HUSCH

HUSCH is a small studio and shop on Sihlquai in Zürich's Kreis 5, the Industriequartier stretch that runs along the river towards Escher Wyss Platz, in the 8005 postcode. It was founded in 2022 by the artist Karin Hueber and the product designer David Schäublin, and the two still run it as a working practice rather than a retail front: Hueber develops and sells small runs of jewellery and design objects and leads the workshop programme herself, while Schäublin designs furniture and lighting sold through the same shop. The shop itself is open most Fridays for browsing, with visits by appointment on other days, and it sits a short walk from Escher Wyss Platz's tram stops, easy enough to find for anyone staying central.

The workshop that earns HUSCH a place in this category is titled, on the studio's own English page, "Wax Carving, from Wax to Silver (recycled)". It is worth being precise about the name, because this is a different craft from the anvil-and-torch forging that some other studios in this category run, and a couple choosing between them should know which one they are booking.

What the day actually involves

Nobody at HUSCH is hammering metal. The technique is wax carving: you work a block of jewellery wax by hand, designing, filing, carving or melting it into your own object, whether that ends up as a ring, a pendant or a pair of ear studs. Hueber runs the session and guides you through the whole process from first cut to finished model, and the workshop lasts 4 hours, with a small aperitif offered at the end for anyone who fancies one.

That wax model is not the ring you leave with. Once the design is finished, HUSCH sends it out to a local caster, who casts it in recycled sterling silver 925, bronze or brass. Hueber then does the finishing work herself back at the studio, removing the sprue left by the casting process and giving the piece a matte finish. Gold at 750 fineness can be cast on request instead, and the studio specifically says it supports Max Havelaar certified gold, the Swiss fair-trade label, for anyone who wants a traceable metal rather than an unspecified one. The upshot is a two-stage process rather than a same-day result: you carve on the day, and the cast, finished piece is ready to collect or be shipped 2 to 3 weeks later. That's a genuinely useful thing to know before booking, since it means the workshop itself produces a wax model and a plan, not a wearable ring by the time you walk out the door.

What it costs and what's included

The workshop fee is CHF 260 per person for the 4 hours. That covers the tools during the session, the consumable materials, the casting cost at the local foundry and the fine finishing Hueber does on the returned piece. It does not cover the precious metal itself, which HUSCH bills separately by weight: the site gives a working figure of about CHF 30 for a silver ring's worth of metal, with gold priced individually depending on the design. Anything beyond the standard matte finish, such as extra polishing or reshaping the cast piece afterwards, is also billed as an add-on rather than folded into the course fee. It's a reasonably honest structure: one flat number for the teaching, the tools and the casting, and a separate, genuinely variable line for the metal you actually use, rather than a single headline price that quietly buries how much of it is material.

Booking, dates and lead time

This isn't a class with a long list of weekly openings. HUSCH publishes a handful of fixed sessions at a time; the current run includes a Saturday afternoon date on 22 August 2026 from 13:30 to 17:30, and a separate weekday evening date from 17:30 to 21:30, each capped at a maximum of 6 participants. If none of the published dates work, the studio explicitly offers private sessions, for couples, small groups, birthday parties or corporate events, arranged directly by email, with private bookings possible from as few as 2 people. What the site does not publish is a minimum lead time for arranging one of those private dates, so that's a genuine open question rather than something this write-up will guess at; it's worth emailing early rather than assuming a slot can be found at short notice.

Registration itself is by email, with your name, address and phone number, sent to the studio directly rather than through an online calendar. HUSCH is explicit that a booking is binding once confirmed: you can cancel free of charge within 24 hours of the confirmation email, but after that window the registration cannot be canceled, and the terms state plainly that a no-show is charged 100% of the course fee. Payment itself is by bank transfer in advance of the session rather than on the day, which is worth knowing if you're used to paying a deposit only.

Language

This is one of the more straightforward answers in the category. The workshop page is published in full in both German and English, and the site states outright that the session itself runs in German and English, open to beginners and advanced participants alike. There's no need to ask in advance or bring someone to translate: it's stated on the same page as the price and the dates, not tucked away somewhere else.

How it fits an engagement or wedding ring plan

HUSCH doesn't market this specific session as a wedding or engagement product, and it's worth being clear about that rather than stretching the framing. The workshop is a general one, open to anyone who wants to shape a ring, a pendant or a pair of studs, and it runs the same way whoever books it. Separately, the studio's own site does invite couples looking for wedding rings or bespoke jewellery to get in touch directly, described as a made-to-order channel outside the workshop format, with its own fee agreed in advance rather than the CHF 260 course price. So a couple who wants HUSCH's hand specifically in a commissioned wedding ring is looking at that separate conversation, not this class. What this workshop suits well is a couple who wants a shared, hands-on afternoon or evening together and is happy to end up with a hand-carved, cast silver band rather than a commissioned one: it's a genuine ring you shaped yourselves, just not a stone-set one, since nothing in the process here involves setting a gemstone.

Who it suits and the verdict

For a couple weighing an afternoon in a studio against a series of atelier consultations, HUSCH is about as accessible as this category gets: a fixed price, a fixed four hours, a real hands-on technique, and instructions available in English without having to ask first. It's also, by its own numbers, one of the smaller and less formal set-ups in the category, capped at 6 people per session and run out of a working studio and shop rather than a dedicated teaching space, and it closes for a stretch every summer (the site names July 10 through August 14 as its own break, which is why the next available date after that closure falls on 22 August).

None of that undercuts the core offer. You genuinely shape your own piece by hand rather than watch someone else do the interesting part, the price is published and reasonably itemised rather than vague about what's included, and there's no sign this is an old listing nobody maintains: a Zürich newspaper shopping guide named the same Sihlquai showroom in a piece from October 2024, the studio's own workshop calendar runs sessions into September 2026, and its social feed shows openings and events within the past few weeks. A search for signs the business had closed, moved or changed hands turned up nothing of the kind.

The honest caveat is timing rather than quality: the finished, cast ring isn't ready to wear on the day itself, so budget the 2 to 3 weeks afterwards for casting and finishing, and treat the CHF 260 as the workshop fee alone, with the metal itself billed on top once you know what you've made. For a couple who wants to say they made the piece themselves, rather than picked it from a case, and who is comfortable with a wax-and-cast technique instead of a forged one, HUSCH is a straightforward, well-priced way to spend an afternoon in Kreis 5 doing exactly that.