Too many forums

[Solunar Silver Studio]

The thing is I am a regular user of other fora and I know I don't want to read it all - nor do I have the time! I've been a maker for about 25 years and lots of the posts aren't of great interest.

The thing is it seems to me that this will be the case for othger experienced makers and whilst we may be very happy to share our experience with others if you work in this area professionally you don't have vast amounts of time.

I have to say that if I had a problem and wanted opinions of experts in the field I'd go to Ganoksin, which is a shame as I pay Cooksons so much money each year!!

I think we would all appreciate the input of someone with 25 years of experience in the trade on the forum....the vast majority of us are so new at this game and are desperate for any snippets of information to improve our abilities.

From the perspetive of a 'newbie' - it is fantastic to be able to put a question on the forum and almost instantly have it answered - or debated - without being looked down upon because of the simplistic nature of the question I have put. I have Ganoskins Orchid Digest appear daily in my inbox and generally can't understand any of it....in fact, I often just delete it because I can't afford the time to try and see if there is anything I can glean from it.

There are a lot of members on here now - and a huge number of guests who dip in and read without having registered - so there are a lot of people who are gaining something from the forum.

I'm sure we would all love to have, and would benefit from, your input on some of the threads that you are interested in and share some of your knowlwedge with us....

[AlexandraBuckle]

Agreed Solunar, also, i know there is a lot of chatter on this forum (personally I really like the chatter) but I know when i come unstuck and need some help, I can post a question here and I'll get an answer pretty quickly.

Can't say as I've ever really used Ganoskin, and I don't feel that I need to either now that I've found this forum and it's helpful experienced members.

You should give us a chance Somerset And we'd love someone with your experience on board and we won't be offended if you don't join in with our chatter

[Petal]

What I like about this forum is that people just give you their, unbiased, opinions. I have rung my suppliers with queries, over the years and they will give you a certain amount of info, but IMO, they can be biased, as obviously they want you to buy more of their stuff. On this forum, and this is the only forum I have ever posted on, you pose a question (and I have posed some silly ones) and you get lots of replies from people who have used the tools, wire, etc and give you their experience of it and the pitfalls. As a total newbie to proper jewellery making, I find this forum invaluable and have learnt tons and definitely want to learn an awful lot more and it would be lovely if you could join us. Go on, give us a go..... you'll love it and if you are only interested in certain subjects, or they are not covered, then why not start some new threads!


Love
Jules

[ps_bond]

At the moment, this forum is quite young and doesn't have the membership that Ganoksin has (which has been around for years). It remains to be seen if the likes of James Binnion, Peter Rowe and similar would contribute here - although the UK-centric nature of this perhaps makes it less likely for them.

The very nature of these things is that they are only as good as the people contributing to them. As I've said before, my thing is more a mix of traditional techniques (and traditional materials) although "traditional" is, for me, a mix of European and Japanese; beading doesn't do anything for me and as such I can't contribute much to that area.

There's a couple of "industry" jewellers who are contributing more signal than noise; my ever-so-humble opinion is that we could do with more like that who are prepared to communicate.

Hmm, maybe I should give James Miller a shout - he's, er, an extremely experienced goldsmith who seems quite happy to dispense knowledge.

[EmmaRose]

Yes and we very much value those who spend their time helping and loaning their expertise. I gave up on ganoskin, can't be bothered to wade through the ads. DO hope you will stay
Em
And a big and to those who lend their experience like Peter!

[Solunar Silver Studio]

...experienced Peter.... you call this guy experienced!! Talk about a humbling experience!! For any of you that think you might just be getting an idea about how to do this jewellery stuff...sit down and take a gander at this guy's work... I've only put an address because I just couldn't decide what image to link you to....you really need to see it all!!

http://www.ganoksin.com/exhibition/v...d/JamesMiller/

...and Peter...I think we could elbow a little bit of room in here for him!!! How wonderful to have so much talent at your fingertips!!! Sigh!

[ps_bond]

...experienced Peter.... you call this guy experienced!!

OK, that's a prime example of the mastery of understatement
I have his book...

[EmmaRose]

...experienced Peter.... you call this guy experienced!! Talk about a humbling experience!! For any of you that think you might just be getting an idea about how to do this jewellery stuff...sit down and take a gander at this guy's work... I've only put an address because I just couldn't decide what image to link you to....you really need to see it all!!

http://www.ganoksin.com/exhibition/v...d/JamesMiller/

...and Peter...I think we could elbow a little bit of room in here for him!!! How wonderful to have so much talent at your fingertips!!! Sigh!

*THUD* falls over at pictures and is fanning herself. Oh my
Em