Jewelry design - what & where to learn

Jewelry Discussion
81

Hi Richard,

After I posted, I specifically wrote an e-mail to Helen of-line,
and she posted to me off-line. I admire what she is doing and how
she is approaching what she is doing.

Thanks for the kind words.

And I will pose one question, If someone self taught did not take
a class or a workshop, how can they be objective. You know what you
are capable of without instruction, but not a clue of what you
would be capable of with instruction.

You can look at any argument from more than one perspective. I could
take a class and learn some stuff but you can’t say that I wouldn’t
have been able to arrive at the same place without that class. Sure
it could possibly take me longer to get there without the class.
Also some people have said that they’ve taken classes that didn’t
deliver what they were hoping for - that would be a waste of money
and time.

If I was sat here right now wanting to embark on a career in
jewellery making and knew nothing about it and had the money to
invest in classes, then that’s exactly what I would do. As it stands
at the moment, if I enrolled on a practical course now, the
instructor would spend at least the first day talking about shop
safety (fair enough, or rather essential), etc before actually
getting to the nitty gritty. Then when it came to soldering, I would
sit there bored out of my mind while he tells the class how to solder
and all the things that are important to know (that I have read
numerous times in books before I started and since):

Make sure your joint is perfectly fitting and tight

Make sure your metal is free from dirt and grease - avoid touching
it with your fingers

Flux the whole piece

Don’t use more solder than you actually need

It is the metal that heats the solder NOT the flame

Heat the piece slowly, bringing both parts to temperature at the
same time

When the solder flows, remove the heat

He/she might teach reticulation and granulation, again things that I
researched myself and have done successfully up to a point - still
on a journey with that - but then even in a class you’re not
necessarily going to get that perfect right off the bat.

He/she might teach design principles - again I’ve previously learned
this (at college) - however, applying it to jewellery, I’m sure
would be useful and the teacher could look at my design and tell me
any difficulties I might run into when putting it into practice, but
I can often see the potential pitfalls myself because I have a fair
to good understanding of materials and how they behave. Besides
which, I’m afraid I don’t do well when teachers tell me stuff I
already know - my time is wasted - I get fidgety and think “come one,
teach me something I don’t know please”. I could be at home moving on
with the learning process.

Sure, self teaching is not for everyone and it definitely does have
its limitations - or could have if you allowed it to. I won’t let
myself be limited. I constantly look at other people’s work to help
me think outside the box, and I constantly see the execution of
techniques and put it in my mental list of techniques I WILL try. I
think people have seen that I’m not afraid to have a go at anything.

My degree (although in chemistry) basically means that I have the
ability to research anything I want to learn. DON’T read into that
that I think I can know it all - I DON’T - no one can. But it means
that if I’m determined enough, I can acquire knowledge and skills.

The self-taught arena can cover a large area including two very
extreme extremes. Personally, I am NOT one of those who is in the
“shut yourself away from the world, in your own little bubble and do
your own thing”. That’s why I’m a member of Orchid. I email with many
members offlist and share photos and ask for advice. I probably
stumble across at least one new artist/jeweller everyday that I’ve
not seen before. I bookmark the ones I like and look at them again
from time to time. I always analyse things I like and decide what I
like about it and why. Conversely, if I don’t like something, I
analyse what it is that I don’t like about it and why I don’t like
it. I get inspiration from many sources.

Hey, I could really put the cat among the pigeons and start teaching
people myself! :wink: I’m a qualified teacher so understand what people
get and what they don’t get, when I interact with someone and talk
about a particular subject and you know what they say “you never
truly learn anything until you teach it”!

I’m going to sign off on this topic after today and not take it as
personally as I have been doing. People have said that they are not
necessarily aiming their posts at me particularly, but as far as I
can see, I’m the only “self-taught” person who keeps harping on about
it. D’ya know, I’m 43 but I sure can act like a kid at times! I must
learn not to take myself so seriously. :wink:

Helen
UK

82

As to formal education vs self taught…All roads lead to Rome. Do
what you can, do what you have to. Everyone’s point of view is
correct for them from their point of view. Define your own
perspective and move forward.

