Hi Leonid,
I think that the tradition of internships has gotten very sticky.
The way that I know is OK is to make them PAY for the
space/tools/materials/…
Then, of course, they are just another customer. But, as a cutomer
you can provide certain benefits. That would be the only real way to
make the legal stickiness depart…and even then an audit would
probably need to find that they paid a fair value…
Just a thought.
HTH
Cheers!
Christopher
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for your input. I agree with what you are saying.
Stirred up a bit of a hornets nest over the offering labour for
experience!
Yes Kerry has the bench skills which she learnt in SF at the Revere
Academy and she has knocked on most if not all the doors in Adelaide
unfortunately over the last 3 months no opportunities have popped up.
Certainly her Diploma course at Revere is not posing any negative
issues. Will bare in mind the GIA course should it become and issue.
I believe I have over stated the design aspect 'it is more the bench
aspect that Kerry is looking for. THe design aspect will flow with
the experience on the bench. Kerry has a Diploma Jewellery Technician
so she has the all the basics skills which she reinforces with her
small workshop at home.
Very capable, keen as mustard however Adelaide is a very tight
market mostly family Jewellers and the 2 or 3 larger Jewellers that
hire 3 or 4 Jewellers aren’t hiring and it would appear the Jewellers
they have been with their respective companies many year and don’t
look like moving on any time soon.
We are looking interstate at the moment mostly in the eastern states
just have to open up the net a bit.
Cheers,
Ian
Ed’s post reminds me:
In the blistering summer of 197(something) while I was ‘home
schooling’ myself in jewelry arts, the general contractor said to me
as I was scraping 100 year old paint of the barn we were restoring,
the chips flaking off and sticking to my wet brow, itching as they
do so, my head aching from squinting in the sun, tongue salty from
the dripping sweat…“Neil, you look like a man who thinks there must
be a better way.”
Duhhhh!
If you are sufficiently motivated you will make it work out. If you
believe your only shot is an apprenticeship or internship, my own
opinion is that you are not sufficiently motivated, since you may be
putting the responsibility on someone else to ‘teach’ you. You want
someone to invest in you? Invest in yourself first. Call it sweat
collateral.
Good employment is always hard to find in any field. I hope you
manage to secure a position soon.
When I went to high school, I got a couple of years of experience
with some stone cutting and a little silversmithing. Upon graduation,
I stumbled into a job that started paying minimum wage for and
apprentice. This place was a trade shop that dealt with about 170-180
accounts. With that many accounts, a person was needed to wash
jewelery full time and that’s the job that I got. A little Naive I
was. I thought that if 98% of my work was correct, Theyed be real
proud of me. Took about 36 hours for me to catch on that If I ever
mixed up two pieces of jewelry I’d be looking for another job. Seems
that on one of those mixups the salesman innocently tried to deliver
a two stone blue zircon for a a double center ballerina ring. The
client was in tears. My averages improved instantly. I began to
understand that many folk consider this work as important as brain
surgery. There were three positions for polishers and ten benches.
Somehow I missed major time at the polishing benches. I was moved to
the bench room with the apprentices Some of theses "apprentices"
were very good. They came from all parts of the world, but the boss
just didn’t think that they were really up to snuff. I soldered
chains and charms for a couple of years with an occaisional makeup
job thrown in. There was a high enough turnover in employees that it
was not too hard to work up to more advanced benchwork in a
couple/few months. For a couple of years it seemed like I was doing
mostly bangle bracelets and pocket watch repairs. After four years of
repair I was awarded a diploma as a journeyman jewelry repairman and
I started some more advanced diamond setting. I got an opportunity to
learn a lot at this place.
After I left, I worked with a couple of retailers on a much smaller
scale and found that money and respect were sometimes hard won.
A couple of years later, I found myself working with a major retailer
with a few accounts and the respect that I needed to improve services
and new accounts, enough cash to start to grow and was ready to start
training others. I tried to use the business model that I had seen
used successfully where I had trained. Things went pretty well and I
like to believe that I was free with what I had learned in my time.
Relationships change with time, especially with the retail trade.
Once again I found myself bouncing around and finally settled down in
a smaller place doing more high end work. It was an all new
experience, but not a very good place to train people from scratch. I
haven’t trained people for quite a while now. The best training that
I have found was in a high activity trade shop and the best place
that I have trained others in was when I operated a trade shop with a
lot of activity.
I would suggest that in you job hunt, you make sure that you check
out the largest trade shops that you can find. In my neck of the
woods, it seems that Spanish as a second language or even a first,
would be helpful. It could be an excellent opportunity to learn a
second language. You can build out a portfolio doing custom orders
and learn a lot.
