[Jewelry making - Article 00339] - Re: [Orchid] My apprenticeship...

[rene howard]

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Daniel,

    This might be a little lengthy but if it's not entertaining and
    informative I'll try to keep it short. 

    I can completely relate to similarities in your situation because
    I've had an employer who seemed to have a similar attitude of "do
    your work without any questions or bothering me." I haven't metioned
    much about it because I wouldn't know if they read these posts or 
not.
    There are so many great people who read this, but sometimes we can
    shoot ourselves in the foot. 

    After I left school in 2002, I went to work for about a year and then
    stayed at home to care for my son in 2003. Since then it's been
    incredibly hard to find work when you don't have enough experience
    and owners are relunctant to take a chance on you. 

    My last employer (at first) encouraged me to ask him anything that
    would help me on a project. He was friendly and seemed genuinely
    interested in molding my abilities. 

    That didn't last too long after I had made a few expensive mistakes.
    The biggest one was when I needed to replace a platinum head in a
    platinum shank that had diamonds bead set on the top and shoulders of
    the shank. I did not know whether to use platinum or white gold 
solder
    for this and he was no where to be found and wasn't answering his
    cell phone. I used the platinum solder (ok let's keep the gasping and
    laughing to a slight minimum) and ended up smoking the diamonds in
    the shank. He became more distant and at times almost hostile after
    that even though I apologized and tried to see of there was anything
    I could do to make amends. He was not around the store much so he
    couldn't help me when I needed it. I began to dread coming to work
    and was extremely anxious at the bench. 

    The best lesson I learned about the jewelry trade from the 6 months I
    worked there was that if you dread walking into the shop and feel
    like a bomb will detonate at the bench, get out ASAP. Not only was
    losing that job one the better things that happened, it allowed me to
    get more bench time and I'm now working for a shop with a much more
    relaxed atmosphere and the owner is a former jewelry instructor. 

    Don't give up; take the most you learned from working on the bench
    and hold on to that while you look for a better gig. 

Rene Howard
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