Susan Lenart | BUILDING AMULETS AND PRAYER BOXES: HOLLOW FORMS | Sunday, February 1, 2026 | 9:00 am until 4:30 pm
$220.00
Hollow Forms Workshop: Six Hours of Technique, Story, and Silver
For as long as humans have adorned themselves, we’ve carried meaning on the body – amulets for protection, small vessels for prayers, hollow forms to guard what words couldn’t hold.
These pieces, although beautiful, weren’t decorative; they were anchors. Evidence of who we were, what we feared, what we loved, and what we hoped would guide us home.
In this six-hour workshop, we step into that lineage with our hands in the metal, building amulets and small prayer-box forms through the practical, disciplined work of silversmithing. This is a technique-forward day: soldering, constructing, shaping, filing, etching—bringing dimensional sterling forms into being with clarity and intention.
We work small, but the history hums underneath every move. You’ll feel it when you score your metal, when the form closes, when the hollow space inside becomes a container for meaning—your meaning, your story, your hand.
You’ll leave with a finished ring or pendant that carries not only the craft of hollow-form construction, but the deeper thread: that you are part of a long and ancient line of makers who built jewelry to last, to protect, to remember.
What We’ll Cover
Small stone setting
The architecture of hollow-form construction
Building small sterling boxes and amulet forms
Creating and fitting bezels for stones or found objects
Chemical etching for raw, ancient, historical edges
Soldering and shaping dimensional forms
Finishing techniques for contrast, depth, and a lived-in surface
This is a day of technique with history under the surface—clean, clear instruction paired with the quiet power of building something that echoes centuries of adornment.
A small object, a hollow form, a wearable piece of history you shape into your own.
In stock
Description
Instructor: Susan Lenart
Title of Class: BUILDING AMULETS AND PRAYER BOXES: HOLLOW FORMS
Date of Class: Sunday, February 1, 2026
Time: 9:00 am until 4:30 pm
Level: All levels welcome
Type: TECHNIQUES and project
Kit Fee: $55
Kit Includes
Use of available tools and supplies Susan will bring with her
Instructor will have the following for use in class
Soldering stations – torches, fuel, platforms, quench bowls, towels
Table protection
Pickle pot
Patina pot
Baking Soda for neutralizer
Dawn, paper towels, dishpans for water
Flex shafts
STUDENT SUPPLY LIST
materials
1 oz of 18g & 24g dead soft sterling silver wire
12″ fine silver bezel wire
3×3″ 24g sterling silver sheet
Favorite solder – hard, medium, easy (pallions/wire)
Any scrap metal, favorite gauges, sheet or bezel wire you love working with
Optional: any small objects you’d like to build around or incorporate
Tools/supplies
Solder Pick
Favorite flux
Jewelers Saw & Blades (3/0 or 2/0)
Saw blade lubrication
Bench Pin & C-Clamp (at least 3-inch to hold to hotel work tables)
Ball Peen, Chasing or Planishing Hammer
Rawhide Mallet
Steel Bench Block & Rubber Block to deaden noise
Files Cut #2 – flat, half-round
Needle Files, Set
Flush Cutters
Pliers, Chain Nose, Round Nose, Flat Nose, Flat/Half Round
Handheld shears for cutting sheet metal (non-ferrous)
Utility Tweezers, Fine-Tip (ex. Rio#115053)
Soldering Tweezers, Fine Tip
Your favorite finishing supplies to be used with the flex shafts (make sure to bring any mandrels too)
Small Ruler
Sketchbook and/or pad of paper
Pencil & fine-point black permanent marker
battery-operated or rechargeable task light for workstation
Magnification – Optivisor for example
Dust/particulate mask
safety glasses
OPTIONAL SUPPLIES
Cabochons, faceted stones (bring ready-made tube for setting),
Stamps, shot plate pieces, cast silver pieces, etc.
Sterling silver patterned wire/trim
Bezel wire
Additional sheet and/or wire
Scrap silver
Favorite texturing hammers
Scratch brush
Prong Pusher
Personal Maker’s Mark
PRE-ORDER YOUR CLASS SUPPLIES TODAY!
Many of our students have asked us to help streamline the process of gathering their supplies and tools for classes, and we have come up with a way we think will work for you.
SJ Jewelry Supply in Phoenix is owned and operated by a wonderful family, headed by Mario Morales. His wife, Erika, and son, Steven, round out the staff, and they are excited to help make gathering your supplies easy and stress free. We guarantee they will make life easier for you! No kidding!
Here’s how it will work….
- Once you have determined what you will need for each class, send an email with your request for products and/or tools to SJ Jewelry Supply
- Go to our website, open the class description for each of the classes in which you are enrolled, scroll down to the section “Student Supplies,” cut and paste the items you want to purchase into an email to Mario.
- Here’s their email address mailto:info@sjjewelrysupply.com
- When they receive your email, they will send you a return email acknowledging receipt of your request
- In this email, they will instruct you about payment methods
- Once your order is filled, they will send you a second email with confirmation stating your order is complete
- Included in this email, they will give you instructions on how to pick up your orders upon arrival in Tucson
Sound easy? We think it’s going to help take the stress out of preparing for classes!
