Well, I dunno, I see ads here for apprentices from time to time. A thirty-five year old friend of mine, after a music (voice) degree and knocking around at various insurance and sales jobs, has landed as an apprentice at Signet (Jared’s Galleria). He is overworked, but everyone he works for does that to him, “abuse me” must be printed on his forehead. He makes coffee and does paperwork (learning the business side of things, tho’) and also does polishing and restringing and small soldering jobs so far. He likes the idea of picking up an actual profession and I’ve told him that if he learns a lot this is quite a marketable skill. I would assume a decent bench jewelry would start at $40K, right? Evidently Signet is hiring these people in various markets, so they need folks and can’t find them, I guess. Also a good way to get cheap labor. What he describes sounds like an old style hierarchical apprenticeship to me.
Hey there Jo, No worries about pissing people off. You said it clearly and correctly. It’s been said that the art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your pants to the seat of a chair, and one could apply that to making the stuff we, on Orchid, make. So many of us are self-taught or learned by example, or learned on the job, rather than getting an MFA. I would have loved to have been able to enroll in a BFA and then an MFA program, just to have been able to have the time to devote solely to learning the techniques and acquiring the skills, but I learned on the run and that was sufficient.
I’m not saying that the degree programs are worthless. They are great if you have the tuition money and the time and the only responsibility you have is to yourself and your acquisition of jewelry making skills. Don’t plan on getting a tenured position after graduation. In fact, don’t plan on getting any teaching position outside of the craft centers, because there are fewer and fewer of these available, and more and more MFA grads every year looking for those jobs.
There are all kinds of ways to approach making the stuff we make, and making it to make a living… so many ways that I won’t even begin to list them here. Just jump in and run with it.
If I could make 40k a year and have health insurance - I’d be thrilled, but right now I have to juggle the reality that I’m unlikely to find a bench job that does either - but by the gods I’d take it in a heartbeat no matter how hard it was.
Its nigh impossible to juggle a 40+/week job and a life AND try to find someone that is willing to apprentice you when you will not be available during normal business hours.
“Honourary Doctorate Degree”…OMG!!.:>) Plus a few others thrown in for
fun!
If some of the Orchid Gang want to get together in Tucson next year, I’ll
be there. I might be easily coerced & a bit of arm twisting into giving a a
seminar or two.
The number of countries I’ve sent my essay to has now risen to 17
countries. This is now including (Andreas) Poland, Gmail doesn’t tell me
where the owner is from. I now have 6 more series of essays to send out now.
In Canada, this weekend, is our 150th Anniversary of being a country…back
to work & fun!
Gerry Lewy
Toronto, Ontario.
Canada.
Royjohn, you ask “Is this art”. May I ask you what is art, in your estimation?
Please excuse any typos-- curse my clumsy digits…
Well, Andy, you have me there, as Art is in the beholder’s eye. but I would reply that 1) I don’t think you will find large numbers of people appreciating the works I described; 2) that it took a lot of talent or craft to produce them or 3) that you could describe their qualities with any traditional characteristics of excellence (form, chiaroscuro, color, dynamic lines, etc. As something to look at that makes you think, possibly. As Art the way the classics are art with the qualities enumerated above, no. As objects producing emotions, esp. pleasure and awe, no. If the girl who did the"memory firehydrants" had paired her memories with ceramic sculptures, realistic or abstract, or evocative photos, that would possibly have been a different story, but nondescript blobs of clay…it just didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Your comment seems to hint that I’m being overcritical or meanspirited, but, despite the difficulty of coming up with criteria for modern art, I think we have to try. Maybe the best criterion is “do many sensitive and intelligent people feel it is a wonderful experience to look at this?” My answer for the objects described is, “No!” I don’t believe you or the vast majority of the participants on this forum would take a hunk of aluminum, drive a hole through it and call it a ring, yet you’ll defend “art” that is merely curious and definitely different.
I wonder what would have happened to the female Master’s candidate I describe if she’d instead produce ten teapots with matching sets of cups, all salt glazed in various appropriate colors (salt glazing ain’t easy). To get ten worthy sets would probably taken more time and a lot more skill and art. It isn’t easy to match teapot bodies, spouts and handles along with decoration. About the time she spend the semester with the fireplugs, I spent one working on teapots as an exercise and I got about fifteen total and could have spent at least another year getting ten really good sets, probably longer. When done, I would have had a marketable skill appreciated by sophisticated buyers. What did she have? Yet I doubt that the sets of teapots would have been accepted as a Master’s project.
thoughtfully,
royjohn
thoughtfully
HI AlyssaKay,
I went to the Signet Jewelers site and saw rafts of jobs…Bench Jeweler/Apprentice jobs in numerous locations both in the East and the Western US. IDK what they pay an experienced bench jewelry, but I would guess it is $40K plus. I’m sure they would tell you, if asked. And they do have full benefits for full time employees. I would guess that there are other local jobs available in some places and other chains that are hiring, if perhaps not so many people.
royjohn
Not entirely sure if your question is rhetorical, but it’s difficult to predict if “bigger” pieces will sell or not if there’s not a commission in place. Pull as opposed to push economy. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to scale back, and whether or not that’s the right idea or not. I don’t want work that is indistinguishable from the guy next door, but I also don’t want to end up with a collection of my own work.
