Being close
Proximity to learning, a new pearl necklace, and pendants in the works
Somebody recently asked me how I’ve been able to learn a new skill, making jewelry, as an adult. I gave them a pretty long answer, but if I had to distill it into a single piece of advice, it would be “proximity”.
From day one, I’ve been physically close to people decades ahead of me. Between my apprenticeship mentors at ileava jewelry and my Sensei’s at metalsmithing school, I can observe and ask questions of people making jewelry at a very high level. Theoretically I could probably learn a lot of jewelry-making skills on Youtube or through books, but being near experienced jewelers lets me learn technical skills much more quickly and receive nonobvious tips and tricks of the business.
In adolescence or early adulthood, it’s widely socially accepted and encouraged to immerse yourself in a new hobby or career path, often through formal lessons or an internship. However, it feels like once you find your groove in adulthood, it is less common to leave your comfort zone and openly play the role of a learner. I find sometimes that the most challenging aspect of learning a new skill and industry is to have enough humility to be the “worst” person in the room.
I may in the future write a longer article reflecting about my experience progressing in a new field. For now, I’ll simply share that if you’re thinking of learning a hobby or switching careers, I can’t recommend enough to reach out to learn directly from people doing what you want to do.
New necklace
I finished a simple gold necklace this week featuring a large Akoya pearl and a tactile bail. The texture from the mitsuro wax adds a pretty, subtle detail to the piece. While I think the necklace suits many occasions, it could work particularly well as a bridal piece.
I made the bail a few weeks ago using mitsuro wax (which took many attempts!!), cast it into silver, added a small jump ring to the base of the bail, then cast it again into gold. After sanding and polishing the bail, I wire-wrapped an Akoya pearl to the jump ring. It’s funny to remember 5 months ago when I first learned to wire-wrap because I found it so difficult. After dozens of hours of practice over the months, I was able to quickly and confidently wire-wrap the pearl with zero wire wasted! :)
Overall I am very happy with how the pendant turned out. As I’ve shared before, I love the combination of gold and pearls and I think the piece looks elegant while still retaining a bit of imperfection and relaxedness that I like.
Current projects
I’m approaching the final stages of a simple silver bezel pendant. All of the pieces are made and joined together; I just have to set the stone then polish the piece. Unlike the gold mitsuro bail which I made in wax, I made the silver bail for the pendant directly in metal. One of the nice parts of working directly in metal is that you can see the end result immediately (instead of having to wait a week or two until it is cast).
Last week when I went to Tokyo’s jewelry district, one of the stones I purchased is the opal pictured above. I love the milky purple and indigo tones. Eventually I will likely make it into a pendant and leverage the mitsuro bail design that I used in my pearl necklace. I’m not going to make it for a little while, so I’ll keep thinking of potential design ideas.
Recent inspirations
One of my mentors, Maya from ileava jewelry, showed me this beautiful Japanese hairpin that she has. I love the combination of the engraving and cutout motif. She shared with me that historically, Japanese people did not wear or make jewelry as often as in the West. Instead, a lot of the metalwork skills went toward creating kimono accessories.