I took a jewelry making course in college and thought if you could
find a way to make a living at this it would be the BEST! Got
sidetracked with being wife/mother, worked as a class aide for
special ed learning disabled 4-6 year olds. Found myself counseling
my own teenagers as they contemplated careers to find what they liked
to do, find a way to make a living and they would never have to go to
work. I took my own advice and enrolled in Bowman Technical school
where I started working in their store before I graduated and have
been happily at=A0a bench ever since -20 years. I have always said tha=
t
my time at the bench is my therapy time- very meditative- very
healing- for me and the gems and metal!
spent 20 years in the garment biz, as a designer/patternmaker,
culminating with a trading company in hongkong for 5 years
specializing in silk. upon my return to the states i couldn’t land a
job after 35+ interviews, (“overqualified.”) so i went back to FIT
at night while working as a couturier on st. marks place part time.
after three years got two part time jobs, with a silver artist and a
diamond company. later got hired at a jewelry store setting centers
and carving custom. now working CAD & photographing for an 85 year
old traditional manufacturer in NYC.
I have always worked with silver. Made the first piece at 15. Had
started cutting cabs at 13. Metal and jewelry was always in the near
background as I inflicted myself on the following:
USNavy diesel mechanic three years, College, BA Religion &
Philosophy, security guard, construction worker, surveyor, director
of a work therapy program for recovering alcoholics four years, ran
own business for 12 years doing restoration millwork and converting
paper tubes for the corrugated box industry, Bench jeweler and store
partner for four years, glass blower for four years, misc factory
jobs for a very rough year, opened the jewelry school in
2003…Happiness at last…metal and people every day! It all makes
perfect sense! I am looking forward to the next 40 years and the new
things I will learn!
I’ve had a few “incarnations:” Personnel Staffing Specialist with
the Federal Government (USDA), Drug Rehab Counselor, College Student
Advisor, Administrative Assistant, and Data Base Administrator.
I am one of those, only I began at 8. My father, (speaking of former
lives) was an orthodontist who became an inventor and eventually
invented memory wire. As he was playing around with alloying we had
a huge bench in our basement and I learned casting, model
making…you name it. Everything but the torch. He died when I was
only 20, so I suppose it was a good thing I had that time.
I was an ordained minister. After finishing seminary I also worked as
a stone setter while serving as a pastor of some small churches.
Eventually the jewelery work completely took over all the Church
work.
I responded directly to Sandra when she originally posed the
question about our past lives. My response follows:
I have always been involved in the arts, including BFA & MFA in
design, specializing in furniture, graphic and exhibition design. I
did free lance work in those areas while teaching those disciplines
on a college level. I did this for seven years after completing
graduate school. I was designing and making furniture while living
in Spain in the early 70’s when I met a retired jeweler from Los
Angeles. He gifted me a bag of jewelers hand tools and suggested
that I “play” with them. I did and he mentored me for some months
and within 6 months I had a jewelry business with several employees,
making silver jewelry which I sold primarily to tourists on the
Costa del Sol in Spain. That was 34 years ago and I have been making
my living as a full time jewelry designer/craftsman since then.
In my former life I was a young, cocky, 23 year old
gemcutter/jeweller with a hercules body, and the best pick up line in
the world. “Hi, babes, that’s a beautiful ring/pendant/earrings you
wearing. Did I tell you that I am a jeweller? Not? Ok come to my
workshop tomorrow. We can go for coffee afterwards.”…Used to
SLAY the babes (sigh) Now I am a middle aged gemcutter/jeweller with
one slayed babe (bless her heart) lotsa skills, and and no six
pack in the bod anymore. (big sigh)
I took two years of Visual Communications in college…graphic
design.
One of the part-time professors said “I believe you will get through
portfolio revue, and when you graduate I would even give you a job
with my company…but is this what you really want to do?”
Smart man…I realized I NEVER wanted to marker render a couch
again.
