Hello.
I will be working as a staff member of ADAM from April. My name is Iijima.
I attended a jewelry college in Yamanashi until last month.
I am still getting used to all of this, but as a new member of society, I will do my best in my daily work.
I will be at ADAM on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Today, I would like to introduce my alma mater, Yamanashi Prefectural College of Jewelry and Fine Arts.
Yamanashi Prefectural College of Jewelry and Fine Arts is a public college of jewelry located in Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture.
It is located on the 7th floor of a building in the middle of ▲. It is a 10-minute walk from Kofu Station.
In school, you can learn many things about jewelry.
Precious Metal Processing, Jewelry Processing, CAD, Jewelry Design, Gemology, Identification and Appraisal, Business Etc...
I entered the College of Jewelry Arts because I had a passion for craftsmanship, but I was able to learn a wide range of things about jewelry, not just processing.
One of the classes at the school is to collect quartz crystals at a crystal mine in Yamanashi and cut them yourself.
In the past, crystal mining was very active in Yamanashi Prefecture. The mined crystals were polished and engraved at factories in Kofu, and many crystal products were made. In this way, Kofu became an area with a thriving jewelry industry, so much so that it is called the "City of Gemstones.
The class will visit a mine where quartz mining was once conducted to collect quartz exposed on the surface of the earth.
It is quite a mountain like this.
If you look closely at the ground, you will find many sparkling crystals.
These are small, but highly transparent, natural quartz crystals. Some have inclusions.
They will be taken home and polished in the school's jewelry processing room.
This is the jewelry processing room at the school. There are many machines for polishing gemstones.
Quartz crystal with inclusions was polished into an oval shape with a cut surface.
When gemstones are processed, a tool called a faceter is usually used, but this crystal was polished by hand rubbing, a method in which the gemstone is directly grasped by hand and angled and shaved with the fingertips.
In this class, you will learn how to polish from a modern master craftsman, a hand rubber.
One of the school's attractions is that we are able to receive direct instruction from craftspeople working in the Yamanashi workshop.
Kofu has many jewelry-related facilities, including jewelry schools and museums.
Jewelers and workshops in Kofu also hold regular events, so if you are a jewelry lover, why not visit Yamanashi?
