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Nicole RinggoldInspired By Nature Metalsmithing Retreat with Nicole Ringgold
July 17 - 21, 2022 Go back
Students will focus on designing and creating everything that can be found within their immediate natural environment, including leaves, flowers, seed pods, sticks, and more. Demonstrations will include the many techniques that can be used to make silver come alive, from soldering multiple joints in one piece to reticulation, creating 3-dimensional joints, texturing, basic repoussé and chasing, hollow and fold forming, and carving. Students will create several different pieces of their choice throughout the workshop within the class theme.
Check In: Sunday, July 17, 2022
Check Out: Thursday, July 21, 2022
Tuition + Meals: $1,155
With RicePod Lodging Package: $2,291
With Nest Lodging Package: $2,551
With TreeHaus Lodging Package: $1,951
This class is for students who have completed the equivalent of a silversmithing basics course.
PLEASE NOTE: This retreat is now sold out. If you wish to be added to the waiting list, please call us at (715) 779-0178.
- Class description
- Bio
- Supply List
- gallery
Class description
Wild Rice Retreat is delighted to be partnering with Lissa Flemming of Silverwaves Jewelry at her downtown Bayfield, WI dedicated Metalsmithing Studio - Workshop 46.8° N to host the studio hours of this Retreat with Nicole Ringgold. Located 1.8 miles (or a 4 minute drive) from Wild Rice Retreat, the Workshop is a fully equipped studio with torches, saws, dapping sets, soldering stations, kilns, casting, and a hammering station. Nicole’s group will have exclusive access to the Workshop for this Retreat. If you have any questions about the studio space, please contact us.
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In this Retreat students will focus on designing and creating everything that can be found within their natural surroundings, including leaves, branches, flowers, lichen, bugs, and more.
Demonstrations will include the many techniques that can be used to make silver come alive, from soldering multiple joints in one piece to fusing, reticulation, creating 3-dimensional joints, texturing, basic repoussé and chasing, and carving.
Students will create several different pieces of their choice throughout the workshop within the class theme.
THREE THINGS RETREAT GUESTS WILL WALK AWAY WITH UPON RETREAT COMPLETION:
- A small collection of their own hand fabricated silver botanicals
- A grasp of the key techniques used to fabricate a leaf, flower, branch, and seed pod
- A solid understanding of how to use the Little Smith oxygen/propane torch.
biography
Nicole Ringgold is a silversmith living in Winthrop, Washington, situated in the North Cascade mountains in Washington state. She is an outdoor enthusiast, gardener, wife and mother, farmer, and world wanderer.
Ringgold’s botanical jewelry is hand fabricated. Many people assume that it is cast, dipped or electroformed. She starts with silver sheets and wire, saw, solder, file, texture, form, oxidize and polish every piece. Her intention is not to replicate the plants, but to recreate them with silver with as much detail as possible. Her goal with every piece is to make the metal appear alive.
While fabricating each piece, she takes time to research and learn about the form she is attempting to replicate. When each piece is complete, she shares not only a picture of the work, but information about its natural behaviors and habitat.
Throughout the year Ringgold teaches master silversmithing workshops in her studio and around the globe.
When not in her studio, she can be found in the mountains, with her family and chocolate lab, tilling soil in her garden, or dreaming up her next foreign excursion.
“I believe that my role as a growing leader in the world of silversmithing is to take a stand, to learn more about the extraordinary layers of our word’s vulnerable ecosystems and, by observing and reconstructing them in silver, create an on-going, extensive collection of pieces that help inspire and educate. I hope that my collection encourages people to be more conscientious and take steps toward taking better care of our natural environment.” – Nicole Ringgold
| Contact: | Website: | Follow: |
|---|---|---|
| ringgoldnic@gmail.com | www.nicoleringgold.com | Instagram | Facebook |
Supply List
- The equivalent of 6" x 6" sterling silver sheet, both 22 and 24 gauge (depending on saw frame, be sure to pre-cut sheet so that it can accommodate saws during workshop).
- 10 feet (or more) of each of the following: 20, 18, 16 gauge sterling silver round wire (softness does not matter).
- Silver solder (I prefer wire solder), easy, medium, and hard.
Note: If students need to purchase additional materials from Nicole, she will ask that you pay current market price for the material (given how much the cost for silver is fluctuating).
