[Jewelry making - Article 00084] - [Orchid] "Retraining" help wanted

[Zen Sojourner]

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    Last summer, I contacted the instructor of the Art Metals class at a
    local college about signing up for the beginning metals class,
    explaining CLEARLY that my goals for the class were to get used to
    using a torch again, relearn soldering, and to learn to set stones,
    use rivets, and a couple of other things I'd never done before. She
    gave me the ok to do this. Since then, I have discovered the
    following about this class: 

    1)  there are only two torch stations in the entire lab, for about a
    dozen students PER CLASS (there are three classes). 

    2)  For those power tools that they do have, half of them have some
    problem and we've been warned not to use them. 

    3)  We've spent almost 2 weeks "designing" a totally useless object
    out of 3 - 2" pieces of base metal (and/or plexiglass). We've been
    told this object is SUPPOSED to be useless, abstract, and is only
    allowed to be perfectly flat. I've spent 2 weeks cutting shapes out
    of construction paper for an object I've been told is going to be
    useless (and, apparently, is also supposed to be ugly). Yes, I have a
    problem with this. 

    4)  The only "free lab hours" scheduled are for times I can't be
    there. 

    5)  There's a kid in this class who announces loudly to all and
    sundry at least two or three times a class period that she's a
    "Design Major", and therefore presumably above the cut of the common
    kine (such as myself, a middle-aged fat woman with "no vision").
    This girl makes a point each and every class of coming up to me,
    sneering at my work, then cutting me dead.  I made the remark that I
    was having trouble with the idea of designing a totally useless
    object, since I'm more used to making things to be used - a cup, a
    bowl, a piece of jewelry, any of that I could work with pretty
    easily.  A 2" square abstract in metal is not up my alley.  She then
    informed me that DESIGN is part of making jewelry, too, and that this
    class is "all about design". Oddly enough, that's not what it says in
    the course description. Then she cut me off again. I'd love to ignore
    her, but that's tough to do when she comes up and takes things off my
    table. She took a piece of red plexiglass I was considering working
    with, and I just let her have it rather than spend one second more
    talking to her than was absolutely required. Apparently, since I
    know how to use a jeweler's saw and she doesn't, that gives her the
    right to take what she needs from me because it'll only take me a
    minute or two to cut out another piece. Yes that's a rant, and I
    digress. Back to the point. 

    In addition, I hit a deer last night and pending finding out whether
    or not the car is totalled (or how much its going to cost me to
    repair it if its fixable) I could really use the money for more
    practical matters.  This also caused me to miss a critical class
    today. I have until Friday to drop this class and still get 90% of
    my money back, so I guess that's what I'm going to have to do. BTW,
    it cost me about $500 to sign up for this class, and I only make
    about $400 a month at my part time job. 

    What I WANTED from this class was lots of hands-on fabrication
    practice.  I wanted refreshers in casting, shaping, using the torch,
    soldering, making bezels, setting cabochons, etc. I wanted to learn
    to do things I'd never done before, such as setting cut stones,
    making bowls/cups/ what have you by raising them out of flat metal
    with a hammer, using a drill (which it turns out they don't have 
    anyway, just a drill PRESS). I expected to spend the vast majority
    of each and every class period in fabrication, hands-on.  Obviously
    this is not to be. They just plain don't have enough equipment for
    that to happen (isn't it weird that the dinky little $80 class I
    took through an art society 15 years ago was better equipped than a
    full-fledged art department metals lab?) So I don't see any point in
    trying it again. 

    But where CAN I get this kind of hands-on training?  I haven't been
    able to identify any other venues locally. 

    If I have to do this totally on my own - and I guess I can manage to
    relearn the things I once knew how to do - has anyone else out there
    managed to teach themselves things like stone-setting, smithing
    techniques, etc. - and how did you do it? 

    I'm pretty down. I was really excited to be gearing up to get
    started working in silver again. And despite the implications of Ms.
    "Design Major", I sold every single piece I ever made when I WAS
    working.  At times I had offers on them before they'd even cooled
    down from the torch.  I had offers on my STUDENT pieces - the very
    first things I'd ever made - which I didn't accept because they had
    obvious solder joints or other flaws, and I don't sell stuff like
    that, even if somebody's willing to pay me. I don't make repetitive
    pieces (or didn't) so whatever a teen-age artiste may think, I'm not
    concerned about my ability to design jewelry. I was, however, very
    much looking forward to refreshing my fabrication skills, and it
    looks like that's not going to happen now, at least not in any sort
    of a guided way. 

    So any advice or encouragement anyone can give me would be really
    appreciated. 

Thanks.
Sojourner

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