Studio Perak — Local services in Pulau Bali

We’ve just did the silver class yesterday at Studio Perak. The class costs 450K for which you get 3 hours and 5gr of silver. In the beginning, they ask you if you have any ideas, if not they have a bowl of rings you can look at as inspiration. Some of the girls in the class decided to make some earrings. We had a simple idea that we started working on. We had two teachers for a class of 8 so he came around every 5 minutes to see how we’re progressing and if we needed some support. You’re mainly in charge of the hammering and cutting out the pieces, he will do the melting part but asks you to pump the air for him. I guess it’s for safety reasons they don’t let you play with the fire.🔥 Once my ring was put together, he puts it in acid + water and you need to wait for it to settle. Then comes the polishing part with an iron brush and they also have a little room with two polishing machines. They show you how to use it so you can do it yourself. The teacher was very knowledgeable he has been making jewellery for 20 years so we also talked a bit about his life. At the end, if you have time and material left (you can buy more) he encourages you to make something else so my partner also made a medal for his necklace. I think 3 hours is probably too long, we spent there around 2h and all the others left before us. You will only need the 3h if you’re planning to do something very complicated. The place is air conditioned and they also have a shop so you can buy their jewellery. One of the things to improve would be to make an introduction in the beginning. When we arrived we were immediately sat down and got into action without knowing what all the tools for or what steps I will be taking. The place is also quite dirty and needs a good scrubbing but I guess if you’re in Bali you already got used to the conditions😅 Overall, we had a nice experience and enjoyed making our own rings, they’re a bit wonky but that’s what makes them special and a long lasting memory from our...

Would not recommend! Extremely bad experience… The whole process was frustrating, and the staff couldn’t care less. They did nothing to help! I knew that I wanted a green stone for my ring and when I saw a stone like it in another ring I asked if they had one like that. “Look in the box” they told me. I looked and found no green stones at all. So I asked if they had others. “Look in the box” I was told again and then they walked off to help someone else. This happened a few times until I finally gave up and chose a different stone. They did absolutely nothing to help me and couldn’t care less. The whole process of making the ring was very frustrating as well. There was a lot of waiting because they didn’t have enough people to help all of us. Whenever you asked the guy to help you do something he would say “no” or “not possible”….? They gave you no introduction whatsoever, just placed you at a table and expected you to get started. If you’ve done this before then it’s fine, but for someone who has no idea how to make jewellery it was very confusing. The guys English was very bad and we barely understood a word he said. If he told me to cut something, I would ask with what since I had no idea what kind of tools to use. He literally threw me the tool without even looking at me and then walked off. This was typically what he would do. You ask a question, he would say something incomprehensible and then walk off so you would have to wait for him to help others before asking him again… To top it off, I only used 3,5 out of my 5 grams of silver and was still charged 35k for my stone. They could at least have given me the stone free of charge. Overall very bad experience and would...

I did the silversmithing class here last week and it was... interesting. We were a class of three when we started but two of them left in disgust before the class even started! The teacher walked in and with no introduction or greeting demanded "Do you know what you want to make?". One woman was an artist and had some ideas and some stones she had brought but the teacher immediately told her that she would not be able to make what she wanted. So she asked for a refund and left. The next woman wanted some information about what it would be possible for her to make and the the teacher tried to explain. When she didn't get it right away (English was not her first language, nor was it his) he got frustrated and snapped at her. So she also left. That left me alone. We didn't talk much and I was careful to choose a design that would be workable. I am happy with the two rings I made but it took a full hour for the teacher to ask my name and where I was from and he never apologised or acknowledged the very tense start to the class. The class was only medium-level hands on - silversmithing involves a lot of fire and the teacher had to do that while I pumped the bellows. I'm not sure I can recommend this class to anyone who does not have a thick skin and...