Weeks 10 and 11 in Nashville

After the hand engraving course there wasn't a whole lot of new things that we did. Everything was pretty much review except for a couple new projects that we worked on. My progress as a jeweler was getting better, as was everyone else. Blaine was getting us ready for what would happen in week 12, platinum week, something that we were all waiting for; myself especially. I didn't know how long the project was going to take but I still needed to fit in the time to hand fabricate the groom's band for the wedding I would be attending in July.
Blaine asked me how much was needed and I told him that I would likely need $1,000 and maybe more depending on how much the band would weigh. The weight magically worked out to favorite number, 14 pennyweights worth of metal that would be arriving in scrap jewelry. If I ordered from a supply company it would have been already in wire form,  but I wanted to make it all by hand. I was assured by Blaine that this would be possible and Tyler, whom the ring was being made for was thrilled. I didn't exactly know how the ring was going to be made but I was ready to do everything needed to make it happen. The picture I put with this post is the actual metal that I was going to use, but more on that in the next installment. 

Week 9 in Nashville

This post is overdue, but I have been very busy in my last couple weeks while here in Nashville, TN training as a goldsmith. After the first eight weeks of school, Blaine gave way to former student and master jeweler/gun engraver Jason Marchiafava. Blaine thinks very hightly of Jason, putting him in the top 5% of all jewelers, period. His work speaks for itself and seeing it takes your breathe away. He has done jewelry and gun engravings that take 500-1000 hours each to complete. All of us as students hope to get where Jason is, one day. As for the engraving class he was teaching it was more basic but still something that could be greatly profitable. We started by doing a series of different cuts into copper plates. Although time consuming this was necessary to develop muscle memory needed to execute various designs in metal. I started the week off ok and by the second day was getting better. The next day, though, I seemed to stay at the same skill level. The class was progressing and I seemed to be merely treading water. My patterns were basic, but didn't quite have the look that everyone else was achieving. That sort of wore on me.
The week itself was great, just my work was not up to where I'm about to invest a few hundred dollars for an engraving ball. I feel that I have to make money doing other things first, and then tkae spare time to go back and finish what I started. That seems to be a pattern in my life. The good news for me is that Jason was horrible his first ever engraving class. I have a lot of work ahead of me.
The whole experience was fun. I never truly gave up but I didn't try as hard as I could have by the end of the week. Engraving does interest me, not to mention the money you can make on the side by embellishing rings, but this is something that will take some time for my body to acclimate to. On the positive I have the basics down and once you build a foundation it isn't easy to tear the house down, especially with someone such as myself.
Every time I have failed while here training I have learned something. These skills are not built in, rather built on. If you do better each time than you're going to find yourself down a better path. I'm not one to continue down the road of generic pep talks so I'm just going to end this one here.

Until next time.