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Business owners, amateur artists and professionals packed a three-day metal-working course hosted by the Aurora Arts Society last weekend.

Calgary metalsmith and professional art educator Linda Chow introduced participants to the basics of her craft using inexpensive, everyday tools found in any hardware store.

Mellisa Cardinal and Kim Strand tap textures into plates of copper during a jewelry-making workshop hosted by the Aurora Arts Society with support from the NWT Arts Council. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo

"I give them the technique and they create," Chow said as the students completed their artworks during the final hours of Sunday's course. "My intention is that when I'm gone, they can continue without specialized equipment."

The students are preparing to do that.

"Several of the women are talking about gathering together again to feed each other's creativity," said Kim Strand.

"When you have a bunch of people together like that, you pump each other up. It was just so much fun to see everybody's creative powers. I had an absolute ball."

Strand, who sells her own original jewelry through her Earthstone Creations label, said she learned new techniques and opened her mind to using new materials based on the ideas Chow brought to the classroom.

"She made us think outside the box," Strand said. "She really encouraged our creativity."

Strand's jewelry line features polished and cut Northern stone and beads. She said she now plans to add new elements to her work, including handmade components she used to order from the south.

"It was really neat to be able to find there was something else I can produce myself," she said. "Now I don't have to order from outside of Canada and wait three weeks for stuff to arrive."

Antique collector Laura Howden Dies learned new skills she can apply to her six-year-old online business, Life In The Knife. Dies buys and sells Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco and Art Nouveau jewelery dating from the 1860s to the 1930s. Many of the pieces she acquires require a little TLC before they are ready for resale.

Following Chow's workshop, Dies said she feels confident enough to undertake minor jewelry repairs she used to hire a goldsmith to do.

"It was neat to have the tips of the trade," she said.

Dies used the workshop to create a necklace using copper, silver and turquoise beads salvaged from a 1920s Art Deco necklace damaged beyond repair.

Unlike Dies and Strand, Mellisa Cardinal's interested in jewelry is recreational. She paints and sketches as a hobby and recently added jewelry-making to her artistic repertoire. At the workshop, she constructed an elegant necklace using triangular and rhomboid cuts of brass and copper.

"It was a lot of fun," she said. "Linda taught us the basics and let us run with what we wanted to do. I've tried working with hemp and beads and all that kind of stuff before, but I prefer metal. It's definitely something I want to continue doing. I'd like to try a ring in silver."