83 
I understand that finances, time, or health can limit ones ability
to take classes or workshops

I’ve been studying 3d graphics for some years now - the sort that
movies are made of more than jewelry design. I’ve watched many
tutorials, many more than once. What I am is a skilled tutorial
watcher, and I have a great mental grasp of the field. What I am not
is good at it, because I don’t sit down and draw enough, I watch
tutorials. The “Professional Student” syndrome, I guess. On some
level there are two schools of jewelry design. One is what I call
“Process oriented”, which is what most schools promote. That is, “I’m
going to make something using granulation, or etching, or with
plastic.” The other school is what we do, which I’d call design
oriented (there’s no black-and-white, of course), which says, “We
have this design, what do we need to do to execute it?” It seems that
process oriented types are all the time taking classes to learn some
new process - that’s a good thing, BTW. On the other hand, IMO almost
everybody would be better off getting a job than taking classes after
some level is reached. To use Helen as an example, because as she
said she sent me some pics - her work is as good or better than most
people here in fundamental terms - straight, clean, appealing
designs, she is just getting started, and isn’t mature at the bench.
What Helen (for one) really needs is not more instruction but more
practice and some widening of her skills and knowlege, which comes
with time. Really just to say that after one learns the basic skills
of soldering and bending and polishing (Helen?), then classes, which
teach something specific (engraving…), aren’t going to help much,
though they might open some new level of thought, as one said about a
Revere design seminar yesterday. What will help much more is some
venue, like a job with people who know more than you do, that
stretches your abilities. But this isn’t to say that’s it’s the best
or the only, as usual. There are a lot of professional students out
there, though.

84

Hi John,

I wanted to take up engraving, so I bought a couple of gravers and
started pushing.

When you say engraving, did you learn how to do inside ring
engraving of initials and or names on your own?

Richard Hart

85

Helen and all,

Helen, all I can say is “You Go, Girl!”

When I chimed into this thread it was to support the notion that
design CAN be taught… but definitely not to imply in any way that
that’s the only way it can be learned. I started out self-taught and
spent quite a few years working that way. Had I found Orchid in those
years and discovered many of the excellent books and resources that
are out there, I might have continued in that vein for some time.
I’ve had the pleasure of jurying the work of some self-taught
jewelers whose work is innovative, excellent, and of at least equal
quality in craftsmanship to those who’ve been through various formal
instructional programs (trade and MFA both). I’ve also juried work by
formally trained jewelers that had no creativity or sense of
design…the craftsmanship was “correct” but by the absence of “art”
left it lacking something critical.

I think it all comes down to motivation and self discipline.
Students in formal programs who aren’t self-disciplined enough to
practice the techniques and explore on their own in labs will not
progress in their skills. Self-taught jewelers who have the
self-discipline to keep trying until they get it right are more
likely to come up with innovations and insights in the absence of a
teacher telling them that something “can’t be done” or is
“wrong”…when in reality there are many ways to accomplish the same
thing.

Having said that, I also think I’ve learned so much from my fellow
students and jewelry “buddies” over the years. If you can find other
“self-learners” to work with on occasion or a community of jewelry
artists and/or craftsmen (such as a guild) that you can involve
yourself with, I think you’ll get a lot of benefit from that. Even if
you can find online “buddies” who have similar design sensibilities
with whom you can exchange ideas, ask for advice or encouragement,
etc., that’s better than working completely in a vacuum. That’s not a
reflection on your ability to learn on your own, but rather an
acknowledgment that sometimes we need a more objective eye or a
shoulder on which to lean…and sometimes someone to be honest that
something just really isn’t working the way you intend.

Best wishes,

Karen Goeller
No Limitations Designs
Hand-made, one-of-a-kind jewelry
www.nolimitations.com

86

Helen,

When I started Metalwerx, I discovered a vast audience who was
looking for a place of creativity, passion who want to dedicate
themselves to pursuing knowledge about metals, design and
fabrication.

Metalwerx serves a niche market for those who time is a factor,
which is why it is one of the few schools that offer weekend
workshops.

You are in a unique position because you have a voice and believe
me, that voice has more power than you know. There are others like
you, but don’t know that you share the same passion, or maybe they
do.

My advice is to get them together and talk about what you can do to
solve your needs for education, design, fabrication, etc. After nine
years, I left Metalwerx which is still going strong, still filling
the niche of education and people, women mostly, just like you.

Start with a simple group and a potluck. That is actually how I got
the idea for Metalwerx, from a group of us who met once a month, to
critique our work, share ideas, techniques and just enjoy talking
shop. The path to Metalwerx came from creating “Saturday Studio” at
the Adult Ed. School where I was teaching.

