[Jewelry making - Article 00217] - Re: [Orchid] My apprenticeship...

[Daniel Hamilton]

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    I just talked to my Voc Rehab consoler. She said he called her late
    in the afternoon on Friday last week and told her that he didn't
    think I was going to be able to be much help over the Xmas rush
    considering the amount of work he feels his new product will bring.
    He also said that he needs someone who doesn't question things, but
    someone who just does what he is told. [ hence going through 5
    jewelers in 2 years he has been in business ] and that he doesn't
    have time to train me to shut up and do it his way only. Now that I
    think about it, I bet much of this may come from a recent incident. 

    I was having troubles with some silver I was annealing and rolling
    into sheet. It was pitted and when I would bend it a few times, the
    sheets I rolled broke. Under the loupe I could see what looked like
    many irregular and large chunky brittle like layers. Both the owner
    and the bench jeweler told me I was annealing the metal all wrong.
    The way I learned to do it some 20 years ago was to heat the silver,
    or gold, to a dull red, then let it cool to the point where the
    redness is gone, then quench it. They both were very instant that I
    was wrong. They said that by quenching the silver, I was making it
    harder. I needed to let it completely air cool. I was shocked to say
    the least, and wondered where I had picked up this apparently wrong
    way of annealing silver and gold. 

    The next day I started looking in books of mine, and those belonging
    to the store. Over and over again, from my Brown authored educational
    books of Goldsmithing and Silversmithing, to my McCreight, Revere and
    even in the back of the Stuller metals catalog, every thing about
    annealing talked about the way I was doing it for silver and gold [
    white gold is an exception from what I have read] I ask the jeweler
    about this. At first she ask who I was going to believe, a book, or
    someone who has been working as a bench jeweler for over 3 years?
    Then I pointed out it was in every book, and started to show her. She
    then said she didn't want to see it, and that I can do it the book
    way if you want, and she will do it her way. I told her I wasn't
    doing this for any other reason than trying to learn the best way to
    do it. She didn't say anything, but I got the impression I bruised
    her ego, so I just let it drop completely. 

    Talking with my consoler she said he sounded stressed to her, and is
    it possible he is under a lot of stress to get financing? His in laws
    and his wife are all multi millionaires [inherited from the company
    grandpa started - 7up] he refuses to ask them for help for the same
    reason he is afraid of failing, they would tell him all about it.
    Maybe being so close to making or breaking it, he needs someone fully
    trained now? He could have just said that if that was the case. But
    he sends such mixed impressions, I don't know what to think. I mean,
    Why would he have gone through all the trouble to train me on matrix,
    the mill, and art programs to make his new kind of jewelry? And just
    late Thursday afternoon he has his jeweler order sheet silver just
    for some learning projects he wants me to do, and talks about
    bringing in his collection of lapidary jeweler magazines so we can go
    through the projects in them and see what other ones might help me to
    learn. I know he is flip floppy a lot on things, but I was blown away
    this morning after last week??? 

    I'm thinking she mentioned our annealing to the discussion to the
    owner, who like her, was very insistent at the time that I was doing
    things wrong. He is a self taught jeweler where she has a BS in fine
    arts, but both are very proud of their skills, and they should be
    because they do produce some nice work. But I hate to say it, but my
    consoler and I think I caused this to happen by bruising their egos
    and they might be afraid of what else I might point out. Maybe this
    is why he told my consoler he needs someone who just does what he
    said, not someone who questions him??? 

    So this brings to question just what is an apprenticeship? Or maybe
    it would be better put, what was their definition of an
    apprenticeship? Either way, I feel my chances are all but ruined now.
    How will it look if I try to get an apprenticeship with someone else,
    and I have to tell them I had an apprenticeship, but was let go after
    3 months, but I still don't know why? I guess I could always say what
    my consoler and I think, and that's he wanted free labor, and
    couldn't be bothered to train someone. My voc rehab consoler says to
    her, in a strange kind of way, this was a good thing. She was looking
    back on notes from her previous meetings with him, and one thing he
    said bothered him about all his previous 5 jewelers since the stores
    inception 2 years ago, was that they wouldn't just automatically do
    things the way he wants them to. She said you cant teach someone with
    thinking like that, and I was there as an apprenticeship. She told me
    she thought this would be a problem, but had hoped it wouldn't become
    one because she knows how hard jewelry apprenticeships are to get in
    St. Louis. And now, I think it will be a lot harder
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