Self taught Vs Formal training

Jewelry Discussion
21 
Like many others have said, having the resouce to go somewhere to
learn new things can be a challenge. While being self taught, time
and motivation are the only resouce you need...

With due respect to those who have posted the pro education points
of view.

There has not been one classroom situation nor one on-the-any-job
day where someone has not turned to me at some point and said
something like this…“why are you going so fast, slow down?” "why
are you trying so hard, you’re making the rest of us look bad?’ "why
are you always trying to do so well?’ and, in my first metals class
“relax”

I would rather buy a diamond from someone who has gone through GIA
or the Revere Academy, ok…but, let’s be a little open minded
here. There are all kinds of jewelry, all kinds of work. People want
to do what they want to do, they don’t necessarily have to do what
you did. I wish I had come to that realization 15 years ago.

Advice, why do you need advice for this? Don’t let someone tell you
what to do, where to go to school, whether or not you should go to
school. Working in a field like this, this creative field…it’s
about writing your own ticket, making your own way.

Whatever your own way is, it’s your decision. Once you find out what
it is, just do it.

Kim Starbard
http://www.kimstarbarddesigns.com

22

I’m afraid this is a bit long, please bear with me.

I had considered myself self taught even though I had taken 'hobby’
art metal courses from some very talented metalsmiths for over 20
years at various institutions. I made jewelry that people loved the
entire time, but felt that my work lacked the professional quality
that I needed to be self employed. I had a whole library of wonderful
books and lessons, but without someone guiding me and teaching me all
the tricks, shortcuts, and skills that they’ve learned and developed
over the years and how to make quality jewelry, I’d still be just a
novice.

It wasn’t until I went to a private academy devoted only to jewelry
and other artistic metal techniques, with some blacksmithing and
armor making thrown in, that I gained the knowledge and experience I
wanted. Being able to observe the subtle techniques of knowledgeable
and talented people at work cannot be learned from a book. I finally
had someone to correct all those bad habits I developed on my own.
Eventually I became employed there as a teaching assistant and did
LOTS of bench and production work in their working shop.

I worked with some pretty amazing people there, instructors and
students alike. I think I learned as much from the students and their
influences, and mistakes that had to be thought out and fixed, as I
did from the instructors. I always said “you never know who’s going
to walk through the door” and what there was to learn from them. I
consider the education I received and the opportunity to work on so
many varied repairs, restorations, projects and weird custom orders
the best experience I’ve ever had and, as they say, “priceless”.

I am now confidently self employed, yet still take the opportunity
to learn something new as often as possible. I realize that not all
students that get a technical education, have the wonderful (yet
often frustrating and exhausting) experience that I had, but then
again not all of them were as driven as me either. I’ll take
education over self taught any day, if just for the experience.

Terri

23

Why rediscover the wheel? If at all possible, why not learn how
wheels are made by people who know how, and then use your time to
make better, prettier, more elegant, more complex wheels?

I’m for as much basic training as you can get or afford, save lots
of time, and move on from there.

Sandra
Elegant Insects jewelry

24

Oh, my. Another contentious thread.

I don’t believe this question can be answered, given the way Sheila
asked it. We know nothing about her background, her age, her goals,
etc.

One point that has definitely not been made is that taking a formal
jewelry class, at someplace like the Revere Academy, or even at the
Mendocino Art Center, can leave you feeling hopeless. One of my
fabrication teachers said that, after a class in engraving at Revere,
he’d given up on learning engraving. It simply went too fast for him.
I have heard this “complaint”–more like a moan–from other people.
And I have experienced it myself.

My first “basic earrings” class–at a bead store!–left me feeling
like a dunce. I was sure I would never be able to make a “perfect
loop,” and I didn’t try again for two years. Then I acquired every
wire work book I could find, read all the (contradictory)
instructions, and spent hours with pliers and a roll of copper wire.
I found it much easier to keep going, despite my failures, when I
didn’t have to keep up with other students. (In “craft” classes, I am
almost always the “slowest kid in the class,” despite the fact that,
intellectually, I can usually run rings around everyone, including
the teacher.) And, while I didn’t have a teacher’s guidance, I also
didn’t have to deal with impatience and judgment: we slowpokes will
project this, even if the teacher is nice as pie.

