[Jewelry making - Article 00228] - Re: [Orchid] Self taught Vs Formal training

[Bracho]

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Hello to you all:

    I've been reading all your opinions on this subjet and I found it
    really interesting, I think that, in a way, everybody's point of view
    is right and yet there seems to be a lot of disagreement, so I guess
    that there is the answer: there is not a path that you could consider
    the one and only path to follow... one has to invent its own and do
    the best with what is given. 

    So Sheila, I don't have an answer but I can share my own experience
    with you and hope that you can find it helpful even though from your
    last e mail I feel that you are looking at things with a very nice
    attitude (I loved the part where you said that you were just going to
    have fun, that is what's all about) 

    I'm 23 years old, mexican and a female. When I was 19 and almost
    ready to go to University to study International Relationships I
    decided to take a jewelry class on silver fabrication because I
    always felt curiosity about jewelry making, but had not idea on what
    to expect. So I signed up to a class with a man named Billy King who
    teaches where I live. After I soldered for the first time, I called
    the University and told them good bye and so the adventure started!! I
    took classes for four months at Billy's and from the beginning I was
    making my own designs and experimenting, I cannot imagine a better
    teacher, he not only taught me the basics on jewelry fabrication but
    taught me how to feel creative and specially how to use my common
    sense... and so for about a year and a half I kept working at his
    school but independently. At that point I only used silver and it was
    all fabricated. But the money became an issue, so I had a great
    opportunity to join a cooperative gallery (six painters and my self),
    and magically I realized that I could actually sell my work!!! 

    Then I wanted to set my own studio and so I started buying the basic
    stuff I needed and kept working and selling. The truth is that I'm
    not becoming rich at all, but my own work has paid for all the tools
    I've needed. 

    At one point I felt like I needed to go a step further, like using
    gold or casting, but how? I did have some money so I decided to look
    for a school where I could learn more, but the truth is that I found
    it very hard, all the places I wanted to go to are in the States or
    further away, and it was VERY EXPENSIVE to even consider it, so, if I
    had spend the money I had to learn how to do something but then I
    wouldn't have had the money to buy the also very expensive equipment
    to work, what was the point? So instead, I just bought the equipment
    to cast, and a book about kawm boo, about casting, also started buying
    gold bezel and gold wire and nicer stones, etc., all within the last
    year and a half... so I went to visit a man who is a jeweler near by
    and observed while he casted, and then I came back home and tried to
    do it my self, the first time I allmost burned my self, got I nice
    tan from the torch and ended up with only 5 pieces out of the 30 my
    tree had!! Horrible, I could allmost picture my brand new vacuum and
    kiln at E-bay! And I thought: why didn't I go to a school? But then,
    you know, I kept on trying and now I can tell you that I can cast and
    it has been so much fun and so encouraging to make it possible. 

    So, my conclusion is that if you can start at a school to learn the
    basics, from a real teacher and then keep practicing I do believe
    that, in a way, metals and stones and machines and hammers and
    torches will start talking to you, I kind of feel that with experience
    one can really learn how to learn more things, there are great books
    and videos that can teach you a lot, plus your own practicing. Now
    that I feel that I have the studio that I dreamed of, I would really
    love to study more, cause I also feel that I can now learn more and
    really absorb from other jewelers, weather they have all the
    credentials or not... between buying tools and materials or only
    going to a school, I would go for the first option, but if you could
    do both then definitely go to school. 

    I guess I can say that I'm a self-taught in many ways, and because of
    that I'm paying a hi price, like, for instance, I've tried to get a
    scholar ship kind of thing that the Mexican government gives to
    support artists, and guess what? I can not even apply for it because I
    didn't learn jewelry at a "formal university", they won't even look
    at my application or consider that maybe I am a jeweler despite where
    I learned, and that maybe I've learned this way because I didn't even
    have an option. So if you want to be part of the system and have all
    the credentials it takes then start at the system and follow their
    rules. But if you want to make jewelry and are willing to do it, there
    are a thousand options... and it just gets better after time. 

Good luck, Maria
www.mariabracho.com
www.artistsofsanmiguel.com

 
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