Hi
way to go Barbara
I like to learn and I aspire to go on learning to the day I die and I
find I learn sometimes in the most unlikely places and books.
I was trying to design a pendant that was a combination of three
pendant styles and could not put it all together. I was trying to
eliminate design/structural flaws in the designs.
Went round to a mates place who is a fisherman not a jeweller. While
he was making a coffee I looked through a ship chandlery catalogue.
And Eureka there was the piece that pulled the design together. It
was a twisted D shackle. Who’d have thunk it?
I have seen very similar designs since I made mine some better some
worse. I think they did not look in a chandlery catalogue.
My teacher was telling students who were making boxes to look at
EVERY hinge they could find, doors, cupboards, boxes etc.
To understand what hinges do and why they are made for the job.
Talking of students, today we made rings. One very feisty 15 year
old girl said I can’t use the saw. Showed her how, told get out of
the road and away she went. I can’t use the torch same thing
happened. Hammering ring round on the mandrel I can’t hit it hard
enough.
“You know that annoying kid, (her cousin) imagine its his head.”
Wow could this little girl use a mallet or what? When finished she
barged into the principal’s office to show off her work 3 rings
ready to polish.
This kid has the jewellers spirit at 14 she managed shifts at a
pizza store, rode track work for race horses and was a show jumper.
Her jewellery work is clean, neat and precise and this was her first
silver smith lesson! She can do bead work like a daemon. I showed
her a gem set ring and asked if she would like to set a stone in her
ring band. Hell yeah! I told her it was demanding and annoying. She
said “I put up with you it can’t be worse!”
Just another poor child addicted to jewellery making. LOL She is
also a talented artist. So it will be an interesting few years. The
aim is for her to leave school with the bench skills to start her own
business. If she has not done so already.
It is a joy to have a student like this rather than those that need
to be threatened with a mandrel to the head to behave.
In my jewellery class I am the boss and have punching rights LOL.
Every kid at this school gets to make a silver ring, but many do not
get the chance to return to the workshop. Those who do have self-
discipline and good attention spans and a strong desire to make
beauty.
Richard
Xtines Jewels