got twenty three years experience on the bench for a small retail
jewellers in the North West of England. I Have wasted a lot of time
and i am nowhere near as skilled as i should be. Having just woken
up to this fact i’m now trying to figure out the best way to put this
right. I have only basic setting ability,no laser experience,little
time spent working with platinum and my knowledge of gemstones is
not what it should be (must figure out a different way of wording
all that for my next cv.) Any advice on training, career development
etc would be much appreciated.
Look at the courses at the University in Birmingham, England. It is
an amazing facility, with a fabulous program, and terrific teachers.
I taught a workshop there a few years ago, and was very impressed.
I love your honesty. I went for a job in the UK and they asked if I
had original designs in my head because I was Australian and I said
"nope". They hired me because they wrongly assumed my admission was
a sign of modestly and therefore class. I just didn’t care. You
would do well with a CV like that in the UK from what I have seen.
You have holes in your knowledge. Read books, skip the parts you
know. No beginners course will help you, but enrol in something and
make contacts. You undoubtedly know more then you realise. Start
making pieces for yourself and explore your designing potential and
take on every challenge. Work on your weaknesses. Put a notice up at
a tool shop and take on work that you are not used to. Always be
honest.
Why do you doubt your ability? You can’t know everything. Use what
you have and follow the directions that interest you the most. All
will come to something if you have a plan.
Thanks to those of you who got in touch, Not sure if i was supposed
to e mail straight to your own e mail addresses or to Ganoksin as
some of you posted on the site and others mailed me direct.
(personally, i don’t care either way, i got a lot out of all your
messages.) Most of you mentioned working on my own ideas as a good
way forward and pushing myself to take on new challenges. The firm i
work for tends to aim itself at the traditional and/or latest trend
end of the market. The pieces i make don’t really fit in with this
(possibly because either they’re rubbish or i am actually an
undiscovered genius who won’t really be appreciated until five
hundred years after my death, try and guess which of these is true.)
Which is the best way to get your work to a wider audience? setting
up a website (has anyone got a decent amount of work through this
medium, trade or otherwise?) competitions, trade shows, market
stalls, leafleting, carrier pigeon?