The story so far

Art Lab Todi is a private jewellery school based in the Historical town of Todi in Umbria, central Italy. It runs leisure and professional courses that can accommodate up to 12 students but will also offers one to one classes. Courses range from absolute beginners to advanced practices in jewellery skills. The studio is well equipped for the alloying and milling of wire and sheet from pure grain before working into desired finished pieces. Todi is a popular tourist destination set in the beautiful hills of Umbria which is known as the green heart of Italy. Todi’s historical centre dates back to pre-Roman times and was a border town on the river Tiber, which divided Umbria from Etruria before the Romans came and expanded the town with stronger fortifications that are still evident today. The area is full of luxury villas, farms and guesthouses to suit everyone’s pocket. Italians flock to Umbria for its food, beautiful countryside and historical heritage.

The workshop The workshop or laboritorio as it is called in Italian, is on the ground floor of a palace and is very spacious. It has beautiful vaulted ceilings and stays cool in the summer.

Equipment The workshop is well equipped with bench tools and there are 12 bench peg workstations on two large workbenches that allow for social interaction. 2 soldering stations with propane and oxygen propane set up for melting gold.

Beginners The most popular course for absolute beginners is our Make a Ring in a Day where students start with a silver strip that they texture in the rolling mill or with hammers using an assortment of textures. They then size, solder and round up. In this one-day course the students learn about the alloys used in jewellery, how to anneal, solder, size and finish a ring. If the group is small then there is usually time to make some earrings too.

Intermediate Students with experience often come with projects and designs that they would like to use to explore techniques like cuttlefish casting, raising, or metal fusion. Sometimes they want improve skills like soldering or bench skills. Structured courses for skill development are provided to meet the needs of the individual or groups.

Advanced Stone setting and precise soldering skills are the most requested skill sets from experienced jewellers but we also instruct on casting masters using cuttlefish, red sand or lost wax, fusing metals to forge Mokume Gane patterns and gem stone assessment. Lapidary instruction and gem stone faceting is also available but this is usually just to give an understanding of the process. Gem stone assessment is not about evaluation of a stone but about the practical assessment of a stone for setting. Such as looking for faults in the stone, the quality of the girdle to set onto and choice of setting to enhance and complement the play of colour and brilliance of a stone.