Whaley Studios

Hillcrest is home for many small artists. From graphic and media designers like Steve McKinnis or Schwartz Design group, florists like Ever Bloom and Edible Arrangements, or acrylic and mixed media painter Sean Brannon, creators of all walks enjoy the community’s appreciation for the small business artisan. In any neighborhood with such a thriving creative culture, there is a mutual respect amongst the competing craftsmen. Above this friendly rivalry there are a precious few individuals who have a level of expertise which is beyond contention. While all aspire to this goal, few ever reach this distinguished level of craftsmanship.



Jay Whaley, owner of Jay Whaley Studios, is one such expert who has attained this degree of prestige. Located at 3848 5th Avenue, Jay runs a diverse business that thrives on teaching and mentoring fellow and future jewelers and goldsmiths. Growing up in Tempe, Arizona, it was Jim Cromer, an art teacher at Tempe High School who first exposed Jay to the creative process. The class was only taken to fill up his schedule. During a section on wax casting, a set of wedding rings he made was entered into the Scholastic Art Show, of which he became a national semifinalist.



Realizing his skills as a jeweler, he attended Arizona State University, an acclaimed art school, and began creating Indian and Northwestern styled pieces, which he sold to a gallery in Scottsdale, as a side job while studying. Finishing school, he began teaching in 1976 at the Scotts Park and Recreation center. While visiting family in Hawaii, he took a job as a goldsmith and was offered teaching position at the Wailea Arts Center.



He moved to San Diego to stay with an old friend from high school, and started working at the Jewelers’ Exchange on 5th Avenue and E Street in 1981. The location was in the middle of a remodel, designed to restore its historical turn of the century origins, so he asked the owners if he could work as a early 20th century jewelry at a show booth in the lobby. Here, he used this antique setting to hone his craft, and began designing tools to help him work in the lobby’s cramped workspace.



When he and a friend entered a show at UCSD’s Craft Center, he was offered a position as a jewelry instructor at the university, where he eventually became the senior jewelry instructor, and ran the program there for 24 years. In 2005, while visiting China to teach a rolling mill course, he wrote a story for SNAG newsletter (Society of North American Goldsmiths). While reading his own story, he saw an ad for a wedding ring workshop, and a working relationship with the owner began in San Diego.



Jay decided to continue teaching, and opened the space up for private students.



In 2009, he retired from teaching at UCSD, and began to exclusively focus on the studio and his patents of the tools which he had designed while working in the Jewelry Exchange.



Since opening, Jay Whaley has brought in artists from all over the country to teach workshops in a diversity of fields and disciplines, from filigree, bead work, soldering, and reactive metals. Last year he also began using social media and currently does a one hour a week podcast doing interviews on jewelers and goldsmiths all over the country. Rather than use traditional classroom teaching methods or hobbyist level instruction, students learn professional creative techniques as he guides them through the entire process from start to finish.



The studio houses four students in his private sessions and ten with a teaching assistant during group sessions. Lasting two to four hours, the classes are held in the spacious workshop; filled with tools and materials, the studio is a creative dynamo as Jay continuously offers advice and help at the individual stages of each person’s project. With 7 to 40 steps involved in the creation of a single piece, the room bustles with questions, handwork, and the bright flare of jewlers blowtorches.