Metals & Jewlery

Program Head: Susanna Ali

Metal at CSULB offers a professional program leading to B.F.A., M.A., and M.F.A. degrees. Its professionally involved and diverse faculty is committed to the development of ability, individuality and design excellence. The program focuses on the exploration, development, and use of metals in the creation of functional and non-functional art. The undergraduate program provides a strong foundation in jewelry and metalsmithing and offers additional introductions to enameling, architectural scale metalwork and blacksmithing. The diverse program gives our students great freedom to develop and pursue individual interests and provides a context for work that can range in size from small jewelry to large architectural scale forms. The facilities include a main studio with 24 workstations for jewelry fabrication, jewelry casting, holloware and enameling, and a large outdoor facility, accommodating eighteen students, for blacksmithing and sculptural met- alwork. In addition, there are facilities for electroplating, anodizing and electroforming. The metal studios are open to enrolled students around the clock and on weekends.

A separate graduate studio provides individual workstations for each student in our graduate program. Through rigorous formal and informal reviews and critiques, graduate students are challenged to pursue their abiding aesthetic concerns and to develop a strong independent personal vision. Graduate students are expected to be self-motivated and to possess a diverse foundation of metal-smithing experience. Students are encouraged to draw from the many outstanding disciplines within the School of Art and the various other art related resources in close proximity. The diversity among our graduate students reflects our openness to personal pursuit not limited by material or technique.

The Metalsmithing & Jewelry program at CSULB has a long history of turning out highly motivated and talented graduates who have become distinguished professional artists/craftsmen and renowned teachers throughout the country.