I recently had an opportunity to visit the William Holland School of Lapidary Arts in Young Harris, located 2.5 hours drive north of Atlanta in the beautiful mountains of Georgia.
As many people know about me, I'm a proponent of life-long learning, and am constantly improving my skills, exploring new techniques, and allowing myself to be inspired by the field I love. One of the classes I treated myself to this year was a five day advanced inlay class at William Holland and while the trek from Washington State was an all day event, it was well worth it!
William Holland runs several classes during a week, all of which start on a Sunday evening with a group orientation and run until Friday afternoon. There are housing and camping options on the property along with a meal plan. They have a few set evening events that happen weekly including demo's, a live auction, tailgating (an opportunity for teachers and students to sell their goods), and show-n-tell on Friday morning (everyone gets to view each others work from all the classes).
Check out the pieces I completed in the photo above.
Class photos and even fresh cookie deliveries to your classroom are part of this delightful experience. And yes, of course, I bought some rocks to add to my materials collection!
During the group meals, I had great conversations with many instructors and students who return annually for classes. All of the students in my particular class were regulars to William Holland. Because this school was all-inclusive, it is common to return to your studio to continue working after dinner. This allowed everyone to get up to 10 hours of working a day. YES please!
So if you are looking for an immersive learning experience, a fun community environment, and a bunch of rock lovers, add a retreat at William Holland to your bucket list!
While I haven't yet incorporated inlay into my jewelry lines, check out my Kintsugi pieces which use some similar techniques.