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Educational Programs
Open Shop The shop is a creative environment where lapidary and jewelry artists generously share their knowledge, experience, techniques, and ideas. A lot of informal learning takes place as you rub shoulders with experts and commercial artists! Bring your own raw materials (e.g. metal, wire, and stone). The Club offers an excellent variety of motorized tools, hand tools, and even some stone you may polishwith the Club's equipment. New members are welcome to Open Shop, however we strongly recommend that new members attend a Shop Orientation held at 10 am on the third Saturday of every month. Please view the Events Calendar for Open Shop hours. Classes The fastest path toward new skills is to take a class offered at our facility. These classes typically include all the materials and supplies, plus in-depth training in how to safely and successfully operate tools and equipment. Classes are normally held on weekends or during our annual Gem and Mineral Show. All of our classes are taught by skilled artists, most of whom are also commercial artists. Demos and Presentations Demonstrations on lapidary and metalsmith techniques and presentations on geology topics are held occasionally throughout the year. These are open to the public and are usually free. Find demos and presentations on our Events Calendar. Visitors Visitors are welcome to stop by during Open Shop to see what is going on, but are not allowed entry during scheduled classes. Classes are closed to the public unless you are registered for that class. Our bylaws allow a visitor to use the Club's Open Shop one time, if daily shop fees are paid and a liability waiver is signed. Thereafter, please join the Club for continued use of the Shop. Fortunately membership is very reasonably priced. Check our Join the Club page. |
Learn lapidary, metalsmith and other art techniques.
View exhibits to identify rocks, gems and minerals
Cabochons by Carl Lindeman, Gem Show Class instructor
Silver Bracelet with Stone Setting by Jama Crawford, Gem Show Class Instructor
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Year Round Classes
The Club offers a wide variety of lapidary and metal smith classes throughout the year, taught by talented members and professional jewelers. Click the View Calendar button above to find upcoming classes.
How to Enroll
Each class description on the Calendar includes an email or phone number to contact the instructor. The instructor will explain enrollment procedures and how to make payment.
Typical Class Offerings
Many students will begin their studies in the lapidary studio, where they learn how to slice, shape, and polish stone. Others dive right into metal smith classes, learning how to saw, bend, rivet, roll, and shape metal. They also learn how to solder, to join two or more pieces of metal to create more complex jewelry and stone settings. Others will start with colorful glass enamels, precious metal clay or lost wax casting. Follow your passion!
Meet Some of Our Instructors
The Club offers a wide variety of lapidary and metal smith classes throughout the year, taught by talented members and professional jewelers. Click the View Calendar button above to find upcoming classes.
How to Enroll
Each class description on the Calendar includes an email or phone number to contact the instructor. The instructor will explain enrollment procedures and how to make payment.
Typical Class Offerings
Many students will begin their studies in the lapidary studio, where they learn how to slice, shape, and polish stone. Others dive right into metal smith classes, learning how to saw, bend, rivet, roll, and shape metal. They also learn how to solder, to join two or more pieces of metal to create more complex jewelry and stone settings. Others will start with colorful glass enamels, precious metal clay or lost wax casting. Follow your passion!
Meet Some of Our Instructors
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Denise Galley
As an interpretive archeologist, Denise spends the fair-weather months of the year conducting private tours into Mesa Verde and Canyons of the Ancients. During the off-season she likes to spend time with her wire craft. Initially, not wanting to spend a lot of money on tools and supplies for her hobby, or work with fiery blow torches required of silversmithing, she found she could be creative with wire wrapping and wire weaving. She has utilized tutorials found primarily in books and on You Tube to learn and develop her skills in fabricating simple to complex pendants and earrings. After seven years crafting with wire, she recognizes the time has come to share some of that acquired knowledge with others. Past experience offering wire classes for the gem club has resulted in the realization that wire art is best begun at the very basic level with a small number of students in each class. Hence, Denise offers classes to beginners who need the basics before moving forward into the amazing world of wire art. |
Lucas Wardein
Lucas started his jewelry journey after a mountain biking accident ended his professional cycling career in 2017. The accident left him with 4 broken vertebrae, 2 broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a lifetime of inspiration!