Bruce Holmgrain
JACMBJ
Sorry, I meant the “So what’s the problem?” bit as a general comment
on why are we all discussing internships and “know-nothing newbies”,
when the person was asking IMO about a totally different topic.
Yours was just the most “on topic” posting that I had read since
about the third day of this threads life, and I wanted to draw
people’s attention to the fact that with an education behind her
there should be some open doors to paid work.
I most certainly did not mean for it to come across the way that it
has. Once again I’m sorry about that.
As for why she isn’t asking her own questions, I don’t know… I
know I would be if I were in her shoes.
Cheers, Thomas Janstrom.
Janstrom Design.
In response to Ian Fleetwood’s account of his daughter Kerry’s
attempt to find employment in Adelaide, Australia, I would like to
make a few comments for Kerry and others in the same boat right now.
Job hunting in this field has never been easy. Between employer
self-protection, fear of training their own competition, length and
investment of training someone, the opportunities for starting bench
jewelers have rarely been plentiful, and usually job hunting is
difficult. Now things are worse and unfortunately now is the time
that Kerry is ready to enter.
Kerry has done her homework; she prepared herself properly by
attending an 8-week Jewelry Technician Intensive at my school, the
Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in San Francisco. And now Kerry
posesses entry-level industry bench skills. She has all the
preparation and enthusiasm of youth ready to move forward with her
career and her life.
But thre are no jobs. The problem is not with Kerry, but with the job
market. Kerry did very well in our program; she was one of the best
in the class. As far as skills, she is perfectly job ready, quite
bright, obviously talented, and eager. I would hire her in a
flash…but there are virtually no jewelry jobs right now, anywhere
(with a few exceptions of course.)
The problem is the world wide jewelry industry. The problem is not
that Australians do not know about the Revere Academy (as suggested),
but that there are no jobs, here or there. Any smart jewelry
business owner will consider a person’s skills long before asking the
name of their alma mater. No the problem is with the jewelry
industry, which is particularly tight in Australia.
The jewelry world is contracting as we all are painfully aware. The
US jewelry industry has been hit hard and more is to come. Australia
is no different. And in addition, Australia is particularly
difficult for entering the jewelry industry because of long-held
practices which include very tight family traditions and
counterinducive taxes. As I was told by a family jeweler there, it is
a tax disadvantage to hire a non-family member in a family business.
My advice for Kerry is to keep your eye on the prize until you
succeed. Things change. Next month the situation will be different.
The following month it will again change. If jewelry is what you
want to do, as you have demonstrated, stay with it until there is an
outcome. Widen the search area and type of job you would take for
the first time out. Follow up even on low probability prospects. (The
first place you land is likely to be a stepping stone anyway.) Let
employers know you are serious and eager and also willing to wait
for an opening.(In the past, I once hired someone just because they
kept coming back over and over and I got tired of saying, “No.”)
Meanwhile, maintain your bench skills daily. Explore your
creativity. Make new things. Experiment. Practice and redo technical
projects. While the jewelry world may never recover fully, there
will be a place for you in it, if you are ready, willing and able to
wait for your turn to enter.
Also network… In this field that is the most likely course to
success in jog hunting. Get to know other jewelers if possible,
attend jewelry events, enter jewelry competitions, visit jewelry
galleries regularly, join jewelry organizations, read the magazines
and get ready…Your day is coming. And don’t forget to let me know
when you start work.
Perserverance furthers.
Good Luck always.
Alan Revere
Director
Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts
San Francisco, CA
Hi Ian,
I can’t say I know a lot about this, but I have been watching this
post for some time.
I am a fairly young jeweler trying to make it like Kerry. I received
my BFA and have not yet attended an MFA program nor do I intend to
in the near future. I haven’t looked for a job with a jeweler either.
Instead I have invested in tools as much as I have been able to
along the way, with support from the family receiving bits and pieces
for birthday and Christmas along with making a few here and there and
asking people to use there equipment when I have no other choice in
turn for work, money, whatever.
To support my self I have taken on odd jobs as they pop up tyring to
stick to less than 20 hrs a week to buy supplies, food, and pay
bills that my art work cant support yet.
It has been really challenging, but I think its the best way. This
has forced me to learn everything for myself, which in my opinion
has been very helpful in understanding how things work and how to
manipulate them for inventive design. The situation I have set up
for myself allows me the time to learn what I need to.
Along with challenging myself to learn as much as I can and work as
many hours as I can in the studio on average 80 hrs a week these
days. I volunteer in the metals community and local galleries, attend
lectures, conferences, apply to as many shows as I can, post work on
etsy and started a blog and website and started networking in forums
including this one.