Little schools are popping up all over the place in New England, I’m
sure it can happen in the UK. Define what you want, assess your
resources and involve your suppliers with your ideas. They want to
help you, because in the end, you will use them for your tool
purchases.

Design and learning design for me started with photography. A simple
way to learn design may not be where you think. Learning design can
be taking a 2D design course at a local college and extrapolating it
into 3D. Isn’t this what journals do? Design is everywhere and
everything, it’s just that there is so much out there that the
is overwhelming.

I gave myself an assignment during my elder care duty, which was to
take a series of photos in Tiburon, CA on a day after it rained.
Water saturates and heightens color. The object of this round of
photography was to look at how high income home owners identify their
houses with numbers, to isolate those numbers, mailboxes, and
reflections of water, signage and color. Will some of these manifest
themselves into jewelry? Perhaps, but that is the challenge of
design.

Here is the link for my photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cleverwerx/WetDayJanuary2007

Here are a few tricks I use for design. You will need a bound
sketchbook, A4 if you are in Europe, “Journal size” if you are out
here. In the US, I use: www.ragandbone.com

They make high quality journals which are handmade, beautiful and
rugged. Decorate the cover with a photo etched plate and rivet.

Everything I suggest should go into your book.

  1. take 15 photographs of just the shadows of things. You begin to
    isolate edges and negative space.

  2. take 15 photographs of hinges, gates, door knobs and forged iron
    balconies. Here you look at curves, geometry, construction and
    gestural flow

  3. find 15 examples of jewelry work you really like and put it in
    your sketchbook. With each example, writ out what you like about it
    and what you would do to change anything if you could.

  4. find 15 examples of jewelry work you don’t like. Critique it to
    your hearts content. Is the piece cohesive, is the craftsmanship
    poor, are the elements mismatched, does it look like a workshop
    project?

  5. take 10 photographs of an egg and make them look all different

  6. pick up a found object off the ground and create a body of work
    that reflects the essence of the found object

  7. framing. Cut out 2 “L” shaped pieces of light cardboard and use
    them as a “frame” to isolate parts of a picture. Capture just and eye
    and nose of a portrait, or a scene from nature or in a building. Use
    the lines from this as a reference point for your design.

These are all tricks I learned as “design” in college. I have 9
journals, which contain everything from grocery lists, writing about
my time in Thailand, beautiful images that inspire me and projects
that I am thinking about. I set a time during the day to just cut
stuff out of magazines, things that strike me, patterns, repetition,
obsessiveness, humor, anything really. Then sift through those and
put the ones you really like in your journal.

Design is everywhere and everything. Bad design, poor craftsmanship,
poor execution is like eating a McDonalds burger. I cook quite a bit,
and when I am not at the bench, (and I mean haven’t touched my bench
in ages), photography, journal entries and cooking are my way of
design. It’s in everything you do. We just don’t think of it in this
context.

Enjoy what is around you, but if you want to create design, learn to
filter, enhance, enlarge, minimalize and most important, make it
yours.

-k
Karen Christians
Cleverwerx
Waltham, MA

87

Hi Kim,

Again, sorry for my childish outburst!

Actually, when responded to the thread, I was meaning to imply
that I feel society as a whole doesn't seem to take artistic
pursuits seriously...not that you don't take your pursuit
seriously.

I agree that what we do is often seen as quaint and sweet and just a
hobby. However, it’s funny because when I was at university studying
chemistry and then had a short professional career as a teacher and
the majority of people showed great respect towards my position, my
family (especially my parents) didn’t take what I was doing
seriously at all. To them I should have been at home looking after
husband and children - I’d done that for over twelve years already
and my children were all at school. But, having given all that up due
to stress and a medical condition, they now seem more encouraging and
enthusiastic about me making jewellery and are telling all their
friends proudly about what their daughter is doing. They’re in awe
for some reason. Dad can’t quite get his head round the fact that I
can buy bullion and precious gems and work them into jewellery -
“what? it’s actually REAL silver?!”. Maybe they’ve just mellowed in
their old age, or the fact that I’m at home again gives them some
sort of piece of mind. They’re very religious and not really keen on
any of us being out there in the big wide world.

