What advice would you give to new or prospective students?
Firstly, I would say not to get caught in the trap of striving for perfection! It can be so hard to fight the urge to keep making things over and over again to get them right, but not only does this just eat into your time, it causes added stress and isn’t necessary.
My mentor actually warned us against this mindset early on in the course, and it was the best thing she could have said! If we handed in perfect pieces each time then there would be no scope for mentors to offer feedback and we wouldn’t have the same opportunity for learning.
The same goes for trying to be too ambitious with designs or straying away from the brief. Look at the marking criteria, do what is needed to fulfil that, make the piece and move on. If you get time then go back and do it again later if you wish, but if you try to make things perfect at the beginning then you will likely fall behind or run out of time.
And secondly, I would highly recommend getting the material pack for the Diploma. I made a last-minute decision to order this and it was the best thing I could possibly have done to make my life easier!
Everything is already sorted, organised and clearly labelled and ready to use, and that has been fundamental to my enjoying the projects I think. Each week I just take out the relevant packets, gather my tools, and off I go.
What has been your favourite project so far?
I really loved learning the flush setting and tube settings. I’ve wanted to work with smaller faceted gemstones for a while now, and the pieces I made for these weeks are probably the ones I am most likely to wear.
But I also really enjoyed the challenge of doing the cold connections; riveting and hinges. These are techniques I would probably never have gotten around to trying without the Diploma, but I liked them so much I’ve already gone on to use them in my own designs.
And I was excited to start working with wax too. This has been on my wish-list for some time, and the courses we did here were an excellently introduction to using this medium.
What have you enjoyed most about the course overall?
Aside from learning all the new techniques, I would actually say the thing I love most about the Diploma is the structure and organisation it has brought back to my working week. I wasn’t anticipating the impact that would have, but having a routine in place and time commitments to adhere to has really helped me organise my time better overall.
I also think that when you make the move into having an actual business, as opposed to just creating jewellery as a hobby, this can cause you to lose sight of the simple joys of making.
I hadn’t realised at the time, but I had become so caught up in the need to sell my work and bring in income to cover the costs of running my business, that it had started to bury my creativity. Making jewellery felt more like an obligation than a desire.
By doing the Diploma I was effectively ‘forcing’ myself to have a day at the bench each week, and in turn this reignited my passion for the craft. I was excited to be learning again, discovering new skills and techniques, and suddenly I was coming up with lots of new creative ideas too.
I have realised how important it is to keep learning, experimenting and challenging ourselves at every stage we might reach in our profession. I never want to stop now that I’ve discovered the joy of that process again!
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