Vivescam

Vivescam is a small gemstone jewellery studio in Bubikon, a village in the Zürcher Oberland that most Zürich residents know only as a stop on the S-Bahn line out past Wetzikon. It's run single-handedly by Sandra Zingg, a trained medical practice assistant and former case manager who built the atelier around the idea that a few hours spent working with your hands does more for a stressed nervous system than a long weekend away. The workshop side sits next to a small retail shop selling finished bracelets, rings and necklaces made from natural gemstones, so anyone visiting the atelier for a session walks past the counter showing what a practised version of the same craft looks like.

For a couple weighing this against a Zürich goldsmith's forge-your-own-band course, the first thing to understand is what Vivescam actually teaches. This is not metalsmithing. Nobody hammers, casts or solders here. The technique is gemstone selection, wire work and stringing: you pick your stones from a large personal selection, and Sandra guides you through setting and finishing the piece with wire and clasps rather than an anvil. A finished ring is possible, but it's built the same way as the bracelets that are the studio's default output, not forged from a blank. If what you want is a literally hammered gold band, this is the wrong stop. If you want a genuinely handmade, wearable keepsake you designed together in an afternoon or an evening, it's a real one, just not a metalworking one.

What a couple actually books

Vivescam runs two formats built for two people working side by side. The first, called Date Night - Glow together, is explicitly for couples: the site prices it "pro Paar" (per couple) rather than per head, and caps each evening at two couples so the atelier stays quiet. A session runs 2 hours in the evening, starting at 19:00, and each pair leaves with two personal gemstone bracelets. It includes prosecco or a non-alcoholic alternative and a small snack platter; sterling silver elements are billed on top of the listed price. The price has moved through 2026: CHF 189 for the July and August dates, rising to CHF 229 for the sessions scheduled from September through November.

The second option, Shine Together, is smaller and a touch longer: about 2.5 hours, priced at CHF 139 per person rather than per couple, and open to as few as two people or as many as four, so it works for a couple alone or for a couple plus another pair of friends. Each participant makes two bracelets, with a necklace or anklet available as a swap, and the session comes with coffee, tea or chai (prosecco is optional here rather than included), plus pastries from a local supplier, Café Bryggan. Both formats are booked by sending an inquiry with two or three preferred dates rather than picking a slot from a live calendar, so confirmation isn't instant.

If a ring specifically is the goal rather than a bracelet, it shows up as a design option inside Vivescam's larger private-group booking, not inside either couples' format above. Book the atelier privately for 6 to 12 people and the group chooses between two bracelets, an anklet plus a ring, or a short necklace as their finished piece. That format runs about 2.5 hours at CHF 118 per person, or a longer mala-bead version at the same CHF 165 that runs about 4.5 hours, with add-on time available at CHF 49 for thirty minutes or CHF 89 for an hour, billed per group rather than per person. In practice, a couple who wants each partner to walk away with a ring rather than a bracelet gets there through the group format's ring option, since there is no dedicated two-person ring class on the site.

Materials, drinks and what's genuinely included

Across every format the studio supplies the gemstones and the tools; you don't need to bring anything or have made jewellery before. The one exclusion stated plainly on the pricing page, rather than buried, is sterling silver: any clasp, wire or finding made of sterling silver is billed separately from the listed workshop price, so a ring or bracelet with silver fittings costs a little more than the headline number suggests. Drinks and a small snack are part of the standard price on the open sessions and both couples' formats; a welcome prosecco is part of the larger private booking too.

There's also a regular open workshop that isn't couple-specific, marketed as Create & Shine, running about 3.5 hours for CHF 125 with no experience required. It needs a minimum of five people to go ahead and caps at 10, so it's a shared-table format with strangers rather than a private one, but it's the cheapest way to try the craft if a couple would rather not book a private slot.

Booking lead time and cancellation

Vivescam doesn't publish a required minimum lead time for any format. The private and couples' sessions work by sending two or three preferred dates and waiting for confirmation, while the open sessions simply list their scheduled dates for direct sign-up, and recent listings run from midsummer through November 2026, so there's genuine availability months out. What is published, and worth planning around, is the cancellation policy: cancelling more than 14 days before a session is free, cancelling 13 to 7 days out costs 50 percent of the course fee, and cancelling with less than 7 days' notice, or simply not showing up, means the full 100 percent is charged. Substituting a different person for a booked slot carries no extra fee at any point, which is a useful option if travel plans change.

The English-language question

For a couple relocating to Zürich without German, this is the honest caveat: Vivescam's website, its workshop descriptions and its booking forms are entirely in German, with no English version anywhere on the site and no mention of English-language sessions. That doesn't mean a session in English is impossible; a one-person studio can often adapt in person to whoever is in the room. But it isn't something the business publishes or promises, so it shouldn't be assumed going in. Sending an inquiry in English is a reasonable thing to try; just don't expect the booking form or the confirmation email to default to it.

Getting there and how new this is

Bubikon sits on a direct S-Bahn line from Zürich Hauptbahnhof, and independent journey planners put the ride at 23 to 26 minutes depending on the exact connection, so it's a genuinely easy trip rather than a full excursion into the countryside. The atelier itself sits close to Bubikon station. Worth flagging plainly: Vivescam is young. Sandra Zingg opened the physical atelier and shop in September 2025, so anyone booking now is working with a business that has under a year of workshop bookings behind it rather than a long track record. That cuts both ways: there's less public history to check against, but also a founder who is still personally running every session rather than having handed the craft to staff.

The verdict

Vivescam is a genuine hands-on option for a couple who want to make something together with their own hands rather than commission a professional, and it prices its couples' formats honestly: per couple where that's the real unit, with sterling silver called out as an extra rather than buried in small print. It isn't a metalworking studio, and a ring is one design choice inside its larger group format rather than a dedicated class, so anyone picturing a forge and an anvil should adjust expectations before booking. For a couple happy to make gemstone jewellery with wire and stone rather than gold and fire, willing to make the short train trip out to Bubikon, and ready to communicate in German or simply ask about English, it's a warm, personally run afternoon or evening that ends with something the two of you made side by side.