I wanted to thank all the folks that have been so great helping me.
This is a great group and I’m glad I found you all. Things are
looking up in my learning this art of jewelry.
Recently there have been posts about jewelers working alone and
possibly not passing on their knowledge.
Times have changed indeed. My husband and I work(ed) for Hewlett
Packard. (He still does). Things have changed drastically from when
he/we first started. There is no longer the culture that we had
grown to love at our jobs. We felt secure and valued. Planning on
working 30+ years and then retire at the same company. The landscape
of engineering has changed. The world has become more global and our
jobs are now outsourced. They call it moving development to a “lower
cost geography”. I guess we (hubby and I) now live in a “lower job
geography” 8-. For awhile we groused and moaned and complained. (It
can be recreational thing 
Then we decided we needed to change
with the times. We needed to look to see what does being a software
engineer mean now that roads and oceans no longer are big
separators. We have decided to not look upon the loss of jobs to
India as such a bad thing, but instead we are trying to see how we
can define our jobs more globally for the future. Make it more
exciting and look to bigger and better things.
In the same way other industries are changing. There are no longer
apprentices that come into jobs when young and learn the "ropes"
from the older, more experienced master. Back then the buyer/audience
were local folks who you knew or at least saw some about town. Now
the market is bigger. Some folks only sell on the web and never meet
with a customer. It has opened supply links that were previously not
there as well as a customer base that used to be unobtainable to the
local artisan. So in this sense the jewelry industry needs to think
more globally. Do not let your knowledge turn to dust after you are
gone. There are several of us on this group that are “apprentices” in
most senses of the word. We are ready to learn your art from you.
Write books, share thoughts and make videos. This is a great forum in
which to share. We are scattered throughout the world and we are
listening.
Lisa Fowler
Fort Collins, CO 80526
USA
@LisaF