Set in the heart of our city is the Azza Fahmy Design School, located in the Pottery Village off Corniche El Maadi, Cairo’s contemporary cultural center. The area was chosen for its inspirational energy by Azza Fahmy herself. The school was established to further empower potential artists in jewelry making so as to reinvigorate competition in the Egyptian market.
The Design Studio by Azza Fahmy (DSAF) offers students and upcoming entrepreneurs of all ages and nationalities specialized jewelry design and making program in association with Alchimia, Contemporary Design School in Florence, Italy.
The Design Studio by Azza Fahmy focuses on jewelry, metal-smithing techniques and design skills that are necessary to succeed as a jewelry artist. In jewelry making you learn all aspects of sawing, filing, soldering, casting, and forging. While in decorative metal techniques you learn about inlaying, filigreeing and chasing, as well as the particulars of working with silver, gold and stones.
The school offers its’ students ongoing exhibitions to display their work and participate in renowned international exhibitions across Europe. DSAF students are offered the opportunity to attend courses in Alchimia Design School, in Florence, Italy, with special grants.
The current classes on offer:
Morning & Evening programs in May & June
Morning programs:
Makume-gane workshop: From the 27th of April to 7th of May from 10am to 4pm
Instructor: Ferran Iglasias
Description:
Mokume-gane is a Japanese ancestral metal work technique that focuses on the mixed-metal laminate with distinctive layered patterns. The translation of Mokume-gane is “wood eye metal” because the visual effect achieved after the process enables the metal to take on the appearance of natural wood grain.
Metal sheets are stacked and carefully heated; and after accomplishing a solid block of stripes of silver and copper, the solids can be forged or carved to increase the pattern’s complexity.
Successful lamination using the traditional process requires highly skilled guidance. After the diffusion of layers, the surface of the billet is cut and this process will be repeated over and over again to develop different patterns. To increase the contrast between the laminate layers many Mokume-gane different patinas can (a controlled corrosion layer) accentuate or change the colors of the metal’s surface.
The result of this metal technique brings new looks, and new approaches in jewelry design; earrings, rings, pendants… any kind of design can be performed adding this ancestral technique.
Box Ring workshop: 4 days starting 10th to 13th of May from 10 am to 5 pm.
Instructor: Guilia Savino
This program is advanced.
Description:
During this workshop the participants will be learning the basics in order to produce box rings. The box ring is a 3d ring that is hollow from the inside. Participants will learn how to make different shapes and solder it together to keep the ring hollow and light.
For this workshop, candidates need to have basic knowledge of filing, sawing and soldering. First 3 days will be about the technical information, and after students will be making their own designs.
Enamel Technique: Starting 17th to 19th of May from 10 to 5 pm
Instructor: Guilia Savino
Description:
This workshop will cover the basics of enameling. The students will focus on making test tiles and sample pieces and will learn about the properties of fusing glass to copper.
In doing this, students will explore simple and effective ways to create unique results with enamel, they will learn about the properties of opaque enamels, and get into the basics of applying enamel onto metal and firing.
By the end of the course, students will have created several sample tiles demonstrating a variety of enamel colors, firing methods, and they will have made jewelry pieces without the use of complex techniques but while still attaining results: enameled rings, earrings, bracelets, pendants…etc
Hammering workshop: Starting 24th to 28th of May from 10 to 4 pm.
Instructor: Ferran Iglisias
Description:
This course will explore the wide possibility of making jewelry through hammering techniques. Hammers are the heart of the work of the metal-smith, they are used to harden, form and bend the metal to create both simple and intricate designs.
Under the careful guidance of our technical teachers, students will experiment with wire and different kind of metals. They will learn the basic convex and concave forming techniques, how to transform a sheet of metal into a 3D shape and how to create texture on the metal surfaces.
Evening Programs:
Technical Jewelry for Beginners I
Technical Jewelry for Beginners II
Starting the 3rd of May to the 10th of June, every Sunday and Monday and Wednesday from 6 to 9. A total of 18 sessions over the duration of 6 weeks.
