Hello,
apologies if this has been discussed ad nauseum – I live in the Bay
Area and am curious about other folks’ experience with the Revere
Academy? How are the classes and do you feel it was worth the cost?
Is there a specific class or teacher you would recommend?
thanks!
peggy
The Revere Academy offers about 40 different classes and I don’t
know how many teachers. Many of the teachers awork in that building
as bench guys and gals and have years of experience. So your teacher
might have been doing setting for 20 years, as well as yesterday.
Alan himself is top notch, trained in Europe. The school has an
excellent reputation and classes are 1-5 days, with him having a
career course for 3-4 months too. His school is also JA certified for
passing the Bench Certification.
You can’t go wrong.
David Geller
Peggy,
I have both taken classes and taught workshops at Revere Academy. It
is one of the most professional schools you will ever encounter. The
workshops are fully equipped with professional grade equipment. As an
instructor, I know that Alan asks a lot more of those who teach there
than any other school. I have to prepare a detailed syllabus that he
will review, along with detailed tool and materials lists. How the
instructor will present the material is as important as what they
will present. All the instructors at Revere are working
professionals, so all the you receive has been “field
tested.” You will probably get a lot of tips, shortcuts, and trade
secrets thrown into each class. As a working jeweler, it impossible
to teach any subject without giving out a lot of this type of
Alan also gets the highest quality professionals in the
field to teach there. While it may be true that I can make more money
working in my own shop that teaching at Revere, it is an honor to be
invited to teach there. I will probably spend 60 or more hours
preparing to teach a 40 hour workshop. I teach very few workshops.
If you already have some experience, and are looking to add to your
skills, I highly recommend the Master’s Symposium workshops in
April. Robert Lee Morris, one of the worlds top jewelry designers.,
will be teaching “Designing for Production,” April 11 - 15. Robert
operates a gallery in SOHO, and has designed lines for Donna Karan,
and others. I would love to be in this workshop, but I will be
teaching a workshop of my own that week, “Romantic Connections.” This
workshop will focus on making the connection an important part of the
jewelry design, while giving practical tips on how to design
construct complicated mechanisms easily.
Kent Raible, the master of granulation, will be teaching one of his
rare workshops on April 18 - 22. He will be doing granulation on 18k,
and as someone who has taken a workshop with Kent, he is an excellent
instructor as well as a wealth of practical He
constructs some of the most beautiful mechanisms I have ever seen.He
will also be teaching a “Terminations” workshop on April 23 - 24.
Charles Lewton-Brain will be teaching “Fold Forming” on April 4 -8,
and “Bench Tricks” on April 9 - 10. You cannot find a better workshop
on fold forming, since Charles is the master who pioneered and
developed this technique. Dee Fontans will be teaching cloissonne’
and champleve enameling on April 4 - 8, Deb Lozier will be teaching
"Torch Fire Enameling" on April 16 - 17, Curtis Arima will be
teaching “Color on Metal” on April 9-10, and Christie Romero will be
presenting “The History of Jewelry” on ASpril 16-17. I will also be
teaching a “Surface Treatments” workshop on April 18-22, that will
cover almost every technique used to add texture and design elements
to the surface of fine metals. You can experiment with Kuem-boo,
granulation, reticulation, damascene, engraving, texture wheels,
sandblasting, plating, and more. I’ll even throw in some tips on
getting a perfect polish!
If you are just starting out or just getting serious about jewelry,
the faculty there and the programs available are hard to beat. When
my own son became serious about jewelry, I sent him to Revere for
advanced workshops. I saw a huge jump in his skill level after each
workshop. He is now a partner in my gallery, and the primary
designer.
The Revere Academy is not the only great school in the US, but in
the Bay area, it will be the best money you every spent on jewelry
training.
Doug
Douglas Zaruba
33 N. Market St.
Frederick, MD
@Douglas_Zaruba
Hi Peggy,
I took Fabrication 1 at Revere this fall, and thought it was a great
class. At that level, you are only learning techniques, and you
complete several basic projects that involve sawing, filing,
soldering, and bezel setting. I had some previous experience, but
wasn’t comfortable with my soldering abilities – I am now very
comfortable soldering even tiny jump rings, so I’d say their
teaching method is very effective. I plan on taking another class
there sometime in 2005.
I’ve taken several classes at Revere and each one of them has been
excellent. My instructors were Christine Dhein, Alan Revere and Yas
Tanaka. Revere is pricey but you definitely get your money’s worth.
In the long run, I think you save money because you make fewer
mistakes. I’m also a real fan of the Mendocino Art Center.
Mona
Hi Peggy -
I have taken three classes at Revere: Marketing Designer Jewelry
with Alan Revere, Keum-boo with Christine Dhein, and Foldforming
with Charles Lewton-Brain.
I can sum up my experience thusly: they were all excellent and I
recommend them highly. The instructors are very knowledgeable and
the school is very well-equipped. I learned a lot in all three of
them and would love to be able to take the diploma series. I felt
that the class cost in all cases was very reasonable.
Linda