This year, the student workshops are back in the Hop and the building is buzzing with their creative energy as they learn a craft, find creative community and feel the joy of making. Here’s what they’ve been up to this past year.
6,000 Square Feet and 6 Decades
We are finally open again after almost three years in a small temporary space. Students are already busy turning their ideas into things they’ve dreamed about making, excited to experience tools and learn new practical skills which will be lifelong abilities. First, I’d like to say our professional instructors are amazing people who are perceptive and kind, and have incredible skills to offer the students. I’m so lucky to share a workshop with these folks. While going through six decades of Woodshop accumulation in 6000 square feet, we were able reorganize and create a better functioning shop. We upgraded all three of our table saws to the most recent model of the SawStop table saws which are even safer than the original models we had. We took advantage of having to move and store all the tools and materials during the renovations. We sold a few stationary tools that were redundant and seldom used. This gave us more flexibility with the remaining tools to make an arrangement that creates a better workflow and safer space because it allows improved student observation by the instructors. We also added a small area for metalworking, which is new for us. In addition to our traditional woodworking tools, we have reinstalled digital fabrication tools. We once again have our CNC router and our laser cutter operating, and soon we’ll be adding a 3D printer.
We’re very excited to operate the Woodshop with this new arrangement. It’s also fun that all of the students except the seniors have never been in the Hop or Student Workshops, so there is a lot of discovery happening. Every day we’re making all the little adjustments and rearrangements to really make this place sing. Since 1962 this has been a wonderful and amazing Woodshop and now it will be even better. We so appreciate all of the support and especially the stories of how the Student Workshops have shaped people’s lives.
Our Go-To Guy
Ted Frazer, Woodworking Instructor, Retired
For 53 years, Ted has led thousands of students through countless projects in the Woodshop. Ted’s skills are many. An amazing woodworker and problem solver tackling every idea thrown at him. I feel one of Ted’s greatest skills was understanding what the student wanted to achieve, figuring out their skills and, more importantly, their potential skills, and setting out a path that brought the experience they were looking for and had a successful project. Always kind, patient and endlessly generous. Ted always had a keen eye for shop maintenance. He was always stopping at the hardware store to pick up some item we needed to keep the shop running at top efficiency. Also making sure we had popsicles in the freezer at the beginning of summer term. He was our “go-to” mechanic to fix and repair our machines and tools. I would often find myself asking him, “how do you think this comes apart?” He understands machines and how they work. He’s as much at home around a machine shop as the Woodshop and he was known to make our needed tool parts from scratch. I am hoping we can still get Ted to get us out of a jam or two when we have a breakdown. Students and staff alike will miss Ted’s help, friendly presence and devotion to the world of discovery in the Woodshop. Thank you, Ted!
Back Home in the Byrne Family Jewelry Studio
We’re finally back in the renovated Hop. It’s been a wild five months setting up in our feels-like-new digs, but we’re open and are packed with excited Dartmouth students every day. The Rebecca and Mark Byrne Family Jewelry Studio has a new name and a new jewelry instructor, Sandy Gaier, from Indiana. We’re in our same Hop location, but we have a different footprint. That has meant reimaging almost everything. The hard work of the past months is done and now the fun begins.
Bon Voyage...
A huge thanks to Katie McCabe ’21 for her years of contributions to the Jewelry Studio. Katie started with us as a Dartmouth student. After graduating, she became one of our amazing jewelry instructors. Soon Katie is heading off to Chicago for new adventures. Watch out Chicago! We hope you are ready for a dynamo of creativity. Thanks for everything, Katie. We wish you good luck in the Windy City!
...And Welcome
I am so excited to be a part of the Byrne Family Jewelry Studio at the Hop! In the weeks that the studio has been open, I have had the opportunity to meet quite a few students. They are lovely to work with and the atmosphere in the studio is friendly and fun. I especially enjoy helping students through their first soldering experience and I love seeing how excited they are about their finished jewelry pieces. I am also very excited to be back in New England! I grew up in Massachusetts but spent the past 25 years in the Midwest. During that time, I earned bachelor’s degrees in studio art and theater and a Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in metals. I also worked as an art educator at the secondary and post-secondary levels.
