Design your own jewelery at a metals workshop just down the street

Handmade jewelry has become more popular the past few years with the resurgence in crafting and the push to buy green, local and direct. While the allure of handmade and personalized designs is undeniable, it can be quite costly to have things custom made and the design in your head might not transfer to your jewelry. But, before you dive in and start buying silver, metal cutters and soldering tools, consider heading to Danaca Designs on Northeast 56th Street and University Way Northeast.

Owner Dana Cassara has had the business for a long time, but she has been in the location on the Ave. for five years. An unassuming storefront belies the magic of this place — walking in, you are confronted with locally crafted metal work, and further back you can see a wide range of tools and workstations.

While Cassara worked as a graphic designer, she started taking metal working classes at North Seattle Community College with a co-worker. When the graphic design industry made the move to computers, Cassara decided she wanted to work with her hands, not a computer screen.

The setup of her business is unique in that many of her beginner classes are designed as workshops that focus on a specific technique.

“I try to represent a lot of different techniques,” Cassara said. “As a beginner, it is really hard to look at a piece of metal and know what can be done with it.”

For this reason, she includes the materials in the fees of her beginning classes.

Classes are held on evenings and weekends, and there is the option of independent study with Cassara if you have a specific project or technique in mind.

“I tried to make a place that was a little more available than the normal metals classroom,” Cassara said.

The studio’s collection of equip-ment was pieced to-gether slowly: Cassara bought one piece of equipment at a time. She tries to keep the space relevant and useful by asking students what they want.

“This tradition has really been lost in the modern age,” Cassara said. “It is really creative and there is a big overlap between science and art.”

This overlap can be seen in the pieces of copper hanging on the wall; each has been treated in a different way, and the end result is a wide range of colors.

“A lot of it is about being patient,” Cassara said. “There is a certain satisfation. I am constantly inspired from teaching and what my students do.”

Cassara pointed to the jewelery hanging in the front of her store and said, “this is really fun, because you don’t know who the students are.”

Danaca Designs holds open houses six or seven times a year; the next one will be at 6 p.m. on May 31.