Started jewellery school last week. This is my first ever pour. 20g of Sterling.
Posted Aug 29, 2016, 10:30 PM UTC
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cool! join us on r/Benchjewelers
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Nice! Didn't know about this subreddit, i'll join right away!
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welcome!
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Also didn't know.
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Congrats on first pour!
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Thanks!
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Hmm. I never realized the word jewelry had alternate spellings.
The most commonly used variations of this noun, meaning precious items of personal decoration, are jewellery and jewelry. The correct spelling in both Australian and British English is jewellery. In American English, the correct spelling is jewelry. Canadian English, on the other hand, uses both variations, with the most popular being jewellery.
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And schmuck in German = jewelry. The origin of the slang meaning is actually the from Yiddish, as in " family jewels " .
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There is an amazing book called " The Joys of Yiddish" and it's hilarious. Something about that Jewish humor!
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I checked that right after I wrote that title! I speak french (Québec) so I didn't know either. And there's two "L"s in the french word : joaillerie.
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Hurry up and learn how to make diamond settings. My gf is going to be getting a ring.
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Diamonds are the tradition, but have you ever considered another stone? What about a beautifully colored sapphire? Or a ruby? Or a big nice garnet?
I'm not really into diamonds... In my opinion, diamonds are the "beats by Dre headphones" of gemstones. Nice and mainstream, but not worth the price.
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To be fair, I thought the same thing, but then I got my fiancee an aquamarine and it has some scratches on it now because its not a super hard stone. So keep that in mind when choosing as well.
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An aquamarine is too soft. A corundum (sapphire and ruby) is the next hardest thing after diamonds.
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I know they are and told her how they are mined by african slave children and not even rare but she still wants one. She just wants a simple white gold or platinum band.
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Did my first pours a while ago. Congrats! It takes a little doing... doesn't it? Best wishes!!!!
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Nice job on firs pour!
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Jewelry school??
How when where why?
Tell us about your jewelry school until you get tired of typing. I doubt anyone would get tired of reading.
I still have some hand written notes I took from my first jewelry class in the 80's, and great memories of the second class and getting high with the instructor :)
Ah...the 80's!
Where does one go to for jewelry school, what's it cost, what's the syllabus, how long does it last?
First jewelry class. Is this a trade school, a community college major? Is this the kind of thing that my local community college might offer? Is this a common pursuit in places?
Usually this offered by art centers or artist.( like pottery classes) We do not have classes like that in our college :(
Back when I took the classes, most worked like this:
Spend a week somewhere, stay in class 10-12 hours each day and go home at the end of the week with the basic knowledge of whatever you went to school for.
There are college classes now that last a quarter or semester, and even a 6month residency program at GIA (Used to be, haven't checked on that one in a while)
So my first class was in Little Rock Ark, my employers paid for everything, I was just a kid right out of high school. I knew the family that owned the jewelry store and worked for them part time at X-mas the past couple of years while I was in high school. They had the idea to put a bench jeweler in the store and I fit nicely, being young and affordable.
So off I went to Little Rock the week I turned 19 and hung out with a group of other people taking the class, there were only 8 of us. I was the youngest by far but I could legally buy beer so it was fun!
The class was a basic jewelry repair course, but it got me started. More difficult work was farmed out to repair shops at the beginning so I wasn't thrown right into the fire by the store.
The next year I took another class by the GIA, back then they traveled around the country and set up in hotels for a week (they don't do this any longer), this one was close to home but I still stayed at the hotel with all the other students. This was a bigger class, almost 30 people in it.
The very first day as the instructor was telling everyone how to be safe, a girl caught her hair on fire. It was nuts.
Later that night I was in the hotel bar and the instructor came in, and invited me to dinner with him and his girlfriend. Back in his room, I realized the girl who caught hair on fire was his GF. Then he asked if I smoked and the rest of that week is a blur. :)
It was an advanced repair class, catching me up on other stuff I needed to learn, and from there on, most of what I learned was either self taught or learned while I worked in a handful of repair shops with other jewelers. Two in particular were owned by guys who really knew their stuff and I was lucky enough to learn a ton from those 2 guys. I appreciate and cherish their mentoring than anything else in my career.
TL:DR - There's schools/classes still out there today, just have to look for them!
It's incredible what you can learn for free on YouTube these days. Pre-Internet you really did need serious coursework. An amazing resource is a website called ganoksin.com . Unfortunately the r/jewelers sub has no action and plenty of spam. I'm sure you can find a basic class near you; art schools, community college etc.. Very common.
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Gave that up years ago after realizing that being high just made me stupid for a couple of hours.
I just find the idea of jewelry school pretty interesting. u/Elevener told the story I was hoping to hear.
There was a lot of smoking in my 80s metals lab as well. Hasn't really tapered much.
L'école de joaillerie de Montréal (Montreal's jewelry school) has a 3 year program with a partnership with a college. I do my regular classes there and the jewelry classes at the Jewelry School. It's public, and thus really unexpensive.
Edit : Their website if you want to know more.