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Ever wondered how to make hoop earrings? Award-winning jewellery designer-maker Elisavet Messi presents you with a unique opportunity to learn the essential skill of making tubes from sheet metals and transforming them into hoop earrings.

This two-day course provides a solid foundation for any practicing metalsmith. Led by Elisavet, you will acquire practical knowledge that you can apply in numerous ways to your designs. Learn invaluable skills in tube making, coiling and using tube as findings or mechanisms.

What will I learn?

Delivered in person at the Goldsmiths’ Centre, this course will help you with:

• Materials and calculations: Explore the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of creating your own tube by learning how to calculate materials considering tube sizes, shapes and wall thicknesses.
• Hands on tube making: Gain the skills necessary to make tube from sheet metal and explore various techniques to achieve different size and tube shapes.
• Coiling techniques: Learn how to coil tubes effectively and understand their applications in jewellery design.
• Mechanisms, closures and findings: Understand how to incorporate the mechanism and closure into hoop earrings using tube and wire.  
• Practical application of skills: Apply what you have learned to create a wearable piece – a pair of hollow hoop earrings.

Our small class size offers you the chance to get group as well as individual guidance and 1:1 time with your tutor, allowing you to receive tailored advice to deepen your knowledge and understanding of the subject matter and processes.

What do I need to bring with me?

• Set of needle files.
• Half round hand file with handle.
• Steel ruler.
• Pair of dividers.
• Piercing saw frame + saw blades.
• Rawhide mallet.
• Paint brush for borax.
• Soldering probe or tweezers.
• Tin snips.
• Notebook and pen.

What will I be provided with?

• All silver materials provided.
• Full set of swage blocks and steel straights.
• Soldering equipment.
• Emery stick.
• 2/0 blades bundle.
• Silver hard solder.
• Silver sheet and wire.

Who is this course designed for?

Intermediate: Some practical experience and basic soldering skills are a must.

Participants should be comfortable in a workshop environment and be able to work independently on basic tasks.

Can I receive financial support to access this course?

We believe that talent should not be held back. Here at the Goldsmiths’ Centre, we are open, accessible and inclusive to all. Our Access Grants help anyone to build thriving creative careers, supporting jewellers, silversmiths and allied industry practitioners to access our training courses for free.

If you need help to cover fees for our business and technical skills short courses, please apply for one of our Access Grants. To find out more and read our application criteria, click here

The Access Grants are delivered by the Goldsmiths' Centre and funded by the Goldsmiths’ Company Charity.

Who is the tutor?

Elisavet Messi is an award-winning professional goldsmith. Trained in Greece where she learned all the traditional techniques of goldsmithing, she has used her training to develop a contemporary approach towards design after graduating from the University of Creative Arts in 2015. In 2018 Elisavet received the prestigious Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Award for her Fairtrade Gold earrings and the honour to be a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers. She now uses her experience to create pieces of sculptural quality that successfully balance modern and traditional jewellery techniques