Re: Advice to the painter who was not accepted by a juried show:
Unsolicited advice to others is such a tricky thing. I am torn
in a response because I have been on both sides of such
situations. Whether you decide to give your advice depends a lot
on the situation, the person involved, your area of expertise,
and ultimately what your gut tells you to do.
If painting is not your area of expertise, tread lightly…
When I have given suggestions to others, I make sure they appear
"strong" enough to handle it at the moment -some people are very
emotionally involved when they first get bad news. No matter what
you say can end up making the matter worse or, worse case,
hurting your relationship with a person. If they are really
looking for suggestions (and not just a venue to complain), then
I always use the “tell them at least one good thing for every
criticism” rule so they know you still respect and value their
work, their talents, etc.
I currently have a mentor (who is a part of this newsgroup) who
is very good at giving suggestions that help make my work better.
It sometimes stings to hear anything bad about my work,
especially because you put your heart and soul into a piece, but
nearly every time my work has become better, my designs tighter,
and she has helped me to see differently and notice things I
wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Thank you, Marlo!
Hi,
Thought I would add my two cents to this thread. I am very new
to this business and have been juried into some fantastic shows
and have been juried out of some fantastic shows. I know a
variety of artists from jewelers to sculptures who have been
doing shows for many years and they all give me the same advice.
1. Get great slides...slides are everything.
2. Apply...Apply...Apply.
3. Improve...Improve...Improve.
4. Cut time.
A friend of mine who is highly successful in going to shows
applies to 50 shows a year and gets into 17 to 20. (of course, I
don’t want to do that many shows per year!) They have seen my
jewelry and give advice on shows to apply to, technique, style,
pricing, cutting down time, etc. I relish their advice and
input. They have the experience. So my mentor will look at my
jewelry and tell me where I need to improve on technique…she
is also my friend. I will take some advice and will leave some
advice…I have found that when I leave some of the advice I
always come back around to follow the advice anyway… My goal is
to make money so I can continue doing what I do for a living. If
you have the knowledge and experience I think that it would be
well received by the individual.
Linda Crawford
Linda Crawford Designs
http://www.jps.net/lcrawford
@Linda_Crawford
For all those orchidian meeting with jealousy and paranoia:
I have had the privilege of apprenticing with one of the best in
the industry. One who was willing to share all of his knowledge
with people willing to listen and learn. I had just turned 18
and always loved jewelry and what is the best way to learn but
in a store with jewelers…all learning and working in view of
shoppers in a busy mall.
Young, not a family business, female, it was tough. But my
natural instinct to ask questions and be inquisitive, kept
coming. I felt not that they did not want to show
or share their talent with me, rather they felt that
I was not ready for the next phase of learning. But my with
persistence I learned. I will always remember this person
explaining the properties of opal, the dense molecular structure
of platinum and the difficult and precision needed to pave
diamonds. Most at the time flew over my head, if only I could
have retained all the That person, whom you may
all know is Peter Rowe.
I was very pleased to see that he is still sharing his knowledge
as well as the others. I am learning so much. There is never
and ending to learning this craft.
For the most part, I am self taught. But I did have a good base
for the trade. I look back fondly at those first years.
Only recently have I run into the so called paranoia
circumstances. Casting platinum in particular.
I have always wanted to share with anyone willing to learn. I
will teach anyone. I love this craft and after almost 20 years,
still find it amazing.
Don’t anyone stop sharing. Teach. We are all teachers as well
as students.
Regards,
Amber
As Amber suggests, “Don’t anyone stop sharing. Teach. We are
all teachers as well as students.”
I would like to add that we are all students as well as
teachers.
Alan Revere
Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts
San Francisco
Hello Amber!
Pleased to see your willingness to share. If we all gleen and
gain from each other. Are we not then the same talented,
resourceful, knowledgeable, competitive, respectful jewelers?
We’ve all just gone up a peg together. How else could we expect
to act toward each other and our trade.
You mentioned platinum casting as a proficient area. I would
like to ask a few questions. First, we are using Astrovest, it
works fine. Its’ removal is difficult and the “skin” varies from
heavy to light. We only have cast a couple when the skin was
comparable to a well done gold casting. We have so far (2 years)
had only 2 that didn’t fill, and are now routinely successful
with carve wax as well as injection. Point being, we don’t want
to fix what isn’t broken! Can we play with temperature reduction
much? Will that improve the surface skin? We generally cast @
1600F an 1700F for lighter pieces.With several new investments
on the market, are any of these worth trying?
I have heard of an investment removal called “silica Z”. Have
you tried it? Dan and I are in a store and don’t want to go the
acid route. The dental picks are getting worn out! Any
suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Tim
Hello Orchids,
Another benefit from willingly sharing tips, knowledge and
experiences with eager neophytes is that you can later go back to
these now talented experts in their own right and get really good
prices for really great work.
Trade secrets? hmmm…I always thought that was what that little
bag of burnt, chipped and broken stones that you have had to
replace over the years that you don’t want to talk about was
called.
Tony
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@Anthony_Lloyd-Rees
http://www.opalsinthebag.com
ICQ# 15173706