On Becoming a Metalsmith
It was 2016. I felt like I was in a dead-end job and was actively searching for something else to do with my life. One morning I awoke from a dream where I had learned to make jewelry. Coffee in hand, I began searching for local metalsmithing classes and found one in Hillcrest, a neighborhood in San Diego near Balboa Park. I emailed them and asked if they had any upcoming classes and got a reply that their upcoming class was full, but that the office manager would give me a call if a spot opened up.
Fast forward about a week, I got a call from the office manager saying they had one cancellation, and I could join the class if I was able to. It was Friday mornings from 0900-1200, and given my work schedule at that time I had every Friday off, it was possible for me to take half days on my working Fridays. I jumped at the chance, and before I knew it, I was walking nervously up to the second floor of a small building, not really knowing what to expect.
The instructor’s name was Jay, and he’d spent almost all of his adult life in the jewelry world. He had a tray of projects displaying examples of options for my first project, ranging from rings to cuffs to bangles. I had a design for a cuff I had worked on before even walking into the studio, so I pulled out the sketch and asked him how I could make my design, a Fibonacci spiral with round wire wrapping around the wrist, ending with a bead of silver on either end of the cuff. He looked at my design and said, “That’s going to be tough for your first project, I like to start people with something simple to get started, so they can finish their first project in the first class and then work on what they want after that.” I was determined, and said I was ok with not finishing my project in the first class. Five classes later, with some blood, some sweat, and of course, tears, I was polishing my first completed project.
My Fibonacci cuff, before the final smoothing and polish
The class was challenging, and I learned a great deal about metals in general from this course. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was going to learn how to forge and cast metal, not just “make jewelry”. Jay started by giving me a chunk of 99.9% fine silver, and walked me through how to make an alloy, which is 92.5% silver and a mix of 7.5% other metals that change the properties to make it more durable. After weighing out the fine silver and alloy grain together, I learned how to melt the metal, remove impurities, and pour an ingot. With this slug of freshly made sterling silver, Jay taught me how to lengthen the metal through rolling mills. After a handful of passes through the mill, he taught me about cold working, a property resulting from manipulating the metal. Cold working the metal aligns the molecules in such a way that it can become brittle and break. To combat this, you have to reheat it until it reaches a glowing orange. This relaxes the molecules and allows the silver to be soft and workable again. I learned how to measure the gauge and once it was worked to its desired thickness, I learned how to run it through drawing plates to get the shape I wanted.
While the class was very much self-led, if you needed help with something, Jay was always available. After making your first piece, you were pretty much able to make whatever your heart desired. After making the cuff, I wanted to learn how to make rings, and then how to set stones. I signed up to take the multi-week course several more times so I could learn everything I could possibly pick up there. Jay also offered “open studio”, which for a nominal fee one could essentially rent a bench once you knew your way around the studio. I felt comfortable using the oxy-acetylene torches and the smaller propane-oxygen torches for soldering, I was happy with the skills I had picked up, and knew what tools I used on the bench I rented. The classes were always full, and open studio was always crowded. One day in weeks leading up to Christmas in the studio, everyone was stressed, trying to fulfill orders. There was a girl waiting behind me, and she was hovering, making me nervous. I couldn’t get my pieces to align just right for soldering. After a few moments, she snapped at me because she wanted to use the torch I was using, just really rude, catty, and unnecessary. I’d had enough of that attitude, so I decided to invest in creating my own studio at home.
The rest is history. I have procured a lot of beautiful gemstones over the course of almost a decade. Each one I acquired because I had a vision for it. I still have a lot left to turn from raw materials into wearable art, and when I catch the creative bug, I head over to my bench and start making.
