Sint Lucas Antwerpen
jewellery design-goldsmithing 

Here in the Jewellery Design | Goldsmithing department we design contemporary jewels and small objects. Objects that may or may not be functional, but clearly refer to mankind and his size. That is why we consider “the body” – both as regards jewels and objects – as the red thread running through the programme.

In creating jewels and objects (“domestic things”), we always start out from the visual meaning – from the idea. An affinity with material and technique is important, but also subordinate to that idea. Moreover, the Jewellery Design | Goldsmithing department offers an academic training. This means that artistic work is always tied to research and theory.

That is why our work is always based on research. We gather sources from outside and from within ourselves. We develop design methods. Ours is an ongoing search for the combination between thinking and doing, research and intuition, content and execution, the imagination and interpretation.
This whole process is recorded in sketch books and photographs and on film,… so that other disciplines – whether analogue or digital – can also be involved in the design. And it is out of this process-related work method that strong images will emerge. Powerful images that communicate in an authentic manner with the outside world, the public, people. As a piece of jewellery or an object.

In the first bachelor year the emphasis is on experimentation; visual assignments will confront you with something unexpected and challenge you to discover and push back your own limits.
In the second year you will zoom in on the course itself. You will explore the specific language of jewels and objects. A language that says something about “value”, “luxury”, “use”, “protection”, “souvenir”, “status”, “tradition”, … Themes that refer to content and meaning.

In the third year you will mostly work independently and you will try to determine your own position within the international professional field. By now you will have developed an authentic visual language in your own handwriting.
In your Master’s year the emphasis will be even more on responsibility and your own initiatives. This time you will formulate your own research questions and determine the context of your work. This Master’s year is only intended for students who wish to pursue the research-related aspect.

Domestic Things – of people and daily things

Since September 2009, the Jewellery Design | Goldsmithing department of Sint Lucas Antwerpen is offering a training course that raises everyday utensils – “domestic things” – to the level of meaningful autonomous objects. The course is rooted in the original “silversmithing.” Yet, though this term refers to a long historical tradition, it is given in a contemporary manner.

Just imagine: your mind is filled with thoughts and ideas. You can get angry, be enraptured by beauty or feel miserable, you can protest or at least express strong criticism. You have your own opinions and you’d like to make them known. You want to give shape to them at least, one way or another. You can do so with words, but perhaps even better with pictures.

You have the feeling that domestic things can help you do so, that they are the most obvious means by which to express yourself; because what is ordinary, recognizable and tangible about a coffee pot, a vase or a broom seems to you to be an excellent means to convey your own message.

Mankind and things namely have something in common, their “handiness” for instance, the way in which things fit easily “in one’s hand” or in the prolongation of the body. Thus it is that size or scale is one of the most important aspects to define the literal and corporal connection between mankind and thing.

Although the use of a thing – and the accompanying rituals and habits – are intricately connected to the object, this is precisely why it evokes a lot more than just the association with functionality. Objects reveal surprisingly much about mankind, about our longings, feelings and actions, our surroundings and society. More so yet than the fine art that often hangs, enlarged, in museums, “free design” is close to people.

We will familiarize students with both old techniques and new technologies thanks to collaborations with small studios and large companies. That is why you will be taught the first steps of computer design (Rhinoceros software) and the making of traditional models (scale modelling, clay modelling, moulding…).

You will be taught basic smithing techniques, but they will especially serve as a starting point from which to explore new paths and discover new territory. Working with metal (silver, copper, aluminium, steel…) is thus encouraged, but not deemed self-evident. Other materials or other techniques can namely be explored if the meaning of the work requires so.

Studying in the Goldsmithing department is the contemporary continuation of something that started long ago: the relationship between mankind and thing.

The new section is headed by silversmiths Siegfried De Buck and Hilde Van der Heyden.

Department head: Hilde De Decker
Lecturers: Pia Clauwaert, Siegfried De Buck, Hilde Van der Heyden, Veerle Van Wilder, Bart Vermaercke, Ria Fabri.
Visiting lecturers: Esther Knobel, Evert Nijland, Yuka Oyama, Christoph Zellweger, Gijs Assmann, Erik Mattijssen, Sayaka Yamamoto, Boaz Cohen, Boy Vereecken, Vera Siemund, Dinie Besems
Artist in residence: Ann Meskens (philosopher)

Every year in February, our department organises a 'studio week'. During this week, instead of attending theory classes, students spend five days intensively working in the studio. The perfect chance to invite renowned designers from all over the world.