Welcome to the 27th season of the William Holland School of Lapidary Arts. First, we thank all of the wonderful staff, instructors, students and dear friends of the School that have made me feel so welcome my first season here. As a team, we strove to make as many improvements as possible over the last year. It is our goal to continue these improvements while taking care to make sure we preserve the creative spirit and family atmosphere of William Holland moving into the future.

This year we are very happy to be adding several new faces to our instructor family and to be having most of our long-time volunteer faculty back with us as well. As always, we want to thank each and every one of you who have volunteered your time and talents to the School as instructors. I t would not be possible to continue our mission to provide quality Lapidary and Earth Science classes without your dedication and support.

Hopefully, you will be as excited as we are about the improvements we have made to the 2012 catalog and to our website. Many of you will notice that the catalog cover has undergone its first change in four or five years. We loved the old cover and cannot thank Mr. Bill Boggs enough for creating it. We hope that all of you will enjoy the new covers as they change each season to reflect the ongoing changes in our class offerings and the styles and designs our instructors are teaching. The changes to our website are much the same as those made to our catalog; they are meant to make it easier for students and instructors to get the information they need and present a more attractive and accurate portrayal of William Holland as well. We have added weather information and other bits that many students have been requesting as well as laying the foundation to begin a large push toward fully-automated online enrollment.

Another group that deserves many thanks are those that have chosen to support us with their donations. At the start of the 2012 year, almost one-half of the twenty-nine rooms in Spark’s lodge should be complete and renovated. At a cost of $3500.00 per room, this will take about another five years to complete at the current rate of donation. We are all subject to the reality of the current economy, however any contribution makes a huge difference and helps us to not only continue these current improvement goals, but make plans for future improvement projects as well. Remember that, for every $1 000.00, donated toward renovations in Sparks Lodge, you or your organization will receive one free week of classes (tuition and lodging) worth $330.00 and redeemable for any class available at the time of application. Additionally, any donation of $1 00.00 or more will earn you a place on our honorary plaque in the lobby of Sparks.

Most of you will notice a $20.00 increase in our tuition rates for the 2012 season over previous seasons. Here at William Holland, it is important to us to reach a wide range of students, so we have always focused on keeping overall tuition as low as possible. This means we have not raised rates since the 2006 season. This small increase will go a long way toward helping us continue to cover the ever rising costs of providing rooms, utilities, and meals to all of our instructors and students and, we feel still makes classes here at William Holland offer an exceptional value.

Finally, we thank all of our returning students, donors, and friends for continued support and all of you who will be joining us for the first time this season for giving us the opportunity to share, grow, and create with you. We are looking forward to having everyone with us this season and continuing the fine tradition of William Holland which you are all such a big part of.

As you may have noticed, the format of the online class schedule has changed. The classes held each week are listed in alphabetical order and the color coded borders indicate classes with the same course title. If you would like to highlight classes in the same subject across weeks, simply move your mouse over the course. Click the empty space in a cell to highlight classes in that subject and freeze the highlight for easy surveying of multiple weeks and multiple classes. If you would like to download a copy of the print catalog, just click here. The print catalog contains a full schedule as well as copies of the class descriptions and instructor biographies.

Read below to find out the general ideas covered in each subject taught here at William Holland. Remember that each instructor covers different skills, techniques, and materials. Classes marked Int, Adv, II, III are intended for those with prior experience and training and often cover difficult or advanced topics. Students should make sure to review each instructor's class description carfully when choosing a class that is appropriate for them.

Basketry

Learn to start, weave, and finish many different kinds of baskets.

Beading

Learn to string and knot a variety of materials and to design your own projects using techniques employed by a professional beader.

Beading, Seed

Learn various stitches, from brick to peyote, every technique, from knitting to weaving.

Cabochons

Covers shaping rock slabs into finished pieces of various shapes and sizes for bolos, belt buckles or to be wire wrapped, incorporated into beading, or set into silver. This is a good place to start your hobby or business.

Carving

Our classes cover several kins of media including wood, soapstone, and jade and many different techniques. It is important to read and understand the instructor's class description.