My hope is to eventually own my own brick and morter gallery one
day, my goal for 2008 was to get into more shows than the year before
and make a few more thousand dollars than last year as well. I think
I may have accomplished this but I wont know for a few more weeks. My
goal for 2009 get into more shows than last year and make a few more
thousand than 2008.
To cut this short my suggestion to Kerry would be 1 invest in herself
and start making her own business
2 publicize all over the internet, get active in forums, blogs,
whatever… she needs to learn this stuff if she doesnt know how to
already
3 get involved with local guild… has she looked at craft
australia… i am always on there website looking at articles and
shows…
4 keep making work, put it out there
5 if she is serious, which it sounds like she is, she needs to treat
her interest like a rocking full time job… put in the time, she
will learn what she needs to know along the way…
6 no offence, but she really should be on here asking this for
herself
Good luck,
Christine
www.christinebossler.com
Ian,
This will be very brief, well at least for me anyway. Just read
between the lines.
I have no idea if this has been mentioned or not, but why does she
not get a job in sales?. This opens up the door to hone in her design
abilities on the front lines with customers, which also allows her to
become involved with the shop. In my experience, there appears to be
a lot of down time and standing around waiting for the next customer,
therefore, this would be the perfect time to sit at the bench and
help out.
She gets paid as a sales person, but for the employer, and
initially, he gets a free in house designer and apprentice jeweller.
The key is to get a foot in the door anyway which way she can if
that’s the direction she wants to take. Does not have to be through
the front door, especially if there’s a side door that will get you
there just as well 
Best regards.
Neil George
954-495-8224
This place was a trade shop that dealt with about 170-180 accounts. With that many accounts, a person was needed to wash jewelery full time
Yep, Bruce was a washer - I was a grinder at first, trimming the top
plates of turquoise jewelry. Ya gots to pay yer dues… There is
always a place for excellent craftspeople - less than excellent is
less so… The place to become a “real” jeweler is not in some retail
shop doing sizings (or, alas, college), it’s in a manufacturer,
which takes some digging to find - plus they don’t come to you…
And most jewelers don’t have a portfolio, but some representation of
what you can do is useful. I’d suggest Ian & daughter look into
this, for a start:
Hi Neil,
Great suggestion and one that is already underway, well the sales
part. Kerry is now working part time at Michael Hill Jewellers in
Adelaide over the Christmas New Year period however it is not a
manufacturing Jeweller (In Adelaide) and the sales work will stop in
the next week or so after the New Year sales are over. Kerry has done
the part time Christmas sales the last few years in between her
studies indeed Michael Hill employed this time last year and snapped
her up this year again.
Kerry does very well at sales and her passion and newly gained
knowledge at the Revere Academy is a real help for her. So your
suggestion of doing some bench work and some sales has merit, still
finding a manufacturing Jeweller that has a shop front too will be
the challenge. But it is something we had not thought of toemphasise
but it makes real sense to sell that and go back and approach the few
Jewellers that fit the bill.
Thanks it was staring us in the eyes but we couldn’t see!
Regards,
Ian
Hello Orchidians,
I’m reading all the incoming post and again this subject
(opportunities…) catched my eye.
First of all, I have a lot of respect for his level of education and
this article it not written to harm his reputation in any way! I
know that some of you will react different, but again I know his
reutation and there is nothing wrong with it.
A lot of people are reffering to “Revere accademy”. If someone of
you whould like to come to Belgium then I can thell you for sure that
this reference will not help you a lot! However, if you proof that
you are graduated in Antwerp, Pforzheim, Idar-Oberstein or Munich,
then you will have fairly bigger chance to start in an company. I had
some of my jewelry educations from Syntra, does that ring a bell to
someone? I’m 100 procent sure that nobody knows about it, however
it’s very well knowen over here.
What I’m trying to explain is that some schools are very well knowen
in one part of the world but don’t mean much in an other part of
this globe.
In the context of this mather, could it be that someones education
has a low(er) value in Australia as it whould be in America? Whould
it be not better to catch-up with the lokal standards in your own
continent and invest your money in this topic? In the long run you’re
able to follow more classes in a foreign country to establisch your
business and build up your knowledge this way.
Keep up with the good work and enjoy.
Pedro
Hi Pedro.
The Revere Academy has a very highly regarded reputation and in our
part of the world is known down here in Australia. When I did the
research to find Diploma course/s for Kerry this Academy kept coming
up and was well qualified by a lot of Jewellers on this forum as an
excellent Jeweller’s Academy.
You are probably right depending on where you are in the world would
determine how well known it is. When I was doing my research into
available course the ones you mention didn’t come up. Obviously in
searching the European trainers didn’t appear, probably a Google
thing. When we had done the all the research the Revere Academy
offerings it was an excellent fit. It was bit hard to believe that
the Revere Academy was that good, we could not find one negative
comment in all our research.