I took my first art metals class at 14, and was hooked right from the
first day! But then life got in the way and I became a Key punch
operator. I did 7 years of factory work, 1 year of greenhouse work,
flower delivery person, independent contract seamstress, 12 years
retail sales & management, went back to school 2 times, mom. I did
all that while doing jewelry on the side until it dawned on me I was
doing it backwards. It should have been jewelry first, making money
doing what I LOVE. So I went back to school again, this time to
learn the finer points of goldsmithing & stonesetting, then teaching
asst. and bench jockey.
Now I’m a self-employed, full-time metalsmith and still excited
about taking an uninteresting piece of metal and turning it into a
thing of beauty, just like my first metals class. The thrill never
goes away.
Started making jewelry in freshman year in High School (Thanks Mr
Bohr) Worked as a plastics caster for a sculptor US Navy as an
Electronics Technician in nuclear submarines for 9 years. Started
jewelry again as hobby when stationed in SF Bay area by taking
classes at Revere Academy (thanks Alan and company) R&D electrical
engineering for Silicon Valley think tank for 6 years. Had basement
jewelry studio in home. Worked for local casting company as
engineering support staff on weekends.
Launched jewelry business making copper brass silver mokume gane
jewelry selling at craft fairs till I spent all my money and then
some Taught casting classes at local art college.
Went back to work in R&D to fix my finances. I put up my first
website in 1996 to show other metal artists what I was doing.
Started to get inquiries about my work and started selling online. I
soon had a full second job selling rings via internet and quit my R&D
job.
James Binnion @James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts
I have slung food out the window of McDonalds, worked in the 1980
Census and a multitue of other jobs. I have my BS in Printing
Management and worked in book printing for several years and still
lust after well-made books.
Then, I got my MSW and have been doing that for nearly 20 years and
am currently working with the severely and persisitently mentally
ill. I have been painting in watercolor and acrylics for years and
love color.
A couple years ago, I took a class at the local art center and fell
in love with working in metals. I finally understood why I had been
collecting hand tools, rocks, and bits of wood for years.
Stacy Hosler, MSW, ACSW (and junior jeweler)
Clinical Lead
IMPACT/Segue, Inc.
Jackson, MI 49202
What an interesting thread. It appears we’re a very diverse group.
Me? My day job is as an international antitrust lawyer with a
Washington DC firm (albeit from my home in New Hampshire). I began
making jewelry only a few years ago. And as others have expressed, I
fell in love with being creative with my hands, not just with legal
theory and language skills.
I should also add that I am absolutely humbled by the tremendous
knowledge and talent of those of you who share so much with us via
the Ganoksin site. A very sincere “thank you.”
Undergarduate degrees in Finance and Spanish. Graduate degrees in
International Management and Marriage & Family Therapy.
Jobs: Interpreter, paste-up artist at ad agency, researcher,
commercial painter, antique dealer, M & F therapist, sculptor, and
now finally, jeweler. Prefer working with inanimate objects rather
than anyone with a personality disorder.
A.A.S. in Environmental Health in 73, BBA in marketing in
’76…A.J.P.(GIA) in 2002…
Seven years in retail with Target Stores, Industrial Distribution
since then…
'Twas a fateful day that I picked ip a copy of Simon and Shcuster’s
"Gems And Precious Stones" at the local half price book store…
Got into the stones…and since one has to do something with them,
jewelry along the way…
The interesting thing about the stones…is that it’s a never
ending thing…
Along the way I’ve other interests…the concept of the personal
computer…think back to TI-99, CPM, DOS, Internet without
pictures…35mm photography…the heavy metal Minolta stuff, martial
art, target shooting…Aromatherapy…
The stones are more fascintating for me than all of the rest…
SIGH…as Con Fu Tzu wished another lifetime for the study of the
I Ching, so I, for the stones…
Bumped into an old friend a month back and told her of my
affliction…
In my other life before retiring to make jewelry full-time, I was the
deputy director of a university anthropology museum. And, yes, I got
to touch and examine closely all kinds of ethnic jewelry from ancient
Egypt, pre-Columbian America, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Native
America. What a thrill and so inspiring.
And I want you to know that you have brought a great new
‘electricity’ to my shop, Sean. Marte & I think you are simply great,
and wish we had met a long time ago.
lotsa skills, and and no six