After that, I found a wonderful wirework teacher, who had gone
through an initial dunce phase herself. I learned an amazing amount,
and became very skilled. At her urging, I began studying with her
fabrication teacher (at an adult education center), who was also very
relaxed and patient (hi, rp!). But, every time I tried to "up level,"
I hit the same wall.

So, if you want to be a bench jeweler, and you have transferable
hand skills, and know you are fast (if you want to be a bench
jeweler, you had better be), then jumping into trade school may be
your best bet. If you’re like me, please don’t do that to yourself.

Lisa Orlando
Albion, CA, US

25 
Everyone on the list has many reasons to obtain or not obtain a
formal education. Everyone's different. Everyone's motivations are
different.

Somebody asks one of today’s teenagers what they want to be, and they
say “I want to be a CEO.” Here’s how to solder: Get two pieces, apply
flux, place solder, apply heat, done. Here’s how to set a diamond:
notch prongs, insert stone, push prongs, finish, done. Polish: apply
compound, polish piece, done. Anything else? The skills involved in
making jewelry are not especially difficult in themselves. There are
many of them, though, and when put together they give you a “toolbox”
that you can use. I think what we’re dealing with here sometimes is
fear - fear of doing something “wrong”, like there’s a “right”. Sure,
things need to be soldered securely, straight, there’s good and bad
polish - mostly mechanical stuff. What happens, though, is that one
gains confidence in their skills, and learns to depend on the
toolbox. If you know how to engrave, you know how to carve wood. If
you know how to fit something, you can set, do inlay, all manner of
things. Knowing how to do something is way different than being able
to do it. I’ve done a little enameling, and I can tell you all about
enameling techniques. But I’m just not very good at it, really.
That’s the skill part, and the experience and practice part. The best
school, as always, is life. You’ll meet one person and they’ll say,
“I do prongs like this - hmmmm!” Another will say, Try this file - I
solder like this. Me - I have no third hand, I have no soldering
jigs, I don’t use the benchmate and don’t want one. I have no need
for them. How many times have I heard, “What’s the secret? We want
‘Bench Tips’, we want tricks.” But the secret is that there is no
secret. Jewelry is not made by tricks, it’s made by skill. It’s just
lots of hard work, and you start at the bottom and work your way up.

26

I’ve never had formal instructions related to jewelry making, though
I’ve been fortunate enough to be allowed to observe things like
soldering, smelting, etc, before going off to try them on my own. I
tend to read up on something, try to find someone who does it and
watch them, then I go off by myself and make a mess until it starts
to make sense to me.

When I first began making jewelry, I had absolutely no clue at all,
just a couple of items of One, that I could tie knots,
and secondly, that knots could be tied in wire. It took me almost a
year to go from a kinked tangle of wire to being able to make any of
several reasonably attractive patterns, and I did that all
completely on my own.

Now I like to take students all the way though that in one day… it
makes me wonder where I’d be now, if I’d known someone who already
knew how to do what I wanted to do, but there’s no way to ever find
that out.

Loren

27

First- dentists, and Md’s are a different realm than a creative
application, and one would expect that they would indeed attend
school. Please ! context seems to be used loosely on Orchid.
depending on the subjective bent an individual wants to support on
whatever the issue is…My point- (and that sentiment about validating
the instructor was a quotation by the way,that certainly made me much
more aware of judiciously attending classes…after learning almost
nothing new after spending a fortune trying to broaden my skills- )
was that the four thousand dollars spent for a week long stay plus
travel expenses at J.C.Campbell Folk school for instance, learning to
prepare a bezel and set it, could be FAR better spent investing in :