You’re right Kim, for some reason I do still worry about what people
think. I always have done. I tell my children not to worry about such
things - probably as my own feelings have contributed to a great deal
of paranoia on my part and I don’t want them turning out like that
and suffering such feelings. I guess I’m just trying to fit into this
new arena of people who make jewellery from precious metal and

I can’t complain. I have a wonderful husband, four wonderful
children who are turning out to be great human beings and all of whom
I can talk to and they can talk to me. And to top it all off, I’m
getting to do what I want to do - so yes you’re right on that score
too Kim, thanks!

I’m 43 now and still behaving like a child! Maybe by the time I turn
50 I’ll stop caring so much and taking myself so seriously and
develop that happy go lucky attitude that you found at 40? I always
was a late developer! :wink:

Helen

Enjoying what I do and making other people smile too when I give
them the fruits of my labours!

88 
Enjoying what I do and making other people smile too when I give
them the fruits of my labours!

I’ve made many thousands of pieces of jewelry… The shine is off,
the honeymoon is over, it’s just a job that I know how to do At that
point the payoff is not so much in the “look what I made!!” side -
I’ve already made it, most likely. There is nothing to compare to
making an heirloom for a beaming pair of newlyweds-to-be, though, or
I mentioned before a bracelet for a new father (To be given to the
new mother, I realized I forgot to mention). Long ago someone asked
me to make a signet ring with his family crest, which I did. In the
meantime his father died, leaving him the sole heir of the family
name and all. He got all weepy on me and took me to lunch. It’s what
jewelry means to people, and what it can do for people, that makes it
worthwhile sometimes…

89 
When you say engraving, did you learn how to do inside ring
engraving of initials and or names on your own?

Actually Richard I can barely hack out lettering, the engraving I can
do and am sorta OK at is decorative engraving, like engraved ring
shanks and other things like textures. I am unable to engrave (at
this point) like a “real” engraver - lettering and mongrams and such.
I just use it for decorative purposes. And doing the engraved ring
thing that’s fashionable nowadays is very lucrative, too. But
lettering, no - I’m not interested in learning that side of it,
either. I send it out to a real engraver, if I need it.

90

To Neil,

Thanks for your support and confirmation that we’re all different,
with different needs.

To John,

Thanks SO much for your lovely words. I agree with you that what I
need is lots of practice and perhaps a job working for people who
know more than me. That would be far more valuable to me than
classes. I’d say that would be my ideal situation, actually working
for a jeweller and sort of apprenticing. Thanks again.

To Karen Goeller,

Again, thanks for your support. You’re right about communicating
with others of like minds and not being in a vacuum. That’s the very
reason why I do communicate with a fair few Orchidians offlist. I
find it invaluable.

To Karen Christians,

Thanks to you too. You’ve definitely given me lots of food for
thought. I’m trying to work out what’s the best way of finding like-
minded people in my area, without advertising to the wrong people
that I make jewellery from precious metals and gems. I’m going to
have a go at your photography ideas - hubby bought me a lovely DSLR
recently and it’s not yet had enough use. Your pictures are great -
you certainly have a good eye for a decent picture.

I appreciate the support and open-mindedness that you’ve all shown
me, thanks.

Helen
UK

91 
You can look at any argument from more than one perspective. I
could take a class and learn some stuff but you can't say that I
wouldn't have been able to arrive at the same place without that
class.

I have been soldering for about 35 years. I believe I could learn
something from Daniel Spirers and Neilthejeweler that I have not
arrived at, and I am quite sure I have done some things that they
have
not arrived at. I have and have had employees who were taught by
others, and by crackee, I taught them things about soldering they had
not learned from others before me.

I have been posting about classes and workshops. They are usually 2
to 5 days long. I have taken 3 classes with Harold O’Conner, 15 days
total, soldering was not covered. I took a class with Jerry Scavezze
on anticlastic forming, no soldering!, forging with Helen Longi, no
soldering!. Fold forming with Charles lewton Brain, who along with
Hanuman and Ton started the online forum known as Orchid, no
soldering!.

Most of these workshops I attended were after I had been doing
jewelry for 10 or 20 years.

The replies from those that are so enthralled with the concept of
being self taught seem to be arguing for their own limitations. I am
60, I have done jewelry for about 35 years, and I am hoping to take
a second workshop with Marne Ryan. A metalsmithing Goddess. Some of
the people who I have studied with have been the most generous,
gracious people I have ever met. Patient, kind, and supportive.
Perhaps that is just what I need, kind of remedial training for those
more dense and slow. Apparently I have a lot of company, some classes
fill up quite fast, and I have missed a few opportunities.
Metalsmithing is not an activity that is served well by limiting what
you learn.

