Neus Shop

Neus Shop GmbH runs out of a single address on Hochwachtstrasse 41 in Winterthur: a jewelry-supply shop, an online store, and a course room where the same team teaches people to make what they would otherwise buy ready-made. For a couple who wants to say they forged their own ring rather than picked one off a shelf, its relevant offering is a silver-forging day sold on the shop's own site as "Kurs Silber schmieden und löten Basis 1."

What the day involves

The course runs as one sitting, 9:00 to 16:00, so you give up a Saturday rather than a run of evening classes. The shop's own product listing describes working with a saw, a hammer and a soldering torch to shape silver wire into a ring, or earrings, or another small piece, to your own size, from a blank you cut and file yourself rather than a mold someone else pours and hands you at the end. Its Instagram and Facebook posts, which repeat the same wording across several announcements, describe the course as "ALLES INKLUSIVE": silver material, tools and supervision, and lunch, with no hidden costs and no prior experience needed. The listed price is CHF 375 per seat, tax included, and each session is capped at 6 places. That cap is not just a marketing line: the shop has posted "sold out" notices for a previous Saturday's 6 spots while still taking bookings for the next date. Book as a couple and you are claiming 2 of those 6 seats in an open class alongside strangers, not a private appointment. Neus Shop also runs group events for private bookings, but those need a minimum of 4 people, so two people on their own go into the standard class.

A second course for the more experienced

Separate from the basic day, the shop lists a dedicated "Spinning Ring" course aimed at people who have already taken a silver soldering course, or who have some experience with one. The technique starts the same way, sawing a ring band from a silver sheet and filing it to size, but you then fit in "spinners," small rings that turn freely inside the band, so you leave with a spinner ring rather than a plain forged one. It suits a couple where one partner already has a ring from the basic day and wants to go further, or both of you coming back once you have handled a saw and a torch before. Neus Shop does not publish a separate price for this course on its shop pages, so treat it as something to confirm directly with the shop rather than a fixed rate you can check online in advance.

Materials, and what the course actually covers

The shop's standard material grade across its jewelry range is 925 sterling silver, sold by the reel in its own online shop, and the same stock supplies the courses. Soldering accessories the shop sells alongside the course listing (a ceramic fireproof block, flux, and two grades of solder wire) are separate add-ons in the shop rather than automatic inclusions, but the course's own description states plainly that the silver you actually work with during the day is part of the CHF 375. If a couple wants to keep practicing after the course ends, Neus Shop rents its workshop space by the hour: CHF 35 for 1 hour, up to CHF 135 for 6 hours, or a 10-hour pass for CHF 180, so a second attempt at a ring does not mean rebooking a whole course.

The rest of the course catalogue

Silver forging sits alongside a wider programme built on the same studio: a glass bead taster session, an Art Clay silver course for people who prefer modelling to sawing, and open studio time for anyone who already knows the ropes. It is a genuine, ongoing teaching operation rather than a single workshop bolted onto a retail counter, which matters if you are trusting an unfamiliar business with a Saturday and a few hundred francs.

How it compares to a bespoke commission

This is not a substitute for walking into a Zürich goldsmith's atelier and commissioning a stone-set engagement ring. Nothing on the site mentions gemstone setting, and the finished pieces in the shop's own course photos are plain forged bands, occasionally with a soldered decorative detail, not faceted stones in a claw setting. What a commission cannot offer is a couple's own hands on the saw and the torch for a full day. If the point is standing at a bench together making something, this delivers exactly that.

Whether it runs in English

The online shop's navigation toggles between German, English and French, and translated category names like "Book courses" appear once you switch. The course listings themselves, including both the basic silver day and the Spinning Ring course, are written in German only, and the English-language version of the same course product page returns a 404 rather than a translation. Nothing on the site states whether the instructor teaches the class itself in English. Given that gap, an expat couple should call or email ahead and confirm the language of instruction before paying for a seat, rather than assume the shop's English toggle extends to how the day is actually taught.

Who runs it, and how it is organised

The business is registered as Neus Shop GmbH, with the Swiss company number CHE-109.344.883 listed in its own site footer, and it runs one retail counter, an online shop carrying 7,033 items at last count, and the course studio, all from the same Winterthur address. It is a well-reviewed operation beyond the courses too: 154 verified customer reviews on Trustedshops rate its wider service at 4.8 out of 5. That figure covers the whole business rather than the workshops specifically, but it is a reasonable signal this is an established shop rather than a side project that might not answer an email.

Who it suits, and the verdict

This suits a couple who wants a genuinely hands-on day together and will not mind that the finished ring looks like something two beginners forged, rather than something a workshop finished on their behalf. It is a poor fit if what you actually want is a diamond or a complex setting, since nothing here claims to offer either. Book earlier than you would think: sessions run on set dates rather than on demand, cap out at 6 seats, and have sold out before. The one real practical caveat, beyond the language question above, is that the site does not publish a forward calendar on its main pages, so you check current dates directly with the shop rather than plan around a schedule you can see in advance. None of that changes the core offer: a stated price with no hidden extras, a full day of actually doing the work, and a ring you made with your own hands at the end of it.