McCreight’s book with CD demos ( 40 bucks) and a few oz.'s of fine
silver ( 40 bucks) and carefully selected high karat gold stock (
allow 300 here for the volatile market) three different types of flux(
20 bucks) and 18 kt hard solder ( 28 bucks) an entire torch set up (
up to 300 bucks) and perhaps 200 ctw of stones and cabs ( up to 100
bucks- picking cheap but quality materials like amethyst, garnets,
peridot, turquoise, cz’s (for practice purposes on bead setting) and
whatever else one can find limiting the expenditure to 100 dollars)
and a few videos or DVDs in specific areas like stone setting,
granulation, mokume - gane or whatever interests the individual (120
bucks) assorted hand tools ( 200 bucks)…

OK I’m up to about $1248.00 If I were starting cold, with no
materials,tools, need to make a living at metalsmithing and without
practical life experience or a background in sciences,arts and
humanities-etc… which is not my case

I believe that the savings of almost three grand would most
definitely be better invested in figuring “it” out on my own than
attending even one class at that particular school…but that’s from
the perspective of a person that has absolutely no extra money to
attend classes in which one may or may not complete even a single
piece in the short period of time allotted and prescribed. For a
hobbyist, or person that has no intention of going into jewelry
making as a sole source of income and uses the folk school, for
example, as an alternative vacation destination and who has money to
spend without having to make subsistence choices in stead of
attendance for an extended period of time at a given school - then
"classes", per se, may be a perfect distraction from the monotony of
a life without any financial issues.

Every person is different- I did in fact learn more in thirty years
of experiential self-taught jewelry making than i ever did from any
class i have received a scholarship, or was invited to take, In
fact, in some of the classes, after a few days the teacher asked me
to do some of the metallurgical demos- and my teachers were far more
accomplished as jewelers than i am and far more adept at making
money at it than i am- In fact one teacher, whose earrings sell for
upwards of 1200.00 a pair, that asked me to do refining and
reclamation and bead setting demos, has resulted in a relationship in
which I was asked to buy stones for the instructor on an ongoing
basis due to my “eye”- or so the compliment was stated. I went into
that class thinking it was time I learned what I was doing wrong- or
at least alternative methods to the way I have done things… after
years of doing it on my own…in addition to belonging to many
organizations, guilds, and trade associations and teaching what i had
learned ( on my own) to students private and public, that have sought
my knowledge- mostly teaching for free as long as the individual was
committed enough to not wasting my time or theirs…

Perhaps things are done differently in Europe- and this should
concern me why?

I have my own methods, that - oddly - are exactly what I have
observed being taught at the places I have received scholarships to
attend over the years…

Everyone learns differently…

One quite notable and famous teacher of mine told me that “watching
me work was amazing–as if the metal was paper.” It made me think-or
come to the realization that i indeed have absolutely no regard for
how much “it” costs when i am in process- I simply melt down and
refine and reuse metals over and over until I am satisfied that a
workpiece or mill product is exactly how it should be…I don’t
require anyone else to tell me that their method is more correct
than what I have arrived at on my own over many many ounces of trial
and error, or carats of stones that had to be repolished or recut or
just tossed into a pile of rejects that now fills a jar somewhere on
the planet ( as it was lost in a flood).

I am from a culture that is based on a "spend it all "mentality - one
either has or does not, life will go on regardless of what one’s
financial situation may be minute to minute or week to week…the
point is to enjoy life. I do, and I enjoy making things of
metals…and Fine silver is far less problematic than sterling due to
the lack of copper included in it…I have learned that over many
years of trial and a teacher told me she used.999 solely if using
silver,ten years or so ago and since then i have adopted that
approach to using silver as well. For you to have an opinion is
valid, as is my stating that fine silver is superior to sterling- and
there are many reasons that I find that to be true and will defend
that principal, as have MY teachers, in that it fuses to itself
readily, doesn’t produce allergenic reactions in wearers as readily
as sterling, and It is more malleable than sterling to cite a few of
the multitudinous reasons it is not only responsible of me to assert,
but my opinion- which, Richard, is as valuable as yours, and any
European model you could possibly present me that teaches anything
differently than I, on my own, have learned to execute
successfully…and You state no one teaches silversmithing using pure
silver, is simply incorrect. Of the five teachers that i have
encountered ( all famous jewelers, that I’m certain you have heard of
or aspired to be as successful as they are) three of them use fine
silver over sterling considering it to be less flexible a material (
in applications not literally) than sterling…So we simply have
different experiences with silver.

