Dear John Henry, I am sorry about your situation. It must make
things tough. Unfortunately, there have been so many employees
that have taken advantage of there employers that we have
learned to shy away from those that are not healthy. I would
suggest a serious psysical therapy regime or surgery and train
yourself like an athelete till you get it back together.
Best wishes,
Etienne Perret
HI ETINNE: Thank you for your reply, did I say I was not able
to do the job? If You got that out of what I said then like all
employers you might not give the individual a chance to prove
themselves. If you would look at my web site and see my work,
[www.ringmasdreams.com] you would see that I am perfectly
capable, as I said they SEE the brace and run for the hills, I
can do my job, just not as fast as I used to, although my
experience makes a lot better product! I have work with this
disability for 25 years, just after giving so much I have to
wear a brace because the surgeons DON’T know what to do! I have
had Physical therapy, but no matter how hard you train you
cannot change bad bone position. I hope I cleared things up and
please don’t take it as an insult, I am only trying to open
eyes. JOHN HENRY
Joel, I know Lee and he never had a business called Seven Finger
Jewelers. Yes he did own a shop in Greenwich Village called the
Lee Shop where he made both leather and jewelry despite being born
with only a thumb and one finger on one hand. He primarily does
cast work and no you would not be able to tell that it was done
with someone with a disability (one s only in disability). He
currently has a store on Long Island. He is still making and
selling his own jewelry, and he is a great guy. My partner
actually worked for him when he did have the store in the Village
years ago. We still stay in touch.
Dear Marrin, I read your note about the absurd things that the
chiropractor said to you. All I can say is that no field, no
niche, no profession and no family is without its share of nut
cases.
As always, take the best and ignore the rest. If he did relieve
your discomfort, bravo. If he said some stupid things, do not
assume that all in his field agree. My wife may be able to help
people who are in pain, but she would never say she could
prevent the common cold from coming back. Never guarantee her
cure for 12 months, adding that in the 13th you are on your own.
That is just plain foolish.
One thing to keep in mind is that the chiropratic profession was
the subject of a decades-long, industry wide conspiracy by the
medical profession to injur its public image. This was
determined by the courts and resulted in a massive judgement
against the AMA. For this reason, a lot of DC’s have gone
overboard in their claims to legitimacy.
Alan Revere
Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts
760 Market Street . Suite 900
San Francisco . California . 94960 . USA
tel: 415 . 391 . 4179
fax: 415 . 391 . 7570
email: alan@revereacademy.com
web site: www. revereacademy.com
Regarding the discussion of jewelers with less than ten fingers:
I have known several highly skilled bench jewelers who could not
count to ten on their own hands. (I think that humor is always a
good antidote to taking life too seriously and that the
intention of the humorist is what counts.)
Thomas Herman (to whom reference has been made on Orchid) has a
company called Seven Fingers Jewelry. His handwork is
unbelievably beautiful and sophisticated, employing the arts of
fabrication, casting, sawpiercing and chasing to a very high
level. Here is an excerpt from a chapter I wrote about him for
The Art of Jewelry Making, which will be published in October:
“Thomas Herman - Seven Fingers Jewelry Tom Herman grew up on a
family farm in Minnesota. When he was 5 years old, he was
involved in a machinery accident and lost three fingers on his
right hand. Tom learned to adapt quickly, realizing that if he
ignored his disability, everyone else would too. Obviously this
approach worked and Tom wound up choosing a career that requires
the highest level of manual dexterity.”
There is a very interesting new book called The Hand - How its
use shapes the brain, language and human culture, by Frank R.
Wilson (handoc@well.com) from Pantheon (ISBN 0-679-41249-2). The
author is a neurologist and hand specialist, and his book is
absolutely fascinating. One section is about Goerge D. McLean, a
longtime friend, mentor and colleage of mine, who also lost part
of his hand to an accident early in life. George has been an
artist from birth, with two masters degrees from Stanford
University: Education and Art. After his accident, George become
a very successful retail goldsmith and an award winning jewelry
designer. For years he had the finest jewelry store in
Sausalito, California and for 20 years he taught hundreds of
people through his classes at the Revere Academy. Anybody who
knows him can attest to the fact that having 10 fingers is
hardly a requirement for becoming a first rate jeweler,
craftsman or designer. George is the best jewelry renderer I
know, not to mention one of the finest human beings on the
planet. He illustrated both my books so far, as well as The Art
of Jewelry Making. His work appears in Adolfo Mattiello’s
excellent book on rendering jewelry.
Curiously, a few years ago I was asked to testify as an expert
witness on the side of a young man who felt that his jewelry
career and livelihood had been destroyed when he lost partial
use of his hand (from a repeated stress injury due to cutting
pizza). Needless to say, after personally knowing Tom and George
and the work they created, I found the plainfiff’s arguement
untenable and I declined to support his case.
If it were only that simple, blaming one’s shortfalls on
physical limitations.
Alan
Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts
760 Market Street . Suite 900
San Francisco . California . 94960 . USA
tel: 415 . 391 . 4179
fax: 415 . 391 . 7570
email: alan@revereacademy.com
web site: www. revereacademy.com
I have heard of a guy with 7 fingers -- that's the name of his company, "Seven Fingers Jewelry," I'm blanking on his name. Last time I saw his work he was doing hand carved and engraved rings.
His name is Tom Herman and he is a fantastic engraver and
goldsmith. He used to live here in the San Francisco bay area
and I was in a local metals group with him. He moved to Santa Fe
and then to New York state. He does the ACC crafts fairs check
him out .
Jim
@jbin
James Binnion Metal Arts
4701 San Leandro St #18
Oakland, CA 94601
510-436-3552