You gotta play on the farm team before you get to move up to the big leagues. Took me 30 years to get where you want to be.
I don’t think that William was expecting any shortcuts or entitlements. I imagine that he understands that he has to put his time in. He was looking for guidance.
Please excuse any typos-- curse my clumsy digits…
Don’t worry, I’m not trying to skip any steps. Just like learning to solder or set you’ve got to invest the time if you want it done right.
It would be worth checking out North Bennet Street School in Boston if you’re looking for a place to learn bench skills. I rarely see or hear it mentioned in forums like this, but it is an excellent place to go if you want to work as a professional. It is intense: a two-year, full-time program, with the summer off for getting a job/internship to add to your experience. You sit at the bench every day, seven hours a day, and you go through a series of specific projects of increasing difficulty, which you must finish to a professional standard before moving on. It is too rigorous for some, but if you’re serious and can invest the time and money, it will prepare you very well for a career as a maker. At 24, you may have more freedom right now than others who are older, with kids and mortgages. Give it a look!
If I had to do this all over, I would, and still might, look at New Approach School with Blaine Lewis. It’s three months of solid basics with all bases covered. A member of my studio has taken his 3 month class and sets diamonds, works in platinum and gold plus repairs. Added bonus that you have your BFA, cause you throw your art into the mix. I live in Boston and yes the school is excellent, but I could not handle two years of all work, no play.
Karen Christians
Different formats suit different people. I don’t equate 35 hours a week of
school with “all work and no play”, but rather a reasonable investment of
time to hone one’s craft. And if the craft is enjoyable and brings one
pleasure, then work and play are commingled, right? I consider such an
opportunity to be a privilege, not a hardship. In fact, now that I’ve been
working full-time as a jeweler for 15 years, it looks like heaven to be in
school, able to focus intently on learning and nothing else. A three-month
intensive is a great choice for some. Then again, for those who want the
time to go deeper into each project and practice each technique longer
under the guidance of an expert, two years is barely long enough. I guess
it depends on your temperament.
Can anyone who has attended a full time bench school tell me what you did for income while attending? I don’t live anywhere near one, so lodging would be another thing as well.
The best full time bench school is a full time job in a really busy shop. That solves your money problems, on a basic level anyway. I owned and operated busy ‘trade shops’ most of my career and hired bench people who were just out of high schools with a good metals program as well as those with university art degrees with a focus on metals. Some from pretty fancy schools. I found that the university trained people weren’t that much better or more advanced at the bench than the people who skipped college.
But what the university trained people did have was a broader view of art and people. They had been exposed to more of everything. The world was a bigger place to them filled with more possibilities. So even though the 4 years didn’t make them much more money in the shop, once they pounded out the work for 3-4 years they often took that experience much further than the people with just a high school education did. So it wasn’t wasted.
I would add that many of the high school only people did very well for themselves. Often becoming self employed.
Mark
Sounds much like the school I went to. Gem City college in Quincy IL
I waited tables. Left school at 3:00 and clocked in at a local restaurant at 4:15. Worked until 10:30 or 11pm, then home, sleep, and back at school at 8. I pulled doubles on Saturdays. I made enough to pay my rent, expenses, and tools and materials. I took out a student loan to cover tuition, which took me 10 years to pay off at a manageable rate. But I did get a bench job immediately after graduation, so that was possible. However, all that was in 1998-2000, and everything (but wages, I reckon) has gone up since then. I think restaurant work (at least front-of-the-house) might be unique in its opportunity to make lots of $$ per hour, during hours that are compatible with daytime school. So, if you have that skill/inclination/experience, it’s a beautiful fit. Otherwise, I don’t know how I could have done it on my own.
GKP, your work ethic is the secret to success! You wouldn’t happen to be looking for a job, would you?
My old mentor used to say that “Overnight success usually takes about fifteen years.” In my experience, that turns out to be pretty accurate.
Dave
Ha ha… no not looking, Dave, but thank you for the kind words. As it turned out, I now own my business and I’m pretty loyal to my boss. 
I should make a correction to my last post, and then I will shut up about me. My apologies. Time has clouded my memory more than I like to admit. I now recall that the job I got after graduation was not a bench job, but a teaching job, which I tried to combine with doing my own work at a home studio. After two years of that, I learned two important things about myself. One: teaching full-time didn’t leave me enough time and energy to sit at the bench, which was what I really wanted to do and why I went to school in the first place. And Two: working alone at home was not for me, too isolating. I wanted to be around other people who knew more than I did and could show me different approaches to problems. So I went out and got a bench job and never looked back.
I do think that working for someone else for a while is invaluable experience, even if you ultimately want to do your own thing. You can learn so much, not just about bench processes, but about shop organization, customer service, business, etc… If more full-time school isn’t doable, putting in some time in a shop that does quality work is a solid next step. If you find a great fit, you might stay for years. If not, you can learn as much as you can, then move on debt-free!
Geraldine