Back to School!

I’ve been itching to tell you this all week! This is a story about a girl (well, a 50-something woman!) who went back to school last weekend.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then here goes…

Chapter 1 - Let’s Get Ready

So, you know it’s the school holidays, right?

Well, for somebody who disliked school so much as a child, I spent four days last weekend at school AND LOVED IT!

• I chose to go to school

• I paid to go to school

• I couldn’t wait to go to school

In the days when my children were young, there was a checklist by the back door listing all the things we all needed to remember:

bookbag, lunch, water bottle, homework, PE kit etc

Whether we checked it every day, I’ll leave you to guess, but it was there  nonetheless. Well, last weekend, there was a similar list for me to check each morning as I left the house. And I did check it because I REALLY didn’t want to forget anything!

Because I was off to Summer School with Joanne Tinley Jewellery

If you’ve been around for a while, you may remember my excitement last August about Summer School. It was 4 days of intense work, getting the most out of such an inspiring environment. This year was no different.

Months ago, when I booked, I decided what I wanted to make: a fully hinged locket with a clasp.

If you remember my Diploma locket it was a different mechanism. This time, I wanted to complete a traditional locket with hinge and clasp.

Did I succeed?

Well, yes and no.

Did I learn a lot - oh my days, yes!

CHAPTER 2 - Mistakes and Mishaps

Day one (of 4) started well. I reacquainted myself with Jo’s disc cutter, rolling mill and doming punches and made a start. Everything was going well until towards the end of the day when I attempted to solder the first part of the hinge.

Lesson one - it is totally possible to completely solder the domes together whilst trying to solder the hinge!

I went home feeling a little despondent and feeling like a lot of my day had culminated in disappointment

I arrived the next day anticipating a day of reworking most of yesterday’s mishap. Remember the story of the Elves and the Shoemaker when the shoemaker went home after cutting the leather ready to make shoes the next day, only to discover the elves had beautifully made the shoes in the night? Well, Jo had kindly worked some magic overnight, had unsoldered my domes and prepped them so I didn’t have to completely rework what I had done. She claimed it was because she hadn’t expected it to happen and was trying to work out why - she had learned something too. Anyhow, she had removed some of my disappointment and for that, I could have hugged her!

It still took me til the afternoon to tackle it. Why? Well, the difficulty working alongside seven other people making an array of exciting projects is that it’s easy to get distracted and want to try ALL the things! Jo’s studio has so many tools and fabulous equipment, so the option to make MANY things is right there in front of you.

So, I got distracted by bangles.

Synclastic and anticlastic, since you asked!

And also I gave myself a little pep talk about using the four day opportunity to learn rather than make something with a perfect result. I know myself well enough to know my perfectionism results in fair amount of procrastination!

CHAPTER 3 - Soldering Masterclass

So after my lunch, I set to and continued, using a slightly different soldering set up and under the watchful eye of Jo, the master, I managed it. I discovered Tippex was my friend and I discovered that watching an array of Youtube tutorials and reading about hinges in jewellery had helped me to work out the best method for me. (there’s never only one method to make jewellery it seems. 'There’s more than one way to get to Rome' to quote one of the tutors in my diploma!)

I also discovered that graphite mechanical pencil lead was also my friend and enabled me to align the three parts of the hinge whilst I soldered them in place. “Breathe…”, said Jo several times as I nervously applied the heat to my beloved locket!

“You've done the hardest part” were her words when the hinge was done…hmmm…we’ll see about that shall we?

Chapter 4 - The Final Countdown

With only half a day remaining, and the catch of the locket to tackle, I hastily refueled with lunch and knuckled down. Although I’d found the hinge quite tricky, the catch was more challenging for me as it appeared open to inaccuracies in both measuring and aligning, so unfortunately my pin and hole didn’t line up well. As a result the pin doesn’t hold the locket closed very well at all. At this point, my pep talk was invaluable as I could have felt the weight of disappointment, but I persevered and took many lessons for future lockets and a potential way to resolve this one at home.

The final step (and was done with minutes til the end of the day!) was to solder the hinge pin in place. This relied on a tiny, tiny amount of solder and my new friend, Tippex, to prevent it flowing anywhere else along the length of the hinge (and locking the hinge completely!). Holding my breath, I successfully soldered and with a HUGE sigh of relief, I had finished my main project.

Chapter 5 - Complete Euphoria!

In the 5 days since finishing, I have reflected on what I leaned and written 5 detailed pages of notes to remind myself of all I learned about making just the locket. (The bangles were also not without their challenges, flaws and lessons learned.)

But I left the workshop equipped with new experiences and knowledge and plenty to carry me forward, new enthusiasm and confidence and in those ‘hold-my-breath’ moments, I will have Jo’s voice in my head saying “Breathe…” and “What’s the worst that could happen in this situation?”

I’ll let you know if I ever manage to fix the clasp!