In recovery, he started drawing and then, once able to, got trained in tattooing. After realizing he wasn’t passionate about that art form, a tip from an old engineering friend about wire-wrapping set aflame in a new way.
Lucas has been wire-wrapping for 4 years and is completely self-taught; he teaches basic, intermediate and advanced wire classes.
Lucas started his jewelry journey after a mountain biking accident ended his professional cycling career in 2017. The accident left him with 4 broken vertebrae, 2 broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a lifetime of inspiration!
In recovery, he started drawing and then, once able to, got trained in tattooing. After realizing he wasn’t passionate about that art form, a tip from an old engineering friend about wire-wrapping set aflame in a new way.
Lucas has been wire-wrapping for 4 years and is completely self-taught; he teaches basic, intermediate and advanced wire classes.
Carlos Mañón
Carlos fell in love with the American Southwest after moving to southern Utah at a young age. The high desert of the Colorado Plateau continues to be a major source of inspiration for his work. A bartender by trade, he was working at our local VFW when a Vietnam veteran friend turned lapidarist taught him how to cut stone in the immediate aftermath of the Pandemic. Carlos developed a particular interest in local gem dinosaur bone and other fossils and took a soldering course through this Gem Club. 3 years later he sells his wearable fossil art all over the country from his home-based business Aztlán S.W. Studio.
You can find him selling his jewelry through El Rancho Tavern mostly on a commission basis. Contact him at [email protected], or through his Insta www.instagram.com/aztlanswstudio
Carlos fell in love with the American Southwest after moving to southern Utah at a young age. The high desert of the Colorado Plateau continues to be a major source of inspiration for his work. A bartender by trade, he was working at our local VFW when a Vietnam veteran friend turned lapidarist taught him how to cut stone in the immediate aftermath of the Pandemic. Carlos developed a particular interest in local gem dinosaur bone and other fossils and took a soldering course through this Gem Club. 3 years later he sells his wearable fossil art all over the country from his home-based business Aztlán S.W. Studio.
You can find him selling his jewelry through El Rancho Tavern mostly on a commission basis. Contact him at [email protected], or through his Insta www.instagram.com/aztlanswstudio
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Chayse Romero
Chayse Romero Field is a female metalsmith who runs a local jewelry business called Frontera Jewelry. She loves to work with silver and gold, precious and semiprecious gemstones and the element of fire to create wearable works of art that tells tales of sacred landscapes, love stories and more. She loves to learn new metalsmithing techniques and specializes in creating custom wedding rings, empowering bolo ties, big statement rings and more! You can find her work at her storefront in Downtown Durango, located at 862 Main Avenue, on her website FronteraJewelry.com, or on Instagram @FronteraJewelry |
Joel Arnold
Joel Arnold has a lifelong interest in Gems and Minerals. In 1974 he was hired by jeweler Mike Cross in Rifle, CO. Joel worked as a lapidary artist cutting and polishing oil shale and made a desk set for Colorado Governor Vanderhoof, as well as a set of bookends for President Ford. In 2002 he joined our Club and took several classes in cabochon making. Later he studied advanced cabochon making with Mark Haughton of Rock Deco and worked with Mark in his studio. Joel spent many hours making cabochons perfecting his skills. In 2010 he started teaching classes at the Four Corners Gem & Mineral Club. Examples of his work are shown at right. |
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Charlotte Lenssen
Charlotte studied Studio Art at Rollins College and graduated in 1988. Her senior focus was jewelry making and casting. She has dabbled in many media including: drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, glass bead making, craft and then of course jewelry making. She teaches casting, both traditional lost wax method and other innovative approaches to cast metal. |
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Here are photos from Charlotte's latest class:
Jama Crawford
Jama is an avid backpacker and gardener, and someone who dabbled in art her whole life: painting, sewing, costume making, working with clay, woodworking. In her career she produced graphic design, scientific illustration, and exhibit development. Upon retirement she decided it was time to focus on one art discipline - jewelry making. She discovered the Club while searching for the company of other artists in an open studio setting. She took classes from all the talented instructors shown on this page, and enrolled in online jewelry courses. She launched a jewelry business in 2016 and primarily sells online and at local arts & crafts fairs. Her teaching focuses on metal smith techniques, usually combined with stone settings and scenes from nature. Her work is shown below.