And John Donivan is right, learn something and practice till you can
do it well. But perhaps, keep learning as long as what you are doing
is serving your creativity.

I have heard learning help keep you young and is suppose to help your
brain stave off Alzheimer’s, and I am pretty darn sure I am not going
to take up knitting.

Richard Hart

92

It is my opinion that self-taught versus school trained design boils
down to who designed the curriculum. The self-taught designer chooses
his or her own course of study, much like Abraham Lincoln designed
his own course in the study of law. He was self-taught only to the
extent that he chose what to study. Others had laid the groundwork,
written the books and came up with the examinations needed to prove
the required knowledge.

I have known people that are amazing designers that effortlessly
come up with truly original design after original design but have
never taken even the most basic design courses. I also know people
that have multiple degrees that really have to struggle to do
anything really original and marketable. You can teach or learn a
skill, but talent can’t be taught or learned. It either is or isn’t
already there and can only be brought out by learning the techniques
of expression.

If you want to make a good living doing custom jewelry, and like me
you are only an average designer, you must learn to listen to your
client and decipher what is and what is not desired in their jewelry
and then create what they want. Bench skills, people skills and
listening skills are more important than art training. Your success
is defined by a customer’s smile and a check. If on the other hand
you want to become a world renowned jewelry designer and see your
work in the pages of all of the major style magazines, you have a
much different road to success and you better have gobs of talent. As
far as I know there are no formal courses of instruction for either
one of these objectives. As others have pointed out, most schools are
not designed to teach you how to make a living, and I think that is a
shame and a terrible disservice to their students.

We all have gifts, and they are as different and individual as we
are. If you want to be truly happy doing jewelry work (or anything
else for that matter), figure out what your particular gifts are and
then pursue education and experience to use your gifts to their best
advantage. If there is a formal course of instruction, take it. If it
doesn’t fit with your life or needs, design your own course. There is
no lack of published work to study regardless of what avenue you want
to follow.

The best way to learn bench skills is by working with as many
different people as you can, either by working at different jobs, or
by taking seminars and courses from as many different instructors and
co-workers as possible. Work with as many different metalsmiths as
you can, for as long as you can. Work at it until your fingers bleed.
Then put on some band-aids and work at it some more. There are no
short-cuts to learning this trade, and there are no limits to how
much you can learn, except for those that are self-imposed and the
shortness of life itself. I think this would also apply to learning
design. You can’t learn how to drive by studying maps and riding in a
car. No matter how many miles you ride or how well you know your way
around, you can only learn to drive by getting behind the wheel.

I believe you can only teach yourself that which you already know
and you can only perfect the skills you already have. If you want to
learn new things you don’t know and get new skills you don’t have,
you have to get outside of yourself. As Helen points out, there are
many, many different ways of doing that. None of them are right for
everyone, none of them are wrong for everyone.

It doesn’t matter how you do it, just do it! Or be happy riding
around in the passenger’s seat.

Dave

93 
I wanted to say "Thank you" to the person who recommended the
Elizabeth Olver book about design.

I must have missed the posting where someone recommended Elizabeth
Oliver’s book on design, but I just wanted to also add my praise for
this book. She has done an incredible job of incorporating all sorts
of ideas and ways of developing them - her sketches are a delight
with the notes to match. My copy is well worn from much use. I’ve
referred to it often - in particular when I seem to get in a funk
and can’t for the life of me come up with a good design I like. Just
looking through her book is usually enough to get me out of my
doldrums and busy sketching again and eventually a good idea
emerges. So, yes, if you don’t own this book do get it.

Kay

94 
enthralled with the concept of being self taught seem to be arguing
for their own limitations.

(from FTC Guidelines) To summarize: quality, appearance, and design
should override any other consideration.

There’s that line in one of the Dirty Harry movies…“A man’s got to
know his limitations”

I am well aware of my limitations, as I am about Leonid’s
observation about product quality. I have no compunction about
subbing out to a specialist, a portion of a job if the end product
will improve. After all, I’m running a business and I am customer
focused. Their payment and referrals are worth more to me than any
self gratification I might have with saying “I did it all myself”. On
the flip side there have been times I bit the bullet, did a Hail
Mary and plunged into uncharted territory with good results.

