As soon as Chad Parker retired in May as a high school English teacher, he got busy making sterling silver jewelry.
Parker, an English teacher for 28 years at Ferguson High School, has been making jewelry for years, showing it at galleries here and there, but last summer his inventory got incredibly low when three local galleries requested his pieces.
“They decided all at once they needed stuff, which is great, but I had no jewelry for the shows for that summer, which kept me busy for awhile,” said Parker, owner of Chad’s Silversmithing in Loveland. “It didn’t feel like retirement.”
Parker’s jewelry is at Rabbask Designs Local Artisan Boutique & Gallery in Loveland, Blue Moose Art Gallery & Gifts in Fort Collins and Blue Goose Gallery of Artists in Chester, Calif. (the Blue Moose and the Blue Goose are under the same ownership).
Parker also participates in several Northern Colorado craft shows and fairs each year, such as Art in the Park in Loveland, and makes custom jewelry in custom sizes for his customers.
“I look at sales of jewelry as a bonus,” Parker said about promoting his silversmithing classes by telling his customers they can learn how to do what he does. “If you put time into it, it’s something you can learn.”
Teaching jewelry making
Parker makes pendants, bracelets, earrings, rings, pins and hair pieces out of sterling silver and semi-precious gemstones. He teaches his students how to make the jewelry in beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of classes.
The classes are offered in five-week sessions for four hours Tuesday to Thursday evenings. Parker teaches the three levels all at once and rolls students over to later sessions who want to advance in their techniques. The classes are $275 per session for instruction, materials and access to equipment.
“I have (the classes) going all the time, unless there is no demand, which rarely happens,” Parker said. “I get a lot of people who have done beadwork and wire wrapping, popular jewelry types of things, that don’t involve soldering. … They want to move on to the next level using fire and soldering things together. There’s lots of people who like to take classes and like to try new things.”
Parker, who has been teaching the classes since 2003, offers them in his home workshop, where he has a long table set up with tools at each seat.
He can take a maximum of six students per session. He individualizes instruction for each student, covering a set of basic projects at each level.
“For the most part, I’m teaching technique. I’m not teaching artistic skills, but a little bit of that bleeds in,” Parker said. “There’s all sorts of ways to do things. You have to find the way that works best for you.”
Beginning to advanced
In the beginning class, Parker covers silver soldering, the primary skill students need to make jewelry, plus how to make bezels for holding stones. The students make two types of band rings, a pendant with a bezel-set stone and either a large stone ring or a pendant of a different style.
In the intermediate class, they make a cuff bracelet, a wide band ring and a third project of their choosing.
In the advanced class, they learn how to work with faceted stones (which, like diamonds, have multiple surfaces), both bezel setting and building prong settings. Advanced students also work on mastering more advanced soldering techniques.
“In a general sense, this is all beginning stuff,” Parker said, adding that his more advanced students can incorporate brass and copper into their projects.
Parker teaches his students how to use the tools of jewelry making, including solders, files, cutters, various types of pliers, basic torches and ring mandrels that form the rings into round shapes (or square mandrels to make them square).
As the students become more advanced, they can use specialty tools to further refine their craft, such as an acetylene torch and a rolling mill.
“We have all sorts of fun tools,” Parker said.
Christine Bayer of the Berthoud area took three of Parker’s classes about 15 years ago and, noticing his large inventory, asked him about considering doing shows together. He agreed, and they have been doing shows since, she said.
“We have completely different styles, so we are not competing with each other,” said Bayer, owner of Raintree Arts. “Chad’s jewelry is very stylized and precise and shiny and exquisitely done. … Mine is, even though I learned from him, just the opposite. I do more rustic, more organic pieces.”
Bayer likes Parker as a teacher, explaining he is kind, generous, empathetic and complimentary.
“He’s so patient and encouraging,” Bayer said. “Even when you’re doing something above your skill level, (he says) ‘Well, that might be a little hard to do, but let’s go for it.’”
Debbie Carter, a retired educator of 33 years living in Greeley, learned silversmithing six to seven years ago from Parker, wanting to expand her bead making, and she sells her creations through Divine Designs by Deb.
“More than anything I like his quality, and a lot of it is one-of-a-kind. Even if it’s a similar type of stone, it has a different type of mounting,” said Carter, who still takes classes from Parker and also has participated in a few shows with him. “Chad, having been an educator as well, really understands the science and what I call the art of teaching. … My first night there, I was very impressed with how he explained everything. … He helps me keep getting better and better.”
Picking up the interest
Parker originally didn’t consider himself an artist but found he was good at fabricating jewelry, he said.
“Over the years people convinced me I’m an artist,” Parker said. “I think of myself as a craft person, pretty good at fabricating things.”
Parker began making jewelry 25 years ago when he became what he calls a “rockhound.”
“I love minerals, and the stuff nature produces is just amazing,” Parker said.
Parker wanted to find a lapidary instructor but instead encountered a silversmithing instructor from Estes Park.
“I took a couple of classes from him and got hooked. Along the way I determined the lapidary part is kind of tedious,” Parker said, adding that he cuts stones for some of his jewelry but prefers the other tasks of making his pieces. “Generally, cutting stones for me is a little boring. It’s grind, grind, grind.”
Parker also learned silversmithing from books, online instruction and trial and error, he said. He teaches what he learned and estimates he’s had hundreds of students over the years.
“It’s a creative environment,” Parker said. “It has a particular feel to it that is pleasant, a bunch of people making stuff and getting ideas from each other. I get ideas from my students that I would have never thought of.”
Loving teaching
Parker enjoys watching his students discover they can do something they thought they could never do.
“It’s fun to see their excitement,” Parker said.
Parker taught metalsmithing at Ferguson for about 10 years until 2016, when he returned to focusing solely on teaching English.
“There’s a lot of similarities; however, this is more of a kinesthetic kind of thing,” Parker said. “It makes sense and is more concrete, rather than talking about themes. The concrete, kinesthetic things are easier to teach than the abstract things.”
Parker also likes that he can make something and see a physical result.
“I can look at it and say I made that,” Parker said, adding that with teaching, he often doesn’t know if he’s made an impact with his students.
Even so, Parker is a born teacher, his wife, Edie, said.
“I’m glad he has this outlet now that he isn’t teaching high school,” Edie said. “He’s very good at it. He’s very good at listening. It’s not just what people say; but their body language, what they are doing, he can kind of anticipate. He honestly cares.”
Edie is proud of the jewelry Parker creates and wears many of his pieces, she said.
“His jewelry is amazing,” Edie said. “I like how he has a mix of modern and more traditional. I personally like the more modern. He always comes up with interesting, new designs.”
Edie particularly likes the animal pieces Parker makes and how he gets “inspiration from the different stones he finds,” she said.
“He makes everyday pieces, but he also makes some art pieces,” Edie said.
Parker earned a degree in English in 1991 from Colorado State University and taught at Ferguson from 1991 to 2019. Edie also taught English at the same school for about 10 years, plus at other schools.
Parker originally went into English, thinking he wanted to be a writer, but later learned he didn’t have a passion for it, he said.
“But I had a passion for teaching, which I didn’t realize until I started teaching,” Parker said. “There’s something really exciting about watching somebody else’s excitement about learning something new. It’s really thrilling to see somebody have an epiphany.”
Parker is finishing converting his garage into a woodworking shop, where he will make wood jewelry displays, wood jewelry and other wood projects, he said.
For additional details about Chad’s Silversmithing, contact Parker at cvpark@comcast.net or 970-215-1020.