Saying a shy hello!

[Reenie1978]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to introduce myself. I have lurked on this forum reading posts for a number of months now since discovering this forum and have learned a huge amount from you all so thank you for being so generous and sharing your skills and expertise!

I have made beaded jewellery off and on as a hobby since I was a child before doing a couple of short silver jewellery evening classes and summer courses after the birth of my second child 2 years ago. I love turning sheet and wire into beautiful things!

After working solidly for the last 13 years since leaving uni i am taking a year-long career break to spend a bit more time with my kids and be around a bit more to settle my eldest into primary school (my job is quite full on and I have a very long commute across London). I am going to use the opportunity to do a year long jewellery making certification class. It starts today at Morley College and is one morning a week! Am very excited and am looking forward to being able to develop my skills on an ongoing basis rather than the stop/ start of the odd evening class. Will also be nice to do something that I love and is just for me for a change!!

I am sure I will have a lot of questions over the next year and hope you will bear with me as I learn more!!

Reenie

[BarryM]

Welcome and join the group of self taught hobby members who stand in awe at the skill of the professionals. I too start a course on Tuesday - it is just an evening class intro to silver smithing and enamelling at my local college (Strode in Street, Somerset), Hopefully it will put me right on some of the mistakes I make and be a good intro to enamelling which I have never tried.

Best of luck with your course and with your jewellery making.

[SteveLAO]

Welcome to the group :) and now that you're a student, you can take advantage of our discounted student hallmarking package too!!

[CJ57]

Hi and welcome Reenie. Very best of luck with your new course, hope you really enjoy it

[lorraineflee]

Hi and welcome from me too! Enjoy your course!!

[LydiaNiz]

Good luck - another self-taught one here - I got the bug when I took an evening course years ago before the children appeared, once I'd had them both, decided I did not want to go back to work in telly and now get to play with metal all the time. I have ots to learn yet though, oh boy! HOpe you love the course and look forward to seeing more of you (and what you do!) :-)

[mizgeorge]

Welcome from me too Reenie :)

[caroleallen]

Welcome from me and good luck with the course. Many of us started out doing evening classes, so you're in good company.

[Tabby66]

Welcome from me too Renee, another one who started at a local college and learning by trial and error, also with the huge support of this forum (and another which is no longer around), I too still have loads to learn, I think it is an eternal journey!!

Good luck with your course (and you Barry), let us know how you get on....and ask away with your questions,....it's what makes this place interesting!!

Tabby ;)

[Reenie1978]

Thanks everyone! Good to know so many if you started this way too.

Really enjoyed the first day of my course yesterday. We started with fretwork and even though I had done a bit of sawing (with a five minute demo) in my evening class the project pushed me as my teacher made me do a more intricate design on thicker metal so I learned a lot and got a lot of practice with the saw. Think even though we will cover some stuff I have already touched on briefly in previous courses it will let me go into a lot more depth and practice lots!!

Best of luck with your course Barry!! Hope you enjoy it and get a lot of out it!!

Reenie

[Goldsmith]

Hello Reenie and welcome from me also. I hope your teacher gave you some good tips on the methods of piercing (what you call fretwork) as saw piercing can be a very useful skill to master. I don't know anything about the college you are attending, may I ask who the teacher of your course is?
Good luck with the course, I look forward to seeing some of your work when you feel like posting some photos.

James

[MeadMoon]

Hi Reenie, Another welcome here from me. I was self taught and after a year or so went to classes which taught me quite a few new techniques so were well worth it.

[medusa]

hello! another self taught and still learning one here too. You will pick up some amazing tips and if you get stuck, there is a wealth of experience here.

[Reenie1978]

Hi James,

My teacher is Anastasia Young - I did a stone setting course with her over the summer and I liked her teaching style. She gave me some great tips about piercing - I think I was sitting too high and pushing too hard before so I kept breaking blades. I was also sawing on the side of the benchpeg for filing so using a flat surface was a lot easier. Managed to pierce out 2 monograms with 3 blades (swapped blades when I went to the thicker 1.6mm brass and my blade seemed a bit blunt and then I snapped one right at the end so almost made it without breakages lol!!

Thanks,

Reenie

[Keia]

Hello, another welcome from me too.