[Jewelry making - Article 00195] - Re: [Orchid] Self taught Vs Formal training

[Richard Hart]

========[ Invite a Friend - http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm  ]========

Daniel,

>     Unfortunately I see so many young (and often not so young too)
>     people today who want to have it all laid out for them on a
>     platter. They want someone to show them exactly how something is
>     done and what processes to use. What kind of fun is that?? 

    I started out self taught, approached things the way you did, accept
    ed a commission and found out how to do it. I personally believe that
    it is the rare individual that has the natural problem solving skills
    that can be successful at learning on their own. There is a lot of
    risk taking to learning th is way. When I learned faceting, while I had
    been very successful at any met al work I attempted, I just completely
    sucked at following book directions and being able to get a polish
    on a facet. If I asked a facetor how they polished I could get a
    different opinion from every facetor I asked, and I bought different
    laps, different polishes, and did every possible combination of what
    I was told, and I just cut and polished the table on one garnet till
    the table was as wide as the girdle. I was so determined to not fail
    I di d get it together. I do not think anything has caused me as much
    frustration and grief. I believe there are people who have a natural
    ability and succes s is easy for them, and they do not experience many
    obstacles, and then there are people like me who work hard for a
    long ti me and are determined to succeed in spite of whatever
    circumstances and obstacles come their way. I have not met any women
    who are self taught, only men. All the women I have met who are
    metalsmiths started out taking classes. If there are women on this
    forum who are self taught, I would like to hear from them. When a
    person takes professional cooking classes, they learn what effect
    different ingredients in a recipe have and what the result will be by
    using baking powder or baking soda, ect. O f course a person can just
    use a recipe, but knowing what the ingredients do would allow a
    person to change a reci pe and be more creative. Apply the concepts of
    being self taught to ballet or learning a musical instrument. Since
    jewelry making is a process, educating someone on the basi cs would
    save them time and grief of having to discover how to do something
    through trial and error. When people want to learn something new, of
    course they want to be shown how to do it. That is why there is job
    training whe n someone is employed and their employer needs a specific
    job skill. Why would the expectation be differe nt for someone wanting
    to learn plumbing than someone wanting to learn how to make jewelry?
    What would the result be if we gave children books and told them to
    learn on their own? Personally, after many years of being self
    taught, taking a workshop in Taos, New Mexico with Harold O'Connor
    changed my life. It opened up a new world to me and gave me
    direction I d id not have. I would have never gotten where I am today
    without that influence. It has taken me years to integrate what I had
    learned, and much hard work to get to a point where my work means
    what it means to me now, where I fe el I have the techniques and the
    design ability to express myself, and my work is far more visually
    that the sum of its pa rts 

    When at 45 years of age, having moved to Denver, I was told by
    several people, if I went skiing, take classes and do not let my
    friends teach me because it would be too hard to learn that wa y. I
    listened, took a class, and spent a whole day practicing what I
    learned over and over and over. I believe this gave me an advantage,
    I do not believe I would have had more fun learning on my own, and I
    do not believe I would have progressed as fast as I did at the age I
    was without formal training. Where I am at my age, 59, I would argue
    that anything I can learn with training, if the possibility is that I
    will be able to achieve a better result in a shorter time than I
    would get by teaching myself, I would spend the money. I would rather
    spend my time struggling to develop skil l with a taught technique
    rather than struggling on my own to learn the technique and then
    have to spend the time to develop my skill. In the past, when people
    learned through apprenticeship, there was a connection, an intimacy, a
    tradition of the handing down of knowledge. A part of the mentor
    lived within the apprentice and I have heard people speak with
    reverence toward the person who taught them knowledge and wisdom.

Richard Hart


 
____________________________________________________________________
T h e   O r c h i d   L i s t
Open Electronic Forum for Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Procedures
____________________________________________________________________
Orchid FAQ:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/faq.htm
Orchid Archives:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive
Orchid Galleries:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm
Invite a Friend:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm
____________________________________________________________________
Tips From The Jeweler's Bench - Article Archive
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tip_sear.htm
The Jeweler's Selected Bibliography List
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books
Buy Orchid Jewelry:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/shop
____________________________________________________________________
-Unsubscribe:
-Email: orchid-request AT ganoksin.com Body=unsubscribe subject=blank
____________________________________________________________________