The Claflin Jewelry Studio was founded in 1966 by Erling Heistad in order to provide Dartmouth students and faculty with a creative environment and a place to design and create jewelry. Walker Weed '40, then director of the Student Workshops Program in the newly constructed Hopkins Center (1961), invited Heistad to convert an underused space into a jewelry studio. Heistad moved his studio to the Hopkins Center and began the process of building Dartmouth's jewelry studio.

Erling Heistad is a veritable jack-of-all trades and master of most. Throughout his career he has worked in clay, glass, metal, wood, and leather. Erling became interested in metal work while helping his father, who was a machinist. He made his first jewelry while in grade school and ran a jewelry business while an undergraduate at the University of New Hampshire. At UNH he rebuilt kilns and expanded the casting and fabrication capabilities of their shop. Heistad did graduate work at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he focused on metal and clay from 1964 to 1966. In 1966 Heistad began building the jewelry studio at Dartmouth College and served as director of "Project Arise." Project Arise served 16,000 students, 64 schools and one-third of New Hampshire, bringing music, dance, drama and two and three-dimensional arts to rural schools. In 1968 Heistad expanded this vision to form a summer school for teen-age artists: the Haystack-Hinkley School of Crafts. Erling has offered his expertise and friendship to generations of students, both at Dartmouth and elsewhere. He's described his role as that of facilitator; one who makes students aware of their potential and is there to help when they test the limits of their knowledge and experience. Erling envisioned the jewelry studio as a place where students can challenge themselves and experiment: "It isn't the product, but rather the experience that's important."

In the early days equipment was limited; the studio started out with just two simple workbenches. Over the past three decades the shop has continued to grow and expand its jewelry making capabilities. In the mid-1980s the studio was completely renovated with the support of the Howard Gilman Foundation and the original one room shop was expanded to occupy two rooms. At this time the shop was named in memory of Donald Claflin, designer for Tiffany's and friend of Howard Gilman '43. The renovation also included the construction of new benches and cabinets — all of which were designed by Erling Heistad and built by students and staff. A machine room was added to the studio in 1994 allowing students to work with steel and other hard metals.

Today the studio is better equipped than many professional studios and boasts a wide range of equipment: a soldering bench, a hydraulic press, flat and wire rolling mills, polishing wheels, diamond saw and wheels, a flex shaft, and engraving machine, a lathe, a vacuum casting machine, numerous drills, anvils, stakes, planishing hammers, and ten workbenches with a full compliment of pliers and files.

As more and more students began to work in the shop Heistad met the increased demand by implementing a teaching assistant program. This apprenticeship-style program, in use since the late 1960s, has expanded the role of students in the shop. Upperclassmen help train incoming freshman employees through a series of workshops introducing basic jewelry making techniques. Skills are transmitted from class to class and studio T.A.s help instruct the shop's users.

Claflin Jewelry Studio currently serves over 200 students per term and produces approximately 300 projects per term. The shop hosts workshops each term which are open to both students and faculty (no experience necessary) and cover everything from casting to making tools in the machine room. The Student Show, held each spring, provides students with an opportunity to display their projects in the rotunda at the entrance of the Hopkins Center.

The Claflin Jewelry Studio has become an invaluable resource to generations of Dartmouth students and has contributed to the college's unique character. Loyal alumni, many of whom wear wedding bands hand crafted in the studio, look back fondly on time spent in the shop. Current students have a wonderful opportunity to use their hands, learn from a master craftsman, and create fine works of art. Yet far more important than silver and gold are the lifelong friendships forged in the studio.