Keep raising the bar but do it in sane increments.

95 
It's what jewelry means to people, and what it can do for people,
that makes it worthwhile sometimes...

Abso-blooming-lutely John. My niece recently had a beautiful baby boy

  • the first child in his generation - so I designed and made a
    pendant for my niece, using a lab tanzanite (can’t afford to give
    away the real thing and it has all the colours of a good real
    tanzanite). It’s a chunky sterling silver circle with a bezel set
    pear-shaped gem inside it - which said mother and baby to me. She’s
    aware of the significance of tanzanite - how the Masai tribesmen
    give their wives tanzanite when they give birth to a baby - and so
    she was extremely emotional about the gift. It wasn’t about me making
    it - it was about what it means to her that counted.

Helen
UK

96

I’m going to take this thread a step further, and address technique.
No technique, great design, bad piece. Richard asked me yesterday if
I was any good at engraving - actually if I could do what engravers
are typically asked to do, and I said Nope… I think that many
(very many, maybe) people don’t understand that the finest pieces and
the great pieces and even everyday pieces aren’t made by somebody
sitting at a bench, they are made by teams. I’ve been a goldsmith or
something - metal bender and solderer - for around 35 years. The best
engraver I know has been doing the same, and the setter I use when I
need more than I can do myself the same still. 105 years of
experience. It’s good to know more stuff, it’s good to widen your
skills and grow every day. It’s also good to be able to put one’s ego
aside and realize that the dedicated setter down the hall does
nothing but set stones all day long, and he’s good at it. Better than
me by astronomical degrees, and I’m not a bad setter. HeRe:

is a real engraver. It’s just that we can’t do everything - I also
can do everything to a degree - but I know in clear terms that I
can’t engrave like and engraver, or set like a setter, when the work
dictates a higher level of skill. Don’t be afraid to use other
people’s skills - leave the specialties to the specialists, at least
when needed…

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com

97

Hi Dave,

As others have pointed out, most schools are not designed to teach
you how to make a living, and I think that is a shame and a terrible
disservice to their students.

Sadly the same is true of many Universities offering many courses.
When I did my chemistry degree, for a brief while I had the notion
of perhaps doing work in forensics afterwards, but common sense soon
prevailed and I realised that such positions are few and far between
so adopted more realistic ambitions. However, not long after
starting my degree we were told that they were closing the chemistry
department but that it wouldn’t affect us as they would honour our
degrees. What we saw over the next three years was the science
department completely change from teaching the normal courses like
chemistry, physics, astrophysics, biology, biochemistry, etc to a
department offering courses in things like sports science, forensic
science and other such ridiculous things where there were far more
places available than there would ever be such jobs available at the
end of the courses. My supervisor was not happy about it at all when
I expressed bemusement at the decision and he said it’s all about
“bums on seats” at the end of the day. Create courses that sound
seductive to students in order to fill the university’s quota of
students and they’ll be guaranteed to get the funding they need to
survive. Offer courses like chemistry that students are apparently
not wanting to study and you can kiss the funding goodbye. I think
perhaps the same can be said for art courses? It’s not in the
interests of the universities to teach people how to make a living
necessarily and whilst I’m sure there are some institutions that put
the needs of the students first, there are some which are only
concerned with filling courses and getting funding. It’s a sad fact
of our modern world.

The best way to learn bench skills is by working with as many
different people as you can, either by working at different jobs,
or by taking seminars and courses from as many different
instructors and co-workers as possible. Work with as many different
metalsmiths as you can, for as long as you can.

I’ve not been able to do that I’m afraid.

Work at it until your fingers bleed.

But I’ve done plenty of that! Had the saw blade slip and slice my
finger, burned my finger tips while polishing, stabbed my hands with
needle files - oh and set the hairs on my arm alight too!

I believe you can only teach yourself that which you already know
and you can only perfect the skills you already have.

I agree with virtually everything you’ve said Dave, apart from this
one. If you already knew it you wouldn’t need to teach yourself.
Before I researched it, I didn’t know how to solder. I’d never done
any metalwork before in my life. And I don’t do the crawling before
walking thing like working in copper first. I went out bought the
silver, tools and solder and soldered two bits of metal together. It
worked but obviously could have been much better, so I did it again,
and again, etc, etc. I keep practicing and will do for a fair few
years hopefully and all being well I’ll continue to get better.

I would always advise someone to take classes if they are in a
position to do so, but if you’re not then teaching yourself is NOT
impossible, if you have the research skills, determination and some
sense of design. But like someone said yesterday it is important to
network with others of like mind and get feedback regularly so that
you are not in a vacuum, because then you would be limiting
yourself.

Helen
UK

98

Hi Richard,

When you say engraving, did you learn how to do inside ring
engraving of initials and or names on your own?

Inside ring engraving is one of the few skills I have that I did
actually teach myself. There were no courses that I could attend, and
I needed to be able to do it. I did not teach myself in a vacuum
however.

When I was a little kid, I used to watch my Dad engrave and I was
enthralled by it. I told him I wanted to learn how to do it. That
afternoon Dad went out and came back with a spiral notebook and a few
pencils. He opened the notebook and made a few beauty stems, 6’s and
O’s and told me to fill the book with them. He said “Cutting’s the
easy part. If you can’t draw it or lay it out, you can’t cut it.”
After I filled about six pages, he looked at it, circled two or three
stems and told me those were OK, the rest were junk. After learning
basic lines, he showed me how to use them to draw script letters, and
the basics of spacing and layout. He also showed me how to shape,
harden and sharpen the basic styles of gravers from 1/8" square steel
stock. Only after I had these skills did he show me the basics of
cutting. Then we repeated the process with block letters, old
English, three letter monograms and scrolls. We never did inside
rings.

That is the sum total of my engraving training. All I did after that
was practice drawing and cutting. I must have monogrammed a hundred
bottle caps. I cut on engine and car parts, tin cans, boat props,
copper pipe and roofing sheet, any free metal I could find and figure
out how to hold in a block, as he wouldn’t let me cut on anything of
value until I knew how to do it well.

Last year, I was asked by a friend in the trade if I could do nice
inside ring engraving. I told him I no, but I could probably figure
it out. On his advice, I started working on it and now I can do block
and script well enough to charge for it. Another few hundred letters
inside of brass ring blanks and I should pretty well have all of the
basic fonts down. OK, old English might take a while longer.

Does that count as self-taught? I would say yes, and no. No one
showed me how to engrave inside rings, or gave me any instruction on
tools and technique, but I couldn’t have ever taught myself how to do
it without the training I had long ago, and the engraving experience
of several decades from which to draw upon. I still think you can
teach yourself only that which you already know, but you can teach
yourself how to expand the skills you already have, if you have a
need and you’re willing to work at it hard enough.

Dave

99 
It's just that we can't do everything - I also can do everything to
a degree - but I know in clear terms that I can't engrave like and
engraver, or set like a setter, when the work dictates a higher
level of skill. Don't be afraid to use other people's skills -
leave the specialties to the specialists, at least when needed...

And I do as you do. I took an engraving class at G.I.A. and knew when
I was done that that was the last time I would do letters.

The class gave me a great knowledge of how to use and sharpen
gravers, but I would not say I do engraving. I can make hash marks
when I solder an engraved shank that makes where I soldered not
noticeable. My experience in that class made an engraving block one
of
the first $300 tools I had to have, although I knew I would not use
it much.

The stability of a engraving block when setting gems in thick bezels
cannot be beat, and has saved me time and grief many times. I use
engravers for cleaning up in various situations where no other tool
can be used.

Very sharp steel tools can do wonderful things or cause quick and
irreparable damage to metal and/or gemstones I do the same as you
with
regard to setting gems. I know my limits, and someone who does
certain
types of setting all day has a feel for what they are doing, I would
end up with good quality work, it just would not start out pretty
till I got the feel back.

I do explain to customers who does what. Most understand, but some
are a little shocked that I do not do everything. Sometimes I say I
do
most of the work on custom and repair, I do sales (which is why I am
spending the time with you that takes me away from the bench!!!),
manage employees, do the maintenance, but I do not do windows.

Sometimes I lie and tell them I do not have the special tool that is
required for that work. They understand that.

Richard Hart

100

i don’t know, did anyone say repetition, that’s how i became a
great model carver, just like anything else from years and years of
repetition for employers, then one day you branch off into your own
design idea, and off you go,one of my mottos, “got to do 50 to
get it right”, dp