Further, It is not called for to assert that " there is not one good
reason for anyone to start making jewelery with pure silver"- au
contraire…I believe there is, MY teachers believe there is, and
that is what I teach regarding silver. I suppose you think it
invalid that i recommend students avoid paying for 14 karat gold as
well…and i do just that- I believe its a better, wiser investment
to put one’s money into 24 karat casting grain almost exclusively and
invest in a rolling mill in effect saving lots of money in the long
run - and to fabricate ones own mill products than to pay a
fabrication charge, and premium prices for a material that is almost
half gold, and that one can never grasp the properties of if not
involved in its manufacture- call me old fashioned, or archaic, but
that is what I believe- and I also hold true that everyone is
entitled to their own beliefs and no one has more power than another
regardless of how the knowledge of whatever it is they study is
arrived at.

If you choose to make statements like “no one teaches silversmithing
using pure silver”…and “opportunities are opened up to me that i
would not have had if not for my teachers” and " a person cannot get
the right tools on their own" are simply not true in any way or on
any plane of experience I have had or learned on, and further, I’m
fairly certain that we are all looking at the same tool catalogues so
your assumptions about assembling the “right tools” as you put it,
are simply pointed at making yourself feel validated, or somehow
superior …I simply don’t buy into your belittlement’s, or
philosophy, or incorrect or misor any of
your post at all…in fact, i find it most offensive and aimed at
somehow saying to me - somewhat covertly, but not- that I don’t know
of which I speak…you do not know me, have never seen my work or
attended a single class workshop, seminar, or intensive that i have
taught… you Richard, are limiting yourself, I do not choose to…and
any opportunities i have or that come my way are certainly not due to
my paying someone money to hear them speak or demonstrate their way
of fabricating x…And i find it nearly impossible to think that
Cellini for an example of a self taught master-found anyone more
skilled than he, or when perusing De Re Metallica questioned its
validity. your vanity and narcissism astounds me…as does your
invalidation of the writers of books…or the assertion that they are
somehow less than " right".I don’t recall seeing your name in any
bibliographies…or perhaps I’m making assumptions…the point of it
all is, next time do not single me out if you have never met me and
do not question an individuals abilities to be more advanced than
your own at an art that is left entirely to interpretation…You are
no more an expert than am I… I have the “right” to post what i
would have a novice metalsmith learn, but I do not have the right to
attack someone Else’s experiences…

28

Nanz,

I graduated from the jewelry program at Paris Texas in 1975. At that
time you could proceed at your own speed and graduate as quickly as
you could go through the courses. I was the fourth to leave,
following three young ladies. My father always taught me to look at
the person on the inside, not by outward appearances. Vote the
politician, not the party. Look at the person, not the color of their
skin, their religious affiliation or their sex. Recently you posted
your resume, showing your vast experience and skills. You have gone
farther and become more successful than those guys that sat next to
you. You rose above and will enjoy the last laugh.

Bravo,
James S. Cantrell CMBJ

29

Hello and many thanks to all Orchidians who graciously enough to
answer my question on this subject. Your is invaluable
and I have to admit I stand in a great deal of awe at some of the
folks who answered me. I have saved all the answers and will be
re-reading them many times.

I am currently in a day(?) job from 2:45pm - 1:15am and this means
that any sort of formal training is out for at least the next four
years which is the absolute earliest I could retire. When that day
comes, I will certainly be looking at a school of some sort. I
believe the closest to me would probably be Toronto Ontario Canada.

From reading the questions, answers and comments on this wonderful
forum I am fully aware that I cannot do any serious metal work, or
work with gems before being trained properly. Also I will not be
recognized as a real jeweler without the credentials a school would
give. Until then, I will learn as much as I can and practice the
things I can on my own, and do the research so that when I am free to
take proper classes I will. I can, in the meantime, become as good as
I can be with the materials of choice available to me now.

