Jewellery Development Programme – Hatton Jewellery Institute

Since 2018, UAL Short Courses has been delivering a year-long programme with Hatton Jewellery Institute in Hong Kong, with 25-hours of online jewellery design and development supported by in-person classes with the HJI team.

This exciting programme is digitally-led by an expert jewellery design tutor from Central Saint Martins with the experienced HJI tutors guiding the students through the workshop-based classes.

The programme is designed to encourage students to discover their own creative voice. We hear from some recent participants to find out more

Design thinking

During the course, students are encouraged to think creatively and approach their designs with an open mind. “The Central Saint Martins programme focuses on finding a process to develop your designs,” says former participant, Gina.

“I don’t have an art background, so I wanted to learn a more systematic way of approaching design,” Gina explains. “Central Saint Martins gives you a base of ideas to work with to fabricate your designs.”

“My biggest takeaway from the programme is the importance of design thinking,” agrees Annie, another participant. “The process is very useful for anything you want to create. This really helped me unlock my creative potential.”

Embracing the creative process

Annie found that the programme helped her plan her own jewellery collection. “The course is very well thought out,” says Annie. “It really helped me with my goal to create my own jewellery collection.”

During the programme, participants explored various design processes. “The process involved discovering your inspirations and compiling mood boards,” says Annie.

“We created initial hand sketches and digital sketches which allowed us to build models and prototypes," Annie explains. "The last step in the process was to create technical drawings to support the final product design.”

Gina also found this process useful. “I got to have a taste at making cohesive pieces for a collection,” she says, “my very first collection.”

Making connections

The Jewellery Development Programme offered a great opportunity for participants to connect and interact with one another, fuelling creativity amongst the group.

“I loved my classmates as they all came from different walks of life,” says Gina. “Some may be very experienced in design and some are very good at technicality."

"The sharing in class allowed me to see different ways of approaching jewellery design," Gina notes.