Jewellery & Objects
Are you a creative person who thrives on making things and exploring ideas? Would you like to design and make innovative high quality jewellery and learn how to work with precious metals to create beautiful artefacts?
Jewellery and Objects at NCAD embraces numerous types of creative practice and students are supported to develop the skills to pursue personal expression through the gallery market, or forge a career in industry.
Jewellers are encouraged to create designs that challenge notions of the body, fashion, gender and the environment. Students develop skills in working with precious metals, and experiment with non-traditional materials, such as paper, textiles and plastics. Similarly, goldsmiths and silversmiths explore the interaction between fine metalworking and ideas, through the creation of domestic objects and fine luxury products, exploring radical forms and processes.
The programme aims to facilitate the development of individual craft and design skills that increasingly allow each student the freedom to pursue and realise ideas in appropriate media. The programme encourages students to develop a personal approach to the research and development of creative design solutions through an in-depth knowledge of traditional making skills and cutting edge technologies.
With individual bench spaces, machine workshops and studio, the programme provides the perfect environment to experiment and explore in pursuit of personal expression. Students develop a personal creative identity and proficiency in design and technique, and learn through a mixture of workshops, lectures, tutorials and, most importantly, through their own practice.
Year 1
See First Year
Year 2
The focus in the Second Year is on developing a personal visual language and the skills necessary to translate this into successful Jewellery and Objects practice. You will also focus on researching and defining a specific audience and developing a market understanding through professional practice.
Year 3: Studio + & International
Studio+ is an optional year open to all Design students allowing you to engage with the world beyond NCAD by gaining practical work experience in the form of internships and industry placements on live commercial, social or community projects. Studio+ can also include a work placement abroad or a study abroad period through the Erasmus programme with internationally recognised art and design faculties partnered with NCAD.
Final Year
In the Final Year students are ready to develop their own programme of study, which reflects each individual’s skills and interests within Jewellery and Objects. This will culminate in a substantial body of work for assessment and display at degree shows, exhibitions and events.
Each year is supported by a series of lectures by leading creative practitioners and theorists, collaborative interdisciplinary opportunities, live industry projects, field trips and study visits.
How will I be assessed?
Coursework, essays, practical creative projects. Assessment takes place at key points throughout the year with formal assessment results issued at the end of each academic year.
Download NCAD Prospectus
As a consequence of the range of skills acquired, Jewellery and Objects graduates have a wide range of local and global opportunities open to them, from designer maker, to artist, educator and creative entrepreneur.
Increasingly graduates progress to further study at Postgraduate level to refine their creative abilities and approach. The School of Design offers a range of innovative Masters programmes, as well as a practice based PhD programme supported by the Graduate School for Creative Arts and Media (Grad CAM).
The School of Design has actively participated in the EU-funded LDV (Leonardo Da Vinci) PLM (People in the Labour Market) programme since 2010 which offered recent graduates the opportunity to avail of 13 week internships in high profile design companies within the European Union. The LDV PLM programme was designed to foster close industrial relations and collaborations in order to meet the needs of design graduates and the EU ‘creative industries’.
Over the past four years 102 graduates from across the NCAD design disciplines have successfully undertaken LDV PLM internships in many European countries. All gained a range of specific skills and work experience relevant to their sector within the 'creative industries'. A number of participants continue to be employed on an ongoing basis by these companies, and the professional practice skills developed during the programme has had a significant impact on helping participants find employment within the creative industries in what are economically challenging times. Developing language skills, gaining inter-cultural awareness and a sense of being 'European' is in-built into the activity of going on an EU work-placement abroad.
The hugely successful LDV / PLM programme came to an end in December 2014 and has been replaced by the EU-funded Eramus + Traineeship programme.
Please see the Study at NCAD section for full application details.
| Duration | 3/4 Year BA |
| Places | 15 |
| Applications |
CAO Course Codes: AD103 Textiles, Jewellery & Objects AD101 First Year Art & Design (Common Entry) |
| Entry Requirements |
Leaving Cert: 6 Subjects (2 X H5 and 4 X O6/H7) Subjects must include English, Irish and one of the followng: a third language or Art, or Design & Communication Graphics (DCG)
|
| Portfolio Requirement | NCAD Portfolio Submission |
| Degree Awarded | BA Jewellery & Objects / BA Design & Visual Culture / BA Design (International) |