Casting

Requires that you be comfortable with skills taught in Silver I. Teaches you to use carving, sheet and wire waxes to create beautiful works and then cast and finish your pieces. Some instructors teach mold making and some use pre-made waxes.

Chain

Learn to use many kinds of jump rings to create bracelets, neaklaces, fabrics, earrings, or other projects.

Channel Inlay

Learn to cut precise pieces of stone and fit them together in carfully outlined channels to create beautifully designed jewelry pieces. Must have had 2 Silver I classes, Silver II, and Cabochons.

Chasing & Repoussé

Learn the art of Repoussé (hammering the reverse side of metal to raise a design) and complete your pieces with Chasing (hammering the surface of the design) to create beautiful jewelry pieces in many different metals.

Cold Connections

Learn to combine different kinds of metals by riveting, wiring, use of grommets, etc. to make jewelry. Little to no soldering is used. Torches may be used from time-to-time.

Digital Photography for Jewelry

These courses seek to teach you how to light and photograph jewelry pieces. These classes require that you already know how to use your camera and have general experience with photography.

Enameling

Enameling is the art of bonding paints made from pigmented glass to metal. Several techniques are taught in these classes.

Faceting

Students learn to select rough and patterns to produce stones in many different styles. This class requires patience as the cutting process must be very precise. Students should have the ability to follow technical patterns.

Gem Identification

This course provides a background for those who want to know the essentials of what to look for and what to avoid in shopping for gemstones. Students will use various instruments including the microscope, refractometer, polariscope, and dichroscope.

Gem Trees & Pictures

Using wire and gemstones you will create a wide variety of beautiful trees and pictures. You will also learn to identify different tumbled gemstones.

Glass Fusing

Students learn the compatability of different glass types and ways to combine dichroic and other classes to produce jewelry grade glass cabochons. This includes how to cut, arrange and stack glass, safe operation of a kiln and proper fusing techniques.

Gold

Students should have extensive experience with Silversmithing as they will be learning the specifics of soldering and fabricating jewelry pieces with gold.

Inlay

Students learn to cut and place different stones into silver or other metals in order to produce beautiful designs and interesting jewelry pieces.

Intarsia

A variety of stones are cut to precision and fitted together to form intricate designs. This course teaches how to create intarsia using a faceting or intarsia machine to cut, grind and polish pieces. Prior Cabochons or Faceting experience helpful.

Jewelry Design

For the experienced jewelry artist. Learn how to apply the priciples of design to create interesting new pieces and refine existing projects.

Junior Rockhounds

Specially designed for the young rockhound. Develop interest young and create a lasting passion.

Lampwork Beads

Learn how to make beads using oxygen/propane torches and dichroic glass. 100% Cotten clothing and Didymium glasses required.

Mineral Identification

Learn to identify the different minerals (rocks) you've found or would like to find. There are field trips for which you will need old clothes and boots or old shoes for wading in water. Hiking may be required.

Opals

This course teaches you to cut opals and find the best in the stone. Covers Australian opals, Boulder opals, Mexican opals and more.

Polymer Clay

Learn to make various items including beads. Covers millefiore cane-making, shaped beads, faux stones, polishing, critters, folks vessels and more.

Scrimshaw

Learn various techniques of line cut, stippling and tinting. Learn the history of the art, how to identify and work with different types of ivory, and how to make and maintain your tools.

Silver

Create rings, pins, pendants, bracelets, etc. by learning to cut, solder and finish silver and set cabochon stones.

Silver Clay (PMC)

Learn to create fine silver jewelry the easy way. PMC fires to become .49 pure silver or 22K gold.

Spool Knitting

Learn the art of knitting fine silver or copper wire with a spool and crochet hook and add beads, cones or other items to create finished bracelets, necklaces and more.

Stained Glass

Covers copper foil (Tiffany) method of construction and leaded glass techniques. Design your own projects.

Stone Setting

Learn special gem setting techniques for complex settings. Set stones beyond the conventional sizes and shapes using bezel, tube, prong, and bead setting.

Wire

Create bracelets, pendants, rings and earrings using gold-filled, stearling silver, and copper wires.

Wire Sculpture

Take your wirewrapping to a new level and create freeform sculpture for pendants and earrings. You must bring your own tools for this class.