Jewellery and Silversmithing
Jewellery and silversmithing is a craft and design discipline with roots stretching back thousands of years, combining material skill, aesthetic sensibility, and an understanding of how objects carry meaning. Jewellers and silversmiths work with precious and non-precious metals, gemstones, and an increasingly wide range of materials to create objects worn on the body or displayed as art, ranging from intimate personal ornaments to ceremonial commissions and sculptural works. The discipline requires both technical precision and creative vision, and at degree level it is enriched by historical and critical study that situates practice within the long tradition of metalworking.
The University of Edinburgh's four-year full-time programme in jewellery and silversmithing includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study at a partner institution and engage with different making traditions and material cultures. Edinburgh College of Art, within which the programme sits, is one of the UK's leading art schools, offering high-quality studio facilities, specialist technical support, and a rich creative environment shaped by the arts, design, and architecture communities of the city. You will develop practical skills in metalsmithing, stone setting, casting, surface treatment, and fabrication alongside a rigorous engagement with design process, conceptual development, art and design history, and professional practice.
The year abroad enriches your creative perspective and expands your awareness of global making traditions.
Graduates in jewellery and silversmithing go on to practise as independent makers, establish studios, work for jewellery brands or luxury goods companies, teach in art schools, or move into related fields such as product design, goldsmithing, prop making, or the wider creative industries. Many continue to postgraduate study to develop their practice or research further, and the combination of craft skill, design thinking, and cultural knowledge the degree develops provides a distinctive foundation for creative careers.