We bring sustainability and storytelling to metal arts. You’ll learn how to express yourself through jewelry, functional objects, and sculpture.
Jewelry & Metal Arts Studios
Media Gallery
360° view of Jewelry and Metal Arts Senior Studios | California College of the Arts
About BFA Jewelry & Metal Arts
Tools of the trade
⛓️ About BFA Jewelry & Metal Arts
Our Jewelry and Metal Arts program encourages you to push the boundaries of metal arts. Your work can be wearable headpieces, installations, or even ephemeral sculptures that explore topics that matter to you, from cultural heritage to sexism. We’re also known for being sustainability leaders in the field.
Contemporary craft
You’ll study traditional and contemporary approaches to jewelry making, metalsmithing, sculpture, installations, and design with close mentorship from renowned faculty. Courses explore fabrication techniques—like casting, enameling, production, and holloware—to produce a range of refined metal art. Throughout your time at CCA, you’ll develop a cohesive body of work for your senior solo show that’s compelling, original, and conceptual.
🛠️ Tools of the trade
In our dedicated studio, you’ll find professional jeweler’s benches and a breadth of tools for forming, polishing, enameling, and welding. We’re into blending traditional techniques with cutting-edge processes. Chair Curtis Arima encourages experimentation with metal casting, whether with natural materials found on campus or designs produced on resin 3D printers.
Streich Zone
This multifunction room holds class lectures, critiques, and guest artist talks. It also contains the kilns used for enameling, or fusing powdered glass to create color and images on the surface of metal.
Hammer Room
This space houses forming tools for students to manipulate sheet metal and wire into complex forms; casting equipment to transform wax creations into pieces of silver, bronze, or gold; and a hydraulic press to manipulate shapes. The room also includes a sand blaster, polishing machine, and electric etching station.
