[Jewelry making - Article 00354] - Re: [Orchid] Which workshops shall I take?

[Karen Goeller]

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Amy,

    As a beginning metalsmith with only an 8-week course under your belt
    so far, I personally believe you would be better served by taking the
    "part 2" course. Let me tell you why, based on my personal
    experiences... your mileage may vary. 

    After my first semester of jewelrysmithing, I felt great - eager and
    ready to take on the world, so to speak. I felt like my technique was
    good and I understood the basic concepts. Workshops seemed like a
    wonderful idea! Plus, I "knew" which techniques I really liked and
    wanted to pursue. 

    What I found over time, however, was that my technique was "ok"
    relative to those who had been doing this for years and that I didn't
    really have enough of the personal experience with working with metal
    and making intermediate-level mistakes to truly get the most out of
    the workshops I took. In a weird way, I was still too immersed in the
    "awe" of the process to be able to step back, deconstruct it, and
    take away the insights that these stellar instructors were able to
    provide. What I took away was really just surface-level technique,
    which was really a waste of my money. 

    In recent years, I've found that workshops have a much more intense
    value for me. I'm now looking at these world-class instructors with a
    totally different frame of reference. I'm not paying as much
    attention to the minutiae of every technique as I am to their
    wholistic approach to the metal and how they work it. Because I
    understand how to solder, form, set stones, etc., my work in the
    workshops is focused on really refining technique and approach and
    identify new tools (physical, mental, and otherwise) to include in my
    toolkit. I'm getting 500% more out of a workshop today that I would
    when I was first starting out. 

    My recommendation would be to take the "part 2" course (which will
    expose you to an entirely new set of skills and techniques) and keep
    working to refine and make instinctive the skills you've achieved so
    far. Be patient, and then take the workshops a bit later when you've
    got more personal experiences to build on. 

    I'm fortunate in that I have access to a great jewelry program
    (Bucks County Community College, in PA). We have folks in the
    "advanced fabrication" and casting classes who have been taking them
    over and over for 10, 15 years. Why do they do that? Well, first off
    it builds a community of sharing around techniques and tools. Second,
    it provides ongoing access to a well-equipped studio. But more
    importantly, each time you explore a technique you do so from a
    slightly different space and bring new insights into it. Every
    semester is different... too many different techniques to teach in a
    single semester and it's frankly impossible to truly master even one
    new technique in that time. That's the essence of learning the
    jewelry arts - continual exploration. 

Good luck and best wishes!

Karen Goeller
No Limitations Designs
Hand-made, one-of-a-kind jewelry
www.nolimitations.com
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