Alumni
Alena Asenbryl
Graduated 2004
Jewellery Designer And Makerwww.alena-a.co.uk
I make jewellery from an array of materials precious and non-precious. My signature range is made from hand-dyed plastic. I combine the richly dyed plastic with a few textured fragments of silver. I make my work in the Manchester Craft & Design Centre where I also sell it directly to customers.
I enjoyed studying Three Dimensional Design. It enabled to find what area I wanted to specialise in which I didn't know before. I tried working in wood, metal, ceramics and glass in the first year. In the second year I chose to continue with two of these disciplines and chose to specialise in metal and jewellery making in the third year. It was fun being given different briefs in each area and working in groups in some projects.
I learnt a breadth of skills, and I learnt how to follow a brief through from beginning to end, how to record my thought process on paper, and how to design work from concept to finished piece. Professionally, I also learnt how to research the market place and how to present my work to galleries and the public.
I would recommend the course for people who are unsure which area they want to work in as this is a broad course and only specialised in the third year. I would also like to point out that the tutors are there to guide the students and students have to be aware that they need to be self directed a fair amount of the time.
