Learn Jewellery MakingPart of the JDMIS learning network

From first beaded bracelet to silversmithing — a beginner's road into jewellery

Bench project

Your first silver pendant — saw-piercing your own design

Saw control is the first real technique a bench student drills.

The pendant is sheet metal's beginner masterpiece: your own design, cut by
your own hand.

The flow

  1. Draw the design at final size — curves you can saw (no interior
    spikes on attempt one).
  2. Transfer and punch — scribe or paste, then centre-punch the blade
    entry.
  3. Saw-pierce — blade tension, upright posture, turning with the blade
    not the body.
  4. File to the line — needle files; the outline becomes crisp.
  5. Texture, drill the bail hole, polish — hammers and stamps are legal
    even on project one.

The skill that transfers everywhere

Saw-piercing is THE bench skill — pendants, connectors, settings, all of it
starts with blade control. See saw-piercing basics
for the deep dive.

Inside the Foundation Metalwork course
the pendant project comes with an instructor catching your saw angle before
it becomes a habit.

What students say

“I am using the skills in my everyday life and my spare time has become very productive.”

— Shirley M. (Philippines) · published student feedback

“I will use the skills learnt to develop a line of metalsmithed jewellery.”

— Clarie K. (Singapore) · published student feedback

Free ways to explore

No sign-up, no payment — start with any of these.

TTake the 2-minute course finderFREE
Answer a few questions, get personal course recommendations.TThe complete course guideFREE
Every course, family and diploma in one PDF.FFree gem webinar replaysFREE
Full recorded sessions on gems and the jewellery trade.PPlay Name That GemFREE
The school's free gem-identification game.

Keep exploring

Wax carving for beginners — jewellery before it is metalHow wax carving works — carving, milling, spruing, casting — and why it is the sculptor's Saw-piercing basics — blade tension, posture and turningHow jeweller's saw-piercing works — choosing blades, setting tension, posture, turning corYour first silver ring — what you actually make in classA first silver ring project deconstructed — measuring, sawing, soldering, shaping and poliFirst silver skills — what beginning silversmithing actually teachesWhat you learn in a first metalsmithing course — piercing, filing, annealing, soldering an

Try a one-day jewellery class

Short experience classes at JDMIS need no tools, no experience and no commitment — a single session gives you a real taste of the craft.

Visit jdmis.edu.sg