Do you ever have a period where you just keep making mistakes and it seems like getting to a really clean finished result is harder than ever? So funny how lately everything feels harder.
Hopefully, I’m soaking up everybody else’s mistakes and all of your projects are going swimmingly!
This is a very well known situation in my world.
I usually attribute it to this little guy sitting on my shoulder, Murphy I think his name is 
Every once in a while I just forget how to solder. Or it seems to be that way. My solution to this problem is to stop what I am doing and then make and drink a cup of tea or coffee. Then I deep clean my soldering bench, scrub the yuck off my soldering pads, refresh all my chemicals and rinse water in clean dishes, run my torch tips through the ultrasonic and cut new solder pallions. If needed, I make new flux or at least clean the flux container and finally make new or refresh my alcohol/boric acid solution. This usually fixes the problem, but it isn’t a very good scientific experiment as there are too many variables. It just happens, don’t worry too much about it. Good luck…Rob
It’s best to make the mistakes your self. When I teach a beginning metals class I always start off with this…I give them all a menacing look, pitch my voice a little lower and say “In my class failure is NOT an option.” They all look at me me and cringe. I then follow up with “The only reason I am good at this is because I have fked up everything there is to fk up. My advice is to make a shit ton of mistakes as fast as you can, get them out of the way, and move on to the next batch of mistakes. The beauty of silver and gold metals is that you can always melt it down and start over. So now lets get busy and f**k shit up.”
Thank you everyone! Lovely to feel the camaraderie
Yupp every time I sit down at the bench, the mistakes make for more interesting pieces and then better stuff down the road.
Ditto. It forces me to pause and ponder what I messed up.
I’ve often told my student the same. I tell them how to either fix the mistake or how to turn it into a “design element.” 
Some of my more interesting pieces, at least to me, started out as a mistake that I decided to try and fix rather than recycle. I am always thankful that silver and gold can be recycled. It lets me take chances knowing that there is a way to recover if the project fails…Rob
Did decades of Renaissance metalsmithing/jewelry demonstrations for the Utah Shakespeare Festival. As I would always tell the crowds, " A hammer, blowtorch, and an anvil are better than Prozac when you have teenagers. When you are done smashing, burning, and melting you call it art and sell it. It works well if you just need to take out your frustrations.
I tell students not to look at their work and see mistakes. Art is learning and going with what happened.
And what happened was an “Organic Design Element”.
At least that is how they should describe it to clients and customers.
Actually I became obsessed with raising during the hardest and darkest part of my life.when I was 20.
Rob and I have discussed this issue more than a few times before. I forget how solder about twice a year. Always just before show season starts or just before I have to fill a rush order. Our solutions are about the same two. I have an additional rule:. The same or similar failures three times in a row and I am done for the day. Grab a guitar and a Yeti cup of coffee and I head for the porch,
Dad had a rule that my son and I follow. It is more or less this, If a piece is ready to polish any hammer marks must be part of the design.
Some of these most interesting pieces I have done are filled with mistakes in process somewhere along the line.
Don Meixner
From an old teacher " the difference between an amateur and a professional is in how to correct the mistakes !!!"
I’m constantly making mistakes. So many things can go awry …. But fixing them is very satisfying.
trial and error makes for experience… errors are the greatest teacher👍. Can’t agree more!
Yes. @ Gerald_Livings1 expanded on that.
Figuring out why something didn’t work and how to fix it is better than just trying and trying and trying… Worth reading:
https://livingstonjewelers.com/blog/practice-makes-perfect-but-only-if-you-do-it-right/
Figuring out what went wrong is for a 3:00 AM wide awake session that doesn’t resolve until you get up and try out what you think might solve the problem. I rarely get through a night sleeping without designing a new piece of jewelry or fixing a problem that I am currently having with one…Rob
Great info. from your blog. When teaching I have always said "Practice doesn’t always make perfect, it make things permanent. I had the great good fortune to have served a 5 year formal apprenticeship in union shops with some amazing master craftsmen. Good guidance can be a wonderful thing.
Just came across this post. Sincere thanks to all who participated. Not only was the community spirit and camaraderie appreciated, I actually gleaned useful tidbits of info from it.
I have days and sometimes entire weeks where I just can’t seem to get the results I want/need regardless of how hard I try. I’ve learned to set the current project aside and go do something else for a while. When I come back I’m usually reinvigorated enough to see with fresh eyes that quickly spot the problem. If not, I know I didn’t take a long enough break. Fortunately, I have the luxury of being able to take as much time as I need to recharge my mental batteries and resume work with a fresh outlook.
I agree that fixing a problem is better than starting over, assuming the project is not beyond salvaging. Yes, precious metals are recyclable, as are gemstones. However, time spent upon detailed prep work is not. For example, time spent upon engraving; creating custom gemstone collets/baskets/settings; enameling work and particularly when multiple layers/firings were required and possibly even a foundation of gold leaf or silver foil under transparent enamels to bring out their color. I’ve had projects where I spent an entire week doing detail work before making a blunder that rendered the project unsalable. Knowing how to perform repairs and recover from mistakes without having to start over from scratch is not merely a handy skill to have, it can literally make the difference between a project being a profitable success or an expensive failure.
And yes, I know exactly what you mean about “soaking up everybody else’s mistakes”. I’ve had old-timers tell me there’s an unwritten rule that says we can’t all be having a good day at the same time, because that would break the universe. We have to take turns carefully expending our personal ration of good luck to ensure none goes to waste…