Another thing I wonder about:

[hmpf]

eight months of unemployment, and I'm beginning to make jewellery on an almost-semi-regular basis.

How many more months would it take to turn me into a 'real' goldsmith again? ;-)

Comments

[buggery.livejournal.com]

Wait, wait, you know how to do goldsmithing jewelry work?

Somehow I'd been assuming that, like me, you mostly futzed with beads of various sorts.

We've been looking for a gold- (or silver-) smith to do our wedding rings. A friend of mine from uni got herself apprenticed to a goldsmith right out of school, but I've had no luck tracking her down, as we lost touch after graduation.

If you're interested in taking the commission, I think we may just have solved that little logistical nightmare. (Only 19 to go! Anybody who tells you planning a wedding is fun is insane. The wedding should turn out heaps of fun, but there's even bigger heaps of crap to be sorted out in order for that to happen...)

I know you're insanely busy, so just get back to me about this when you can; the wedding's not scheduled until summer 2011, so there's no rush.

Sorry for the late comment...

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm a trained goldsmith. I'm also ridiculously inexperienced and out of practice - I've only worked very rarely since 2001. I'm also a bit wary about taking commissions across large distances, especially when it's rings, as those often need some fine-tuning regarding size, which may involve some (geographical) to and fro...

With these caveats, though... if you could provide some illustration of the type of rings you'd like, I would be better able to make a statement regarding the doability... There's some things I'm pretty sure I can do, and a lot that I'm... not so sure, due to lack of experience/practice/special equipment etc. Sadly, three and a half years of training aren't really enough to learn everything you need. (That's why there's usually another three or four years of training before you can claim the title of Master. I'm only a journeyman/journeywoman/journeywoman-equivalent. *g*)

Re: Sorry for the late comment...

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

- "journeywoman-equivalent" because I didn't do a traditional apprenticeship but trained at a school.