Caitlin FitzMaurice ’26
2025/26 Hopkins Center Jewelry Fellow
Working at the Jewelry Studio has been one of the most unexpected and valuable aspects of my Dartmouth experience. Coming into Dartmouth with no background in metalsmithing, it was a pleasant surprise to quickly discover how accessible the studio makes creating art and learning new techniques. As a current senior and Hop Jewelry Fellow, I look back at my past three years of working here with gratitude. Going to work at the studio is always a highlight of my week because of the community built around creative expression and experimentation. In a high-pressure environment like Dartmouth, I have witnessed how spaces like this are essential; they are an escape to create without expectations and foster connections around shared passion.
Abby de Leon ’27
The Jewelry Studio has immensely impacted my time here at Dartmouth. I have acquired awesome skills in metalworking and jewelry production, something which I never expected to have access to. This has allowed me to imagine and create different pieces which become a part of my identity and expression in the world, and to create gifts which solidify and renew relationships within Dartmouth and other spheres of my life.
Maeve Mattingly ’28
I really like to make things. It’s integral to me; to be able to take a whole bunch of random stuff and put it together into a really cool necklace or ring or something is fascinating. But I would never be able to do that without Sandy and Jeff, and the other student workers present at the studio. I come right in, and they’re always there to help. Sandy is my go-to for anything enameling (literally melting glass!) while Jeff has a tool for every niche skill I need. It’s easy to come in and just start, because the community there makes sure I never feel bad about a mistake.
Shad Hassan ’27
Working at the Jewelry Studio has been central to my growth at Dartmouth. What started as a curious visit to the studio my freshman year has become one of the most meaningful aspects of my life at Dartmouth. My interest grew into passion, and that passion for fabricating jewelry turned into a passion for teaching others the same skills. The Jewelry Studio has become my creative outlet and one of the most important communities I have found here.
Reopened and Reimagined
The Hop Ceramics Studio is now up and running in Room 61, our previous location, after a move back in from our temporary space. We were not part of the Hop renovation project, so with the help of instructor Sarah Heimann, and recent graduate Gabriel Modisett ’25, we fixed up the current space and rearranged the studio furnishings during summer term. We were able to make our space feel more open and we added new tables, carts and shelves. These changes have made the studio more functional and welcoming, and there is now more workspace for students. It has been so great to once again have a kiln room and natural light from windows. I’m also very appreciative of having an office again!
Many students are very happy to see our potter’s wheel classes return! It has been wonderful to bring Liz Schwartz back to our staff to teach throwing classes. Most of all, we are thrilled to have students back working in the studio discovering what can happen when they try something creative. With ceramics, they are learning how to “make something out of nothing” on the lower level of the Hop.
Liz Schwartz
Ceramics Instructor
My return to the Ceramic Studio as a wheel-throwing instructor has coincided with the reopening of the Hop. It is an exciting time to be reintroduced to the dynamic and creative world of the Student Workshops. Clay is a wonderfully humble material and the potter’s wheel is a great tool to explore its potential. Whether the students are fine arts majors, premed or budding engineers, they always surprise me. I love that the Workshops allow the students a productive pause in their usual academic lives. They often mention time either standing still or whooshing by when they are in the studio! It brings me joy to provide a creative interval where they can learn a craft and explore outside of their more familiar academic routines.
We would like to thank the donors to the endowment funds that provide steady support to the Workshops and all our Friends of the Student Workshops.
We’d love to hear from you:
- Greg Elder, Woodworking Shop Director | gregory.elder@dartmouth.edu
- Jeff Georgantes, Donald Claflin Jewelry Studio Director | t.jeffrey.georgantes@dartmouth.edu
- Jenny Swanson, Ceramics Studio Director | jennifer.s.swanson@dartmouth.edu