Journal
Articles and news from the Academy and the trade.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 1 Nov 2026
Is ChatGPT recommending your jewellery business? A monthly check you can run yourself
Run a monthly check of whether ChatGPT and Gemini name or cite your jewellery business: a fixed question list, a recording sheet, and how to read the gaps.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 8 Oct 2026
How to wrap a flat pattern round a ring in Blender
Draw the pattern flat at true size, flow it onto the ring, then measure where marks land. How it worked in Blender, how it failed on a bent band, and the fix.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 27 Sep 2026
Is Rhino or Blender Better for Jewellery Design?
Rhino for anything going to a caster: exact NURBS surfaces, real tolerances, mature jewellery plugins. Blender for free sculptural exploration and rendering.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 27 Sep 2026
STL vs 3DM: Which File Format for Jewellery CAD and 3D Printing
Work in 3DM for as long as the design can change. Only export to STL once it's locked. Converting early costs you editability; converting late costs nothing.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 20 Sep 2026
Best Jewellery CAD Courses UK: An Honest Comparison
A plain look at the UK options for learning jewellery CAD: a resource curator, a Rhino reseller, a trade body, Udemy, and where a one-to-one course sits.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 12 Sep 2026
Can I learn Rhino jewellery design in an online course?
Yes. The core Rhino skill transfers well to a screen. What online cannot do is watch your file in real time. Here is what online gives you and what it cannot.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 12 Sep 2026
How long does it take to learn CAD for jewellery making?
A practitioner's honest timeline: from first session to fluent enough to model a client brief. The software is the easy part.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 12 Sep 2026
How to 3D print jewellery from a Rhino file
Export a watertight mesh, respect wall-thickness minimums, then choose an in-house printer or a casting bureau based on volume and turnaround.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 11 Sep 2026
Claws in CAD, or left to the setter?
Should claws and stone holes be modelled in CAD or cut by hand at setting? The answer looks like craft, but time and cost make it a business decision.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 6 Sep 2026
Why a dry-run flag catches what your tests miss
Two passing test suites missed three real bugs in a scheduled automation. A --dry-run flag that showed what it was about to do caught all three in one pass.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 17 Aug 2026
What browser extensions can actually read, and how to check in thirty seconds
Check exactly what any browser extension is allowed to read on your computer, in about thirty seconds, using a screen you already have.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 16 Aug 2026
I measured 128 Instagram posts. Here is what the data told me to stop.
128 posts, five metrics, one discovery: 77% of posts were the format that reaches the fewest people. Here is how to read your own account before posting again.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 9 Aug 2026
How to start a jewellery design business in the UK (CAD-first)
The CAD-first model for a UK jewellery design business: toolset, production route, legal setup, and what it looks like in practice.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 9 Aug 2026
How to run your first bespoke jewellery commission
What happens between a client's first message and an approved design: the stages, the common mistakes, and how to protect both parties.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 9 Aug 2026
The best AI tools for jewellery designers (workflow-tested)
Not a list of what exists. A map of where AI actually earns its place in a jewellery studio, tool by tool, and where it does not belong.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 6 Aug 2026
How to Price Handmade Jewellery: A Method You Can Actually Use
A worked method for pricing handmade jewellery in the UK, from true material cost through to the wholesale multiplier, with a silver and a gold example.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 5 Aug 2026
How AI actually helps jewellery designers with their workflow
Not a round-up of design tools. A real breakdown of where AI enters the jewellery design and production workflow, step by step, and what it does not help with.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 4 Aug 2026
How to learn Rhino 3D for jewellery making
The real learning order for Rhino in a jewellery context: what to start with, what to defer, and why most beginners learn it backwards.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 3 Aug 2026
How to Become a Jewellery Designer in the UK (Without a Degree, and With No Experience)
The real UK routes into jewellery design, what a portfolio needs to contain, and why the job splits into three very different careers.
How-to · Hamed Arab Academy · 3 Aug 2026
How to Sell Handmade Jewellery: Where to Actually Sell It, and What It Pays
Every marketplace suits a different kind of handmade jewellery. Here's where each one fits, what it costs you, and what the work is actually worth.
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Academy articles stay on the Academy site, and each link here opens the original. Posts written for The Bench open here. Add-on releases link to the add-on's own updates page.