Jewelry has been a hobby for me for many years, and I have mastered many skills as I've experimented in different mediums. My true love is enameling: the application of color to metal using powdered glass and heat. I use both a torch and a kiln and I experiment quite a bit with different techniques and different metals.
However, my work suffers because of one giant flaw: I am a Lazy Metalsmith. I never saw if I can use a shears, I hate to file, and I have trouble finishing pieces, too.
I made the decision that this year, I would concentrate on improving critical basic skills. As such, I registered for Tim McCreight's Master Class, Overnight Jeweler, at the 2016 Bead&Button Show -- to step up my game on basic metalsmithing techniques.
A Master Class is a specialized, three-day class that allows a student to really become immersed in a technique. Tim McCreight is a metalsmithing specialist who has been making beautiful jewelry since 1970 and has also authored some of the most important books ever published on all aspects of working with metal and metal clay. We were lucky enough to use the classroom at the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), so we were working at real jeweler's benches (a first for me) and with tools that Tim recommended. The class was focused on fundamentals: sawing, filing, soldering, finishing and cold connections. Here, I'm going to share my successes/failures on two projects; stay tuned next week as I return to the projects that I didn't finish in class and continue my work on fundamentals.