Meet Our Instructors

James Friedman

Owner/Instructor/ Design consultant: With over 35 years of design development and production experience. James has been able to assist in launching multiple jewelry brands large and small and has a solid portfolio of custom design work. His ability to teach students and clients to reach for the stars has seen much success over the years. Book a private session or consult to make you design dreams come true.

Instructor: Wax Carving Private Workshops, commercial consultation and over all jewelry industry expert.

Jules Schroeder

Instructor: Botanical Fabrication

Jules has been creating art with metal for three years, but has been doing art all her life. Her main focus is on metal fabrication, using processed raw silver to create one of a kind pieces inspired by nature. She designs and makes sterling silver jewelry for her small business and has extensive experience creating custom and unique pieces both with stone settings and without.

Lori Monmoa

Instructor: Metal Basics-Beginning Jewelry Making, Intermediate Jewelry Making, Prong Setting, Tube Setting, Spinner Rings, and Enameling

Lori has a wide range of jewelry experience and has much to offer for students new to jewelry making and to those with experience. Her methodical approach supports creativity in a safe environment to bring out the artist in everyone. She has been teaching at EDCL since 2022.

Uma Kamat

Instructor: Introduction to CAD
Uma is a a design professional for one of Hawaii’s largest jewelers. She has always wanted to teach and share her knowledge with people interested in jewelry design.

Edlynn Taira

Instructor: Introduction to Wax Carving

Edlynn has been designing jewelry for over 10 years. As an instructor at the Honolulu Museum of Art she fine tuned her ability to work with students to help them bring their dreams to reality. Easy to work with she is a powerhouse of knowledge and skills.

Mark Malenich

Instructor; Introduction to Wax Carving, Wax 1.5

Mark is a fine artist and has been a dedicated, life-long student of the arts starting from an early age. To formalize his pursuit of the arts, he attended and received his Master of Arts degree at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. Having learned metalsmithing in graduate school and lost wax casting at Honolulu Museum of Art, he uses his cumulative knowledge across multiple disciplines to create engaging courses for El Dorado Casting Lab.

Annelise Yee Field

Annelise Yee Field

Instructor: Exploring Enamel

Annelise Yee has been teaching art and jewelry-making since 2017. She earned her BFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing and a Master’s in Education from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). She has built and led metals studios at Island Pacific Academy, Punahou School, and the Honolulu Museum of Art. With experience in enamel, casting, metal fabrication, hand rendering, and CAD, Annelise is passionate about empowering students to grow their skills and creativity through hands-on making.

Nathaniel Breeden

Instructor: CAD 2

Nathaniel has been teaching CAD at EDCL since 2024 and has extensive work experience with CAD production for product and jewelry design. Professional work includes product conception, design, pre and post production and retail market.