December 3, 2004

Jewelry Certificate Program offers career alternative

By Bea Baechle
Editor

Professor Walter Soellner, who has been teaching and producing jewelry for 37 years, is passionate about his art and the diverse career paths that jewelry can provide.

“You don’t hear about the arts very much or about lucrative alternate career paths,” states Soellner. “It’s all technology, technology, technology.”

With the dot.com bust, a still sluggish Silicon Valley economy and more high-level technical jobs being outsourced every day, people are listening to Soellner’s plea to keep the arts alive and make a living at it.

EVC Professor Walter Soellner demonstrates how to bezel set stones.

He designed and implemented a Jewelry Certificate Program at Evergreen Valley College about 10 years ago that encompasses fabrication, casting, advanced metal techniques and jewelry as a business—all areas in which he is well-versed.

The jewelry as a business class, oriented toward the entrepreneurial individual, covers a broad range of practical topics, such as how to develop an image you want to sell, how to market your work, whether to sell wholesale or retail and how to make a living at doing custom work.

It also covers insurance, security, pricing strategies, lab design and retail licenses. At the end of the class, students write a business plan.

“There’s nothing like it anywhere in the South Bay,” says Soellner of the Jewelry Certificate Program, which also offers independent study classes.

“The jewelry field is so huge—do you realize that there are at least two full-time jewelry channels selling jewelry 24 hours a day?” asks Soellner. “And with all the malls and dress shops selling jewelry “there’s a gigantic market for jewelry.”

About Walter Soellner
After receiving his Master of Fine Arts degree from Cranbrook Art Academy in Michigan and a second master’s degree in Art Education from Western Michigan University, he taught at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

He moved to the Bay Area, began teaching at Evergreen Valley College and co-founded Precious Objects Gallery of Los Gatos, which will soon be celebrating its 25th anniversary. Although he has retired from this business, he’s quick to point out that it funded his daughter’s four-year education at a private college.

Soellner specializes in creating high-fashion jewelry, custom designed in collaboration with the client. His aesthetics tend toward soft geometries, with precious stones set in silver, gold and platinum. He also enjoys sculpture, and his works often contain historical references or comment on contemporary social issues.

His largest work to date is the 35-foot cast bronze sculpture on the side of EVC’s Cedro Building, which is directly across from the new library. Soellner is a distinguished member of the Society of North American Goldsmiths, where he was a board member and treasurer for nine years.

His works have been displayed in New York’s Museum of Contemporary Crafts, the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, the Jackson, Mississippi Museum of Art, the Los Gatos Art Museum and the San Jose Museum of Art.
Shepherding a new arts building at EVC

Although Soellner is officially retired, he is serving in an adjunct faculty capacity so he can shepherd through the aspects of the new EVC theatre/arts building where his expertise is unmatched.

He plans to make sure the jewelry labs are outfitted properly, translating the nomenclature for literally thousands of parts and pieces of equipment that the labs will require.

The new art/theatre building, partially funded by the Measure G bond passed in the November election, will include bronze casting facilities, blacksmithing facilities and state-of-the-art jewelry labs with CAD-CAM, enameling and stone-setting equipment.

It will also include space for drawing, painting, sculpture, dance, piano, choir, art history and music history. Two theatres—one traditional and one black box style, where the audience surrounds the performers from all sides—will be at the heart of the new building.