The appropriate public policy response is not necessarily to send
more Americans to expensive four- year colleges, particularly if
that means crippling burdens of personal debt in the form of student
loans. We need to expand the vocational training provided by the
community college system.
AMEN!!! We used to have wonderful technical schools, that actually
taught much needed trades - and did it well. Then suddenly college
became the “thing” to do. It is NOT the best course for everyone,
and never has been. It is ONE way to go. There are many, and I have
always felt it was a shame to dismantle the tech system, and to feed
students into colleges who really weren’t happy there.
Some people love the learning environment available at a good
college, and some are going to be much happier and better served in
the kind of hands-on learning environment a good technical school
should provide. We don’t all wear the same shoes - why do we think we
all need the same kind of education? There are lots of routes to the
end goal of a happy, productive adult life.
I can only talk of the UK, but over the past twenty years our
government has closed most of our technical colleges, many of the
premises being changed to new Universities. The results are that
here in the UK the manufacturing base of most trades had diminished
rapidly with workshops and factories closing all over the country.
Most of the goods in our shops, including jewellery, is now
imported.
The Goldsmiths Company has started a plan to build a dedicated
school of goldsmithing in London, I have seen the plans and they are
impressive. The school will include workshop spaces for individuals
who are starting up in the trade after completing their training. I
wish the project well. I have been reading the comments between John
D and Hans regarding making Faberge eggs from brass. I can offer a
comment based on my own experience as someone who has actually
worked on cleaning and restorations of some of the Faberge eggs. The
interiors of the Faberge eggs that have clock work movements are all
brass, only the shells are gold. Faberge only used golds on the
exterior of his jobs, parts that were not seen were often made of
lesser metals and silver. Historically there was a time that Faberge
had a London shop, but some of the goods sold with the Faberge gold
marks did not meet with the UK assay quality for gold and at that
time it was illegal to sell gold items in the UK without a UK
hallmark, there was a court case which Faberge lost. Now a comment
on brass and enamelling.
Here in the UK brass is an alloy of 70% copper and 30% zinc, this
alloy can only be enamelled with low quality opaque enamels. For
higher quality transparent enamels we have an alloy called gilding
metal which is 95% copper and 5% zinc. I have used this metal alloy
when making medals and orders, it enamels well and polishes to a
good gold colour, but needs gilding or laquering to prevent tarnish.
I have made fifteen gold enamelled Easter Eggs during my career, for
part of my working career I worked at a company called McCabe
McCarty and we made many Easter eggs in the workshop, many would
rival or better those made by Faberge. I sat at the bench and worked
beside David McCarty, who is one of this countries finest
goldsmiths, he made an egg which would rival any Faberge egg. The
attachment is a photo of his serpent clock egg, 300mm height, 18ct
gold.
I don’t have that machine that Faberge used to cut patterns with and
I don’t have a lifetime to devote to it, but it’s tempting to
reproduce a Faberge Egg in Bronze.
Also, not all Faberge Eggs are enameled. The one here at Maryhill is
gold, rock crystal, and sapphires. I don’t recall seeing any enamel
on the piece.
Also, If you have to ask people if you should get a degree for
making jewelry, you probably should because if you were artistically
compelled it wouldn’t even have been a question.
I don't have that machine that Faberge used to cut patterns with
and I don't have a lifetime to devote to it, but it's tempting to
reproduce a Faberge Egg in Bronze.
Faberge is mostly known for his enamels, and especially transparent
ones. Enameling is not particularly difficult until you try to
achieve very high transparency, and color saturation. Metal used as
a foundation becomes very important. The best than can be done on
bronze is low transparency, pastels. Of course we talking about real
enamels. Epoxy based and others, will be a different story.
