours. Throughout the semester, students are given projects that allow them to investigate the medium creatively, and then completed projects are critiqued.
"Art metals is unbelievably awesome, but it goes unnoticed," Aranda said. "We have this great facility with all the necessary equipment, and more people should enroll in this class."
Media Credit: D.A. James
Liberal arts sophomore Vanessa A. Williams solders a piece of metal for jewelry she is crafting in Lecturer Mark Hansen's Art Metals class Tuesday in Koehler. Williams owns Black Cherokee Designs and makes all the jewelry she sells and wears.
Media Credit: D.A. James
Music sophomore Adriana Corpus saws different shapes into her 3-D and piercing projects. Corpus' project will be a candleholder.
Media Credit: D.A. James
Graphic arts freshman Leslie Hogue files one side of her 3-D box projects Tuesday for Lecturer Mark Hansen's a Art Metals 1 and 2 classes in the basement of Koehler.
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