Jama is an avid backpacker and gardener, and someone who dabbled in art her whole life: painting, sewing, costume making, working with clay, woodworking. In her career she produced graphic design, scientific illustration, and exhibit development. Upon retirement she decided it was time to focus on one art discipline - jewelry making. She discovered the Club while searching for the company of other artists in an open studio setting. She took classes from all the talented instructors shown on this page, and enrolled in online jewelry courses. She launched a jewelry business in 2016 and primarily sells online and at local arts & crafts fairs. Her teaching focuses on metal smith techniques, usually combined with stone settings and scenes from nature. Her work is shown below.
Nancy Conrad
Nancy studied visual arts and elementary education at Fort Lewis College, and then spent her career as an artist and art instructor. She has specialized in kiln work, first as a potter for more than 25 years, then as a fused glass artist, and for the past 17 years producing kiln-fired art jewelry. She still loves to play with fire! Nancy teaches metal clay at the Four Corners Gem and Mineral Club in Durango as well as in her home studio. She taught three days of classes at the national conference "Metal Clay by the Bay" in 2014. Nancy completed Hadar Jacobson's intensive year-long accreditation course to teach mixed metals in 2013. Nancy was certified to teach PMC silver through Rio Grande's certification program with Barbara Becker Simon in 2010. Four of Nancy's pieces were selected to be published in “Patterns of Color in Metal Clay, Canes, Gradients, Mokume-Gane” book. Her jewelry may be found in fine arts galleries in Salida (Culture Clash) and Vail (Karats) as well as in Create (in Durango Arts Center) and No Place Like Home in Durango. Examples of her work are shown below.
Nancy studied visual arts and elementary education at Fort Lewis College, and then spent her career as an artist and art instructor. She has specialized in kiln work, first as a potter for more than 25 years, then as a fused glass artist, and for the past 17 years producing kiln-fired art jewelry. She still loves to play with fire! Nancy teaches metal clay at the Four Corners Gem and Mineral Club in Durango as well as in her home studio. She taught three days of classes at the national conference "Metal Clay by the Bay" in 2014. Nancy completed Hadar Jacobson's intensive year-long accreditation course to teach mixed metals in 2013. Nancy was certified to teach PMC silver through Rio Grande's certification program with Barbara Becker Simon in 2010. Four of Nancy's pieces were selected to be published in “Patterns of Color in Metal Clay, Canes, Gradients, Mokume-Gane” book. Her jewelry may be found in fine arts galleries in Salida (Culture Clash) and Vail (Karats) as well as in Create (in Durango Arts Center) and No Place Like Home in Durango. Examples of her work are shown below.
Jaymus Perry
Jaymus (also known as James) has been a Club member for nearly 5 years, soon became a shop steward, and then advanced to Club officer and President of the Board.A master silversmith, Jaymus specializes in wax casting. His innovative designs are inspired by his Navajo heritage, but are also his own beautiful and unique artistic creations. His stone selection often includes red garnets and lime-green peridot, precious stones he found exploring his Navajo homeland since youth. His web site artbonnet.com is where he concentrates on selling his unique and customizable motorcycle ornament, the ArtBonnet, shown right. Jaymus is also trained in the management of art galleries and artists, and so brings a lot of know-how to budding art entrepreneurs. The images below show steps in wax-casting. |
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If you are interested in becoming an instructor, please read the Teachers Q & A, provided here.