Thankyou all again most sincerely, for taking your time to give me
your points of view.

Sheila in Ontario Canada.

1 Like
30 
Not everyone has the privilege of attending an art school, trade
school or college.

Why would it not take the same “Desire, Fear, Will and Self
Motivation.” to find a way to take classes? If someone has determined
that they want to pursue learning how to make jewelry, classes not
only give you the basics to start you off in the right direction, you
also get to see creativity expressed differently with the same
processes, and the same materials.

Seeing how different people process and seeing the
results of how they apply what they have learned has been an
incredible source of inspiration of me.

Being around others in a class made me dig a little deeper within
myself and challenge the limitations I had held onto.

Watching others having their ah ha! moment made me realize what I
could achieve with persistance and by acquirering more skill. There
have been times watching others in a class allowed me to acknowledge
that in time I would not be better at something. When I can see the
results others get, if I do something and I am frustrated and it is
hard, and the results do not get better, I determine what my
strengths are and I can focus on what I am good at or what I like
better.

Being in classes has been humbling, watching someone with less skill
than I have achieve something that skill alone would not produce.
Sometimes taking a class allows you to define the box that defines
your limitations of creativity. Watching another person with more
freedom can be challenging and liberating. It can also be depressing.
Some people are natural at something I have to work hard at.

I have always liked networking with other metal workers, I am always
amazed at the creative spirit and I love seeing how different people
translate, manipulate, extrapolate with metal.

Last night I called my wife over to my bench to watch me fuse some
metal, after I was done she said “You are an alchemist with fire,
whether cooking or jewelry you are a master of fire.”

That was a nice moment.

Richard in Denver, where those born here are seeing more snow and
freezing weather than they have ever seen before. Last night -18
degrees.

31

Speaking as a male - I don’t believe this is literally true.
According to JCK’s annual salary review it is absolutely 100% true.
Women earn significantly less in this business then men do. And it’s
across the board of jobs from CEO’s to salespeople.

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140

32 
Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau did not have a formal art school
education.

I confess my memory may be faulty as it’s been a long time since I
read about it, but my recollection is that I have seen the drawings
Picasso used to get into art school at about the age of 12. I’m not
denying he was a child prodigy, but I do believe he did actually
attend art school.

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140

33

Hello fellow orchidians,

I have been reading the comments on the self taught Vs formal
training and it made me think. I am in semi retirement so I have a
certain amount of spare time, so I thought I would approach my local
adult education office and see if they would be interested in me
teaching at one of their jewellery classes. I was asked for a list of
my formal qualifications. I told them that I did not have any formal
qualifications. I had left school at the age of 15 in 1961 and went
straight into an apprenticeship as a goldsmith, I could have attended
college on what was called “day release”, while an apprentice, but my
master discouraged me from doing so, so I finished my apprenticeship
without a single day at a college and no formal qualifications.

Although I have trade recognition being a “Freeman of the Worshipful
Company of Goldsmiths” and a “Fellow of the Institute of
Professional Goldsmiths”, I do not apparently have the qualifications
to teach my trade. I was told by the education official that I would
have to attend a college myself to obtain a qualification that would
enable me to teach something that I have been doing successfully for
the past 46 years. In my time I have made items for royalty all over
the world. I have won awards for my skills. I am regarded as a high
quality craftsman by my peers. But I am not regarded as qualified to
teach. So I gave up asking, which is a pity as I would have enjoyed
passing on some of my skills to keen beginers. I am afraid that over
here in the UK, the teaching community is a closed shop, most
teachers in the jewellery colleges have gone through the college
system, made the right connections and became teachers themselves,
many without ever working in the outside world. There are of course
the exeptions, some colleges are not blind to the qualities of bench
trained craftsmen. To end I would say to anyone seeking
qualifications, get as many as you can, but also try to work at the
bench alongside a craftsman, as you will learn by experience far
quicker than at a college. Then with the qualifications from college
and skills learnt at the bench, you can suppliment your income by
teaching if you need to.

