October 2021 Class - Metalworking in Madison

A few months ago, I started a new quest of taking a class once a month. In October, I went with a sister and a friend to the Wheelhouse Studios, located in the Memorial Union at UW Madison.

This was a special visit since all three of us have our bachelor’s in civil engineering from the UW Madison. We thought it was interesting that three woman engineers, all alumni of the university were back doing an art project.

We signed up online for the class and ended up being the only three in the class, so it was nice and small, and we had plenty of one on one attention. With the small class size, and the obvious intelligence of the three students, we were also able to catch on quickly, and we able to each make more than one bracelet.

Only one of us had ever done any jewelry making in the past – and it wasn’t me or my sister. I was amazed at how the seemingly dull looking coil of metal turned into a nice shiny bracelet! The process involved a lot of hammering and manual manipulation of the metal, but there were also a few steps that would be difficult to do at home, involving a pickling solution and heating up the metal with a flame.

It was a fun night, and I have worn my new bracelets relatively often since we did this. I am looking forward to going back to the Wheelhouse Studios for a few more classes!

A few of the key take away from the session:

1. There were three types of metal we used, and each of them needed to be heated or use a chemical bath differently.

2. The finished, polished project looked so differently than the original materials.

3. We were able to make rather pretty bracelets even though we were all novices!