[Jewelry making - Article 00030] - Re: [Orchid] Philadelphia jewelry classes

[Peter W. Rowe]

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


>        Sorry for the rant, but"been buggin' me fi a long, long   time". 

    I'd bet you went to Tyler, huh?  Nice shop. 

    They have, in recent years, been paying more attention to trying
    to teach some surviable trade skills and business practices. 
    Your example of the manual burnout, and spring loaded casting
    machine, though. makes me chuckle, as the caliber of students we
    had there when I was a grad student there in '86-89 would have
    needed just a couple minutes to figure that out on their own. 
    The money to buy even the basic equip is a more serious problem
    for many, as is the simple truth that the industry doesn't want
    art school grads.  They want low priced beginners who won't mind
    working cheap.  Even the talented and capable students, grads
    included, often have a very hard time making a living as artists
    in the manner the schools train them for.  Faculty at Tyler has
    been wrestling with this problem for a long time.  The current
    thinking will strike many as heresy. Grads there now, no longer
    work with hand made metal objects.  Almost everything is CAD/CAM
    or Rapid prototyping.  These artist/metalsmiths are trying now
    to develope the craft into something taking advantage of 21st
    centurey technologies, not 19th century ones.  whether they
    succeed or not remains to be seen, but at least, the grads who
    finish, in addition to getting just as valid an arts education as
    any of us who did it while it was still more traditional hand
    work, now have skills in computer design, CAD/CAM, RP, and all
    that stuff. Unlike the graduates who try to take their BFA or MFA
    into the industry only to be shot down, these kids have skills
    that are very marketable.  Not in jewelry yet, perhaps, but at
    least they are able to find jobs that pay a decent wage... 

Peter Rowe 

____________________________________________________________________
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
____________________________________________________________________