Peace to all James Miller FIPG, a grumpy old goldsmith in the UK.

https://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/jmdesign.htm

34 
Well - to put a fine point on it - how did they create the first
alphabet? Often experience is limiting when it comes to taking a
risk.

The first alphabets appeared after ca. 1500 years of writing in
ancient Mesopotamia, which began as pictographic and then shifted to
use of more abstract syllabic and ideographic (but not yet
alphabetic) signs.

Judy Bjorkman

35

Picking up on the feminist theme, I have been in the jewellery trade
in Europe for 25 years and gender has been irrelavent in my
decisions regarding taking on outworkers. If a craftsperson has the
ability then I have the work. Equal pay for equal work does exist in
my world.

Andrew Macfarlane

36 
I was sure I would never be able to make a "perfect loop," and I
didn't try again for two years.

Occasionally I hire and train employees with absolutely no
experience in making jewelry. In my experience women are more
concerned with doing things perfect, as in, not making mistakes. I
always explain my observation to women I hire, and I tell them they
are going to make mistakes, and that is part of learning. I tell
people to remember when you learned to ride a bike, at first you were
uncomfortable and nervous, but when you got the hang of it, there was
a feeling you had. I suggest to people to practice something until you
get that feeling and feel comfortable doing it.

Richard Hart

37

This self taught vs. formal training is a thread of just opinions.

I’m 58 and from my mid 30’s (I started at the age of 10) I had
wished my father had sent me to a really good jewelers school.
Usually jewelers are trained through apprenticeship. A FINE school
takes YEARS off of the learning curve.

If I had a son or daughter who wanted to get into jewelry, I’d send
them to school.

Alan Revere is a very fine craftsman. He was trained in either
Switzerland or Germany I believe.

If you have kids who want to do this, don’t try training them
yourself. Send them away (shoot, send all kids away!) :slight_smile:

David Geller
JewelerProfit
510 Sutters Point
Sandy Springs, GA. 30328
www.JewelerProfit.com

38 
Also I will not be recognized as a real jeweler without the
credentials a school would > give.

Whoa, hang on there. While I have my GG and have occasionally (very
occasionally) taken a short course here or there I don’t have any
other “school credentials” (I don’t even have a bachelor’s degree)
and I am most certainly recognized as a real jeweler. Not only am I
recognized as a “real jeweler” but I am recognized as one of the best
in my area. I don’t believe any extra education hurts anyone, but it
is most certainly not necessary to be a “real jeweler”.

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140

39

I think we should be glad that this is a field that has not been
closed to include only people with a certain type of training.
Sheila in Ontario originally asked how viable self-teaching was
since she is not in a position to train formally. I taught myself to
silver solder in High School before I went on to get my MFA, so I
feel qualified to offer an answer. You can do it either way but it
is a lot quicker to learn from someone else, either in a formal
school, on the job or one-on-one. John Donivan is quite right that
results are what will ultimately judge you. There are some
situations where a degree might be needed to get a job, but I never
see customers asking to see my diploma and when I sell the work of
other craftsmen in my shop, the training of the creator only comes
up if I bring it up. I only bring it up because some of them have
interesting stories.

My high school age kids are traing at the bench helping me out after
school and saturdays, but if they really want to follow this as a
career I would look to some rigorous formal schooling.

Stephen Walker

40 
I cannot do any serious metal work, or work with gems before being
trained properly. Also I will not be recognized as a real jeweler
without the credentials a school would give. Until then, I will
learn as much as I can and practice the

Actually, Sheila, you can do a lot. I’m not sure if everyone posting
read your original post, but I did. Jo-Ann teaches an adult education
class here that’s one night/week for $60 + materials for a session. I
started making jewelry without anything but books in my father’s
garage, just because I wanted to. You can have great fun, and
actually go fairly far on your own, just treating it as a
hobby/fun/just fooling around with it thing. The thread has blown up
into something more serious, but that doesn’t mean that someone can’t
do it on a small scale just for pleasure - and when your friend says,
“That’s really cool, how much do you want for it?” well, that will
just make your day… It would save frustration to get some kind of
guidance on the basics - but you don’t need to spend thousands and
get all serious unless you are that serious…