Kerry was completely blown away by the Revere Academy it lived up to
and exceeded Kerry’s expectations. The two Diploma’s she has gained
there will carry weight down here and from what you are saying maybe
not the same where you are. Her Diploma’s certainly going to assist
her when the right opportunity presents itself here.
The reply by Alan Revere yesterday perfectly sums up the current
situation, it is the lack of opportunities and not Kerry. She remains
very optimistic in a very tight and declining Jewellery market here
in Australia. She has come to the surface at probably the worst time
in many many years, we continue to support, encourage and assist her
wherever we can during these tough times.
Is the Jewellery industry in Europe buoyant at the moment? Is there
any growth or is it declining too in this current market?
Regards,
Ian
Hello Alan,
Hope you and that all the lovely people at the Revere Academy are
well.
Alan you have been and continue to be an inspiration to me. The time
I spent at your academy was exceptional and I miss all of you. Your
Academy is excellent and what a great experience I had there.
I have been reading all the posts as a result of Dad’s original post
and thanks to everyone for all the great suggestions and advice. Yes
I do exist and sorry for leaving it this long to hop in. I have been
very challenged mainly doing exactly what Alan has been suggesting in
his detailed post…thanks Alan. Dad is a gem and sorry to him for
getting a bit of flak.
Alan please be assured that I am keeping I am keeping my eye on the
Prize. Thank you for your continuing support and words of
encouragement. Also your kind words for me in your post. Your post is
very accurate of what I am finding here.
Will let you know when I have some work.
Very best wishes,
Kerry
I’m just being interrupted by my wife and this article went of before
it was finished. Excuse me for the trouble I’m causing, my bad -)
I know the reputation of the Revere Academy since I had to deal with
a lot of american people and in matter of fact own some books of him
aswell. As far as I was able for the education of the people in the
Arts and craft center of Germany, I forwarded all my students to
learn more in Alan’s school. I didn’t know, however, what Alan’s
reputation means or how far you can go talking about crossing the
borderline of America.
The jewelry branch in Belgium is still going. Fact is that a lot of
people are “sitting” on their money due to the bad economy
situation. However, If you have established a good reputation after
many years of good work, people still buy your products! You will
have a very hard time if you whould like to start from scratch. I’ve
seen a lot of business going down in this jewelry world. Just walk
into the jewelry factory place of Antwerp and you will see a lot of
stores closed. The funny part is that the gemstone merchantisers have
a very hard time for whatever the reason may be.
I’m doing pretty well with my line of production. The little secret
I have ist that I’m producing jewelry completly different as the ones
you’ll find as an average. I combine metals with silver and gold,
add gemstones to it or fancy pearls. People love the structure and
texture of my designs becaus it is uncommon and nobody else likes to
make it. The reason for this is that common jewellers do not spend
their time in metals like shibuishi and onther alloy’s. I’m just
fascinated by all the colors you can produce, all the different
patterns and texture using your torch and heat. The right gemstone
add’s more value to it depending on the design. It all talks to me!
Anyway, this is how I feel when I make jewelry, I just take of in my
world and enjoy what I’m doing. The good part is that people buy
what I produce and I stay out of the (sometimes boring) line of
jewelry manufacturing idea’s of others.
Keep up with the good work and enjoy.
Pedro
Hello Ian,
I know the reputation of the Revere Academy since I had to deal with
a lot of american people and in matter of fact own some books of him
aswell. As faI didn’t know how much Alan’s reputation means or how
far you can go talking about crossing the borders
Aren’t there fine craft shows in Australia? Since it’s been hard to
find a place to hire Kerry, why not put her excellent skills to work
as a self-employed jeweler selling at craft shows?
Are there any wholesale craft shows like the Rosen show (Buyers
Market of American Craft) in Australia? Same suggestion, going the
self-employed route?
Most artists I know have gone this retail or wholesale route and
works for us. She’d be able to hone her technical skills while
finding her design voice.
Nancy Goodenough
Kerry,
Keep your chin up, there are jobs out there, I have a bench test
today here in Queensland (got the call out of the blue yesterday).
If I’m not successful I can pass you the details if you want, but it
would mean a move to Brisbane…
Cheers, Thomas “looking forward to going from self-employed to employed”
Janstrom.
Little Gems.
http://tjlittlegems.com
Just to let everyone know, I got the job!
And the place still needs more warm bodies, so if you’re a jeweller
or stone setter at a loose end for some contract work, and you’re in
Australia drop me a line and I might be able to help you get a foot
in the door. It’s not very glamorous work, just assembly of
commercial type mass produced jewellery, but the pay is quite
good…
Have a good one everyone!
Cheers, Thomas Janstrom.
Little Gems.
http://tjlittlegems.com