Becky Palmer
Marietta, GA. USA
I have learned quite a bit from the Ganoskin website, and am looking
forward to learning more from Orchid and meeting other jewelers.
I started in jewelry in high school making earrings (A very loooooong
time ago). My mom restrung necklaces for people and my dad was a
watchmaker. I didn’t want to follow my parents paths, so I blazed my
own - through Corporate America. Bead stringing became my pastime,
but I wasn’t satisfied with loom & off-loom bead weaving, chandlier
earrings, crystal bracelets, knotting pearls, polymer or metal clay,
glass fusing or glass bead making.
I quit work after my son graduated from high school, and took 2
part-time jobs. One job was at a fabric store (my other passion!) and
the other was at a local bead store. The more I worked with beads and
customers, I began to realize that there had to be more to jewelry
making than “beading”. The bead store is owned by a jeweler/goldsmith
- to me, a “real jeweler! The longer I worked at the bead store and
work with the owner, the more I realized I wanted to be a jeweler. A
"get dirty, don’t worry about a manicure”, jeweler!
I quit the fabric store job, went to Saturdays-only at the bead store
and started school at a private jewelry school near my home. I was
ready to get on the path I didn’t want to take soooooo many years
ago!
It is a wonderful school and the teacher has been a Master Jeweler
for 40 years. So far I’ve learned how to make rings from a lump of
metal, how to size (up or down) and to set “diamonds” in rings having
prongs of all shapes, sizes and configurations; how to correctly
clean & polish; how to make jewelry from my drawings; chain making,
wire making. I’ve been working on rendering, wax sculpture and model
making. I’ve helped with lost wax casting, but I haven’t done it on
my own yet. I have lots more to learn, plus I’d like to learn
techniques that were used in the Victorian and Art Deco eras (I’ve
got a bunch of old pins needing